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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.
Trump, who said he would nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from both fellow Republican members as well as Democrats.
Trump said he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Noem took the stage to address a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) event moments after Trump’s announcement but made no immediate mention of her ouster. Instead, she read from prepared remarks, including reinforcing Trump’s message from the state of the union address last month.
Later, in a social media post, she thanked Trump for the new appointment and touted her accomplishments as secretary. “We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again,” she wrote.
Noem is the first cabinet secretary to be moved during Trump’s second term. Her departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits.
She faced criticism in January when she quickly labelled two U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis as committing “domestic terrorism.” Videos that emerged after the deaths undercut the assertion by Noem and other Trump officials that the two deceased — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were violent aggressors.
During congressional testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declined to retract or apologize for her remarks in January calling two U.S. citizens shot dead by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis domestic terrorists. Accounts from local officials and bystander video contradicted her comments. Noem’s hearing was interrupted at times by shouting protesters.
Blistering criticism from both sides
The public backlash over the deaths led the Trump administration to move to a more targeted approach to immigration enforcement in Minnesota after months of sweeps through U.S. cities that led to violent clashes with residents opposing the crackdown.
Minn. Gov. Tim Walz welcomed Noem’s dismissal from her post on social media, saying she’s done “a stunning amount of damage.” But he added that it doesn’t change the fact that he believes a full overhaul of DHS is necessary, given what happened in his state.
Kristi Noem has done a stunning amount of damage and it’s good she’s gone. <br><br>But this doesn’t change the fact that we need a complete overhaul of DHS, impartial investigations into the killings of two American citizens, and information on children that were taken from Minnesota.
—GovTimWalz
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote “good riddance” on social media, while Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota said in a statement that Noem’s firing is welcome but comes too late.
“Firing Kristi Noem will not bring back Alex Pretti. It will not bring back Renee Good. It will not make Minnesota whole again after the horror and devastation wrought upon us by Operation Metro Surge,” she wrote.
Noem faced blistering criticism from Democrats and some Republicans in congressional hearings this week over those issues and others.
The former South Dakota governor was also criticized over the way her department has spent billions of dollars allocated to it by Congress.
One particular point of scrutiny was a $220-million ad campaign featuring Noem that encouraged people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.
Noem told lawmakers that Trump was aware of the campaign in advance, but Trump disputed that in an interview on Thursday with Reuters, saying he did not sign off on the ad campaign.
Aside from immigration, Noem also faced criticism — including from Republicans — over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the Trump administration’s response to disasters.
Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate, but under a federal law governing executive branch vacancies, he would be allowed to serve as an acting homeland security secretary as long as his nomination is formally pending.
Liam Ramos, 5, and his father returned to Minneapolis more than a week after being detained by U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agents and further fuelling protests. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump now says ICE will only be sent to Democratic-run cities if they ask.
The staffing change raises questions about whether the Trump administration could seek to intensify its mass deportation push or retreat to a more targeted approach.
Under Noem’s leadership, masked immigration agents surged into Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., scouring neighbourhoods and Home Depot parking lots in search of possible immigration offenders.
The popularity of Trump’s immigration approach fell as agents detained U.S. citizens and tear-gassed streets in an attempt to drive up deportations, which last year fell short of the administration’s goal of one million per year.
Mullin, who spent a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming a senator in 2023, supports Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
