DHS Secretary Kristi Noem tried to pull a high-profile pressure move to corner Democrats — and within hours, President Donald Trump’s own White House had to step in and unwind it.
What was pitched internally as a tough stand amid a funding standoff quickly curdled into a public embarrassment. The Department of Homeland Security abruptly announced it would pull a move that threatened to snarl airport lines and drag millions of travelers into the middle of a political fight. By mid-morning, the plan had collapsed.
For Noem — who has already endured weeks of scrutiny and missteps — the episode landed as another self-inflicted wound. What was meant to project leverage instead exposed how quickly a hardline tactic can spiral when the White House decides it’s too reckless to carry through.
The sudden about-face to suspend TSA PreCheck nationwide became evident a few hours later when travelers posted to social media that PreCheck lanes were operating normally.
Online reactions were hopping mad even though the strategy failed.
One post captured the overall mood: “So Trump and Noem threw a full-blown temper tantrum, shut down TSA PreCheck and Global Entry to punish Democrats over the ICE funding shutdown… and then immediately reversed course when they realized how stupid they looked. Do I have that right?”
Another reaction framed the ploy as a misfire from a familiar playbook: “Yes it’s all about punishing the ‘libs’ until the optics turn against them. TACO time.” Another said bluntly, “idiots.”
A third cut deeper: “I don’t think they’ve realized how stupid they look. They just simply have no f****ng idea how anything works.”
The Washington Post reports, citing administration officials, that the plan to temporarily suspend TSA PreCheck originated inside Noem’s office with the involvement of senior adviser and her reported lover, Corey Lewandowski. The announcement came Saturday night, framed as a consequence of congressional gridlock over DHS funding. But the backlash was immediate.
Democrats blasted the move as political theater. Industry groups warned it would only punish travelers and unpaid TSA workers. And, according to officials cited by the Post, senior White House aides intervened — forcing an extraordinary reversal that underscored internal friction and raised new questions about Noem’s leadership during a partial government shutdown.
DHS did not directly acknowledge the White House’s role in reversing the decision. A spokesperson tried to save face, saying the department opted against a sweeping suspension.
“We decided to handle TSA pre-check on an airport-by-airport basis depending on workforce and resource strain instead of a blanket policy,” the spokesperson said. “If the government stays shutdown, we will be forced to implement these emergency measures nationwide to mitigate resource and workforce strain. This political game by the Democrats is putting strain on our TSA workers who are working without pay.”
The climbdown was especially awkward given Trump’s public defense of DHS funding days later. During his State of the Union address, the president blasted Democrats for what he described as gutting Homeland Security, declaring, “As we speak, Democrats in this chamber have cut off all funding ….” and demanded the “full and immediate restoration of all funding.”
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Trump may be willing to fight Congress over DHS funding — but the PreCheck episode made clear that even he wasn’t willing to let Noem’s pressure tactic play out to its logical end.
Noem appears determined to keep testing the limits as the shutdown drags on, signaling she’s still weighing a suspension despite the backlash. “As we go forward and without funding for DHS, if we end up in a situation where these TSA officers have to go get other jobs and provide for their families, we’ll have to prioritize where the most travelers go through their security checkpoints,” Noem told CNN.
“We prioritize security lanes as we can staff them. So the ones that use the most travelers, which is the standard lanes, will be prioritized because most of the traveling public goes through those lanes,” she added.
Operational experts questioned the logic of targeting PreCheck in the first place.
Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant DHS secretary under President Barack Obama, said the initial announcement “made no sense, given the explanation they gave,” and described it as an effort to score “political points” against Democrats.
“If your goal is to process many people as efficiently as possible to limit the number of staff you need, you would actually enhance or quickly clear the TSA lines and then go to your general aviation line — so that did not make sense,” Kayyem told the Post. “It means the division that we see between the secretary’s office and the operational experts continue.”
As the shutdown drags into a second week, both sides are dug in. Democrats say they won’t fund DHS without new limits on immigration enforcement, while the administration insists key demands — including judicial warrant requirements and bans on face coverings — are nonstarters. DHS agencies like ICE and Customs and Border Protection are buffered by prior funding, but FEMA and TSA are expected to feel the squeeze sooner.
