Kristi Noem is giving U.S. literacy rates a desperately needed boost.
Unfortunately for the former secretary of Homeland Security, people are flocking to books and online resources to prove her wrong.
Noem is back in front of the camera months after marital scandals and a scrutinized performance as DHS chief.
Her welcome has been as icy as her ads to round up migrants.
Her comeback tour included a Newsmax interview with Greta Van Susteren on June 13.
Noem spoke about her new role as a special envoy and the work she is doing to continue bolstering the Western Hemisphere’s security.
At one point, Susteren asked, “Who’s our best friend in South America at this point?”
Noem confidently responded, “Well, we’ve worked so much with El Salvador on migration issues and other country agreements, but also Ecuador’s been fantastic.”
She added, “We did a joint operation with them with the Department of War against the cartels in their country.”
The former Trump aide also offered up Argentina before doubling down on the productive relationship between the U.S. and Costa Rica.
It never dawned on Noem that she incorrectly named the latter Latin country as part of South America — but social media users did.
The mistake incited a wave of ridicule and geography lessons about Central America.
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A narrow strip of land connecting North America and South America defines the area. Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize comprise the region.
“Come on, did you really expect Ms Noem to know basic facts about her made up job?” wondered a Daily Beast reader.
Another person commented, “Did anyone really expect #KanineKillerKristiNoem to get smarter after getting fired? if she had been smart, she wouldn’t have gotten fired in the first place. and if she had been exceptionally smart (and had any taste), she wouldn’t have been doing the wild thing with #GriftingCaryLewandowski.”
Donald Trump appointed Noem to the frontline of his immigration crackdown in 2025 but later reassigned her as the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas after her hearing before Congress in March.
Much like her Central America flub, in May 2025 Noem incorrectly told the Senate that the Constitution gives the president the right “to be able to remove people from this country.” The legal procedure actually allows government detainees to challenge the validity of their detention in court.
In the hearing from March of this year Noem also denied having an affair with her aide Corey Lewandowski and poorly justified her department’s purchase of luxury jets. That same month, leaked text messages and photos exposed her husband, Bryon Noem, and his indecent proclivities with other women.
His wife publicly asked for privacy while navigating the bombshell, only popping up in a couple of Instagram posts before June.
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Her resurgence is hardly winning back support for her or Trump. Additional criticism includes a tweet that reads, “Is she on some kind rehabilitation tour? Given her record, this persons should never be in a position of responsibility, ever again.”
The president’s recent remarks about knowing how to spell dumb also surfaced.
That heckler typed, “Dumbest administration in history! And yes dumb with a ‘B,’ I did know that! Not all of us are uneducated MAGAts.”
Another critic scoffed, “That’s why he said he ‘loves the uneducated.’ His audience wouldn’t have a clue.”
In a separate interview for Fox News, Noem claimed that she and Trump had been in talks about her DHS exit for “about a week or two” before the congressional hearings. She also considered herself a “valuable asset” to the administration.
