President Donald Trump caved to pressure from both sides of the aisle and fired Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, a day after her disastrous testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary committees this week.
Still, the administration is already facing backlash for the change of the guard as Noem’s firing and replacement were simultaneously announced by Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Thursday.
“Replacing rubbish with garbage,” one critic wrote on Threads. “Holy crap!! Trump finally pulled the trigger,” another person remarked.
The move comes two months after the ICE killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, which only escalated the avalanche of controversies Noem faced during her tenure.
Before the ICE deaths, Noem had already drawn intense scrutiny for overseeing a series of militarized immigration sweeps in major U.S. cities, operations that put the administration’s most aggressive enforcement tactics on vivid and often violent display.
Her critics also say she bottlenecked FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene by requiring her personal sign-off on disaster expenses over $100,000, while cycling through three acting FEMA administrators and slashing the agency’s workforce during a critical recovery period.
The spending decisions only added fuel to the backlash.
Under Noem’s watch, nearly $300 million in border security funds went toward a luxury jet fleet, while another $220 million was poured into a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign prominently featuring the secretary herself, a move that drew bipartisan scrutiny during recent congressional hearings.
Noem found herself cornered on Wednesday as a barrage of questions on the Hill left her nearly speechless.
Noem, usually quick to parry and deflect in the combative style she copies from Trump, had little to say as Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett drilled her on the detention and subsequent release of 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father.
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The fierce examination — covering court orders, legal precedent, and a scathing decision by a federal judge — landed squarely on Noem’s chin, while she offered almost nothing to fight back, only terse acknowledgments and hesitant denials.
For several minutes, Crockett made it her business to hold Noem accountable for the actions of her immigration agents during a brutal crackdown in Minneapolis. The central point was clear: federal authorities had detained a young child and his father under policies that a judge had deemed legally improper and historically ignorant, and Noem had no legal background to counter the court’s findings. By the end, Crockett’s relentlessness left Noem’s ego flattened beneath the witness table.
The case at the center of the clash involved Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, asylum seekers from Ecuador who were detained Jan. 20 outside their Minneapolis-area home and sent to an ICE facility in Dilley, Texas. Images of the 5-year-old, wearing a blue bunny hat and clutching a Spider-Man backpack while surrounded by federal agents, quickly went viral and ignited outrage nationwide.
A federal judge later ordered their release, blasting the administration’s deportation quotas and warning they appeared willing to traumatize children in the process.
Noem was also pressed the previous day in front of the Senate committee by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar over her past claim that Pretti, a Minnesota nurse killed during a federal immigration operation on Jan. 24, was a “domestic terrorist.” Under oath, Noem denied making the remark, insisting she only said the incident “appeared to be” terrorism. Klobuchar audibly gasped before firing back that Pretti’s parents “saw it for what it was,” as video of Noem previously calling the incident “the definition of domestic terrorism” continued circulating online.
After the fatal shootings during the Minneapolis deportation protests, pressure on Noem quickly escalated into a full-blown impeachment drive on Capitol Hill.
House Democrats, led by Rep. Robin Kelly, introduced articles of impeachment accusing Noem of obstruction of Congress, violating the public trust and self-dealing, with support swelling to more than 150 Democratic co-sponsors as the campaign gained momentum.
Top Democratic leaders, including Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, publicly demanded Noem be fired, warning they would move forward with impeachment if Trump refused to act, while a handful of Republicans also began calling for her resignation.
However, reports show that a different exchange during the hearings might have been the final reckoning for Noem. According to the National Review, Trump reportedly fumed after she, under oath, suggested he signed off on the $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign that prominently featured her.
The moment came after Republican Sen. John Kennedy pressed Noem about the massive ad buy, openly questioning whether Trump would ever agree to spend the massive sum of money on TV ads showcasing a cabinet secretary. When Noem insisted the president had approved it, Kennedy pushed back, saying it was “hard for me to believe,” adding that even the White House budget office would likely have balked at the price tag.
Legal questions could still linger for former Noem, particularly around whether she misled Congress about the $220 million ad campaign. Lawmakers have also raised concerns about the use of federal funds tied to that media blitz, issues that could draw scrutiny from federal investigators or inspectors general even after her exit from the administration.
Trump, on Thursday afternoon, announced that he would be replacing Noem as DHS secretary, with Oklahoma senator and close ally, Markwayne Mullin, while she is being shifted to a new role as special envoy for what he called the “Shield of the Americas,” a security initiative he plans to unveil in Florida.
Although the role is currently nonexistent, Trump praised Noem’s tenure, saying she “served us well” and delivered “spectacular results (especially on the Border!).”
The president hyped Mullin, a former MMA fighter and the only Native American in the Senate, as a “MAGA Warrior” who will “work tirelessly to Keep our Border Secure” and “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.” Trump added that Mullin, who previously served a decade in the House before joining the Senate, will be tasked with stopping “migrant crime, murderers, and other criminals from illegally entering our Country.”
Mullin, 48, the only sitting senator without a bachelor’s degree, is known to be fast-tempered. He attempted to grab a sign from Rep. Al Green, 79, during Trump’s State of the Union on Feb. 24. In 2023, Mullin made headlines after nearly coming to blows during a heated exchange with a union advocate during a committee hearing over a tweet badmouthing the senator.
“So we’re just switching out idiots? Cool,” one Threads user responded.
Sen. Kennedy, who grilled her over the campaign ad, said he wasn’t surprised she was terminated from the position, telling Raw Story, Trump called him Tuesday night, after the first day of the Senate hearings, and told him he was already “mad as a murder hornet” and ready to give her the ax.
“Oh, God. It’s not like the replacement is any better. But maybe someone will give Kristi Noem the same treatment she gave everyone else. She needs jail time,” one critic wrote.
