By REBECCA SANTANA
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a one-minute video, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, decked out in Western using gear and a cowboy hat, rides a horse by way of a pine forest close to Mount Rushmore. She trumpets her division’s hard-line message: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll discover you.”
The advert was one of many many instances the outgoing secretary made herself the general public face of her division. In the long run, that method led to her undoing.
President Donald Trump on Thursday introduced he was firing Noem, a call that got here on the heels of back-to-back hearings in Congress this week the place she confronted uncommon however blistering criticism from Republican lawmakers, particularly over the $220 million advert marketing campaign that featured the secretary on horseback.
An administration official mentioned the advert marketing campaign, together with different “many unlucky management failures” comparable to fallout from the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota and mismanagement of her workers, led to her firing. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to debate the non-public concerns for the firing.
Noem had confronted criticism for months, primarily from Democrats, in regards to the administration’s robust immigration crackdown, particularly within the aftermath of the capturing deaths of two Minneapolis protesters by the hands of federal officers. Regardless of outrage over how she characterised the protesters as agitators, publicly Trump stood by her all through her 13-month tenure.
Noem’s social media was awash in movies of her out on the streets seemingly becoming a member of arrest sweeps of unlawful migrants, and pictures of her posing in entrance of inmates at a infamous El Salvadoran jail. Airports throughout the nation additionally beamed movies of Noem blaming Democrats for a federal authorities shutdown.
In the long run, retaining the highlight on herself drew fierce scrutiny that will have pushed the president over the sting in deciding whether or not to maintain her on board. Trump mentioned he’ll nominate Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin in her place and can make Noem a “Particular Envoy for The Protect of the Americas,” a brand new safety initiative that can give attention to the Western Hemisphere.
Noem was grilled in Congress this week over the advertisements
Within the Mount Rushmore advert, a montage of video clips exhibits basic photographs of American historical past and tradition — a rocket launching into air, a girl standing in a golden wheat subject — interspersed with photographs of Trump being sworn into workplace, pumping his fist within the air after being shot at, and strolling alongside a row of saluting cadets.
“Anybody who searches for freedom can at all times discover a dwelling right here, however that freedom’s a valuable factor. And we defend it vigorously. You cross the border illegally, we’ll discover you,” Noem says within the video.
“However should you come right here the fitting means, your American dream might be as huge as these open skies. From President Trump and me, Welcome dwelling.”
Over two days of questioning this week, senators and representatives pushed her to clarify the advert marketing campaign.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana requested whether or not spending $220 million was acceptable when the administration was in a battle towards waste. And he requested what the president knew.
“The president authorised forward of time you spending $220 million operating TV advertisements throughout the nation wherein you might be featured prominently?”
“Sure, sir,” Noem replied. “We went by way of the authorized processes. Did it accurately.”
She was repeatedly pressed about contracts awarded surrounding the marketing campaign.
The Related Press reported final 12 months that the Division of Homeland Safety, citing “an uncommon and compelling urgency” over the state of affairs on the U.S.-Mexico border, skipped a totally aggressive bidding course of when it launched an advert marketing campaign early in 2025 and gave two Republican-linked corporations the primary a part of the funding.
Noem insisted to Kennedy that the campaigns had been efficient.
“Nicely, they had been efficient in your identify recognition,” Kennedy replied.
Kennedy mentioned Trump and Noem had totally different variations of the president’s position
Kennedy went on to recommend that the marketing campaign “places the president in a very awkward spot.”
“It’s simply onerous for me to imagine figuring out the president as I do, that you just mentioned, ‘Mr. President, right here’s some advertisements I’ve lower and I’m going to spend $220 million operating them’ that he would have agreed to that,” mentioned Kennedy.
Trump later advised NBC Information that he didn’t know in regards to the marketing campaign and that he wasn’t “thrilled” with it.
“I spent much less cash than that to change into president. I didn’t find out about it,” he mentioned.
Kennedy advised CNN that he received a name from Trump Tuesday night and the president was indignant.
“Her model and the president’s model of whether or not the president, A) was knowledgeable and B) consented are decidedly totally different,” Kennedy mentioned.
Kennedy, talking after Noem’s firing, mentioned he spoke with the president after the secretary’s testimony and he was “mad as a homicide hornet.”
When Trump nominated Noem for his Cupboard, he mentioned he’d recognized her for years and she or he was “very sturdy” on border safety. As just lately as after the Minneapolis fallout in January, Trump mentioned she was doing “nice.”
Noem made herself the general public face of DHS
Past the Mount Rushmore advert, Noem appeared in different advertisements and a stream of social media movies and photographs put out by the DHS communications crew or in information reviews. The fixed appearances and content material confirmed a picture of a secretary out within the subject, finishing up Trump’s imaginative and prescient. She swooped into the guts of immigration enforcement operations, with visuals of the motion following shortly after.
It was a tactic she employed proper from the start of her tenure, when she went out with Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers making arrests in New York Metropolis. Carrying a flak jacket and baseball cap, Noem mentioned in a video that they had been “getting the dirtbags off the streets.”
Later photographs confirmed her on the controls of a aircraft in Alaska or decked out in firefighting gear collaborating in a coaching train. In Chicago she accompanied brokers on a raid close to an area Walmart retailer.
In a single video, she stood in entrance of a cell full of inmates in a Salvadoran jail and warned folks to not come to the U.S. illegally or they may find yourself there.
She might have efficiently raised her profile. However ultimately, she turned the most recent senior administration official to rankle the president and be shuffled into obscurity.
