Trump fires scandal-plagued Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary

WASHINGTON – In a surprising move, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and tapped Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to replace her at the end of the month.

“I am pleased to announce that the highly respected U.S. Senator from the great state of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) of the United States, effective March 31, 2026,” Trump said. posted on social media.

“The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well and has achieved numerous spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will become Special Envoy for Shield of the Americas, our new Western Hemisphere Security Initiative that we will announce on Saturday in Doral, Florida,” he said.

“I thank Kristi for her service on ‘Homeland,’” the president added.

Heather Diehl via Getty Images

The White House has not yet formally nominated Mullin for the position, and he still needs to be confirmed by the Senate to get the job.

Noem later thanked Trump for her new appointment and boasted about her “historic accomplishments” at DHS.

“We have created the MOST secure border in the history of the United States, 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States and we have located 145,000 children,” he said. wrote on social media later that afternoon. “FEMA delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster pace, ushered in the golden age of travel, saved the American taxpayer $13 billion, and revitalized the U.S. Coast Guard.”

But Noem’s legacy at DHS, which she has led since January 2025, will be largely defined by her carelessness, scandals and potential violations of the law.

Under his leadership, thousands of federal immigration agents descended on Minnesota and spent months brutalizing immigrants, terrorizing communities, and fatally shooting two Minneapolis residents: U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Noem, without any evidence, characterized both Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists (an allegation that other officials said was not true) to justify the officers’ actions.

Noem has also been criticized for spending $220 million of taxpayer money on a splashy DHS ad campaign that prominently shows her riding a horse in a cowboy hat on Mount Rushmore. A large portion of those federal dollars was secretly awarded to a company with ties to Noem, a firm that was shut down just eight days before the contract came out.

He has also faced accusations of deception or outright lying to Congress under oath about various actions he has taken, ranging from his top aide, Corey Lewandowski’s, role in approve contractsto the reality that his department has been detain American citizens in its roundup of alleged criminals who are illegally in the country.

In yet another scandal, Noem has faced accusations of having an inappropriate personal relationship with Lewandowski, who made headlines last month for entering the cockpit of a government plane mid-flight and firing the pilot over a misplaced blanket. The pilot had to be reinstated immediately as there was no one else to take Noem and Lewandowski back home.

Tom Williams via Getty Images

Trump’s decision to fire Noem appears directly related to the bipartisan condemnation he faced before Congress this week while testifying before House and Senate committees during oversight hearings.

Democrats have been demanding his resignation for months over his reckless handling of Trump’s immigration crackdown, but in his televised hearings he also faced searing disapproval from Republicans.

In a few-minute tirade, Sen. Thom Tillis (R.N.C.) criticized her for her “leadership failure” citing the deaths of Good and Pretti, for failing to reimburse his state for billions of dollars in much-needed disaster relief funds, and generally focusing DHS immigration enforcement efforts on absolute numbers of detentions rather than paying attention to who is actually detained.

“Quality matters, not quantity!” Tillis yelled at him during a hearing Wednesday. “What we have seen is a disaster under your leadership, Mrs. Noem! A disaster! What we have seen is the detention of innocent people who happen to be American citizens!”

Still, it was another Republican senator at that hearing, John Kennedy, who may have been the real cause of Noem’s firing.

Louisiana Senator pressed noem on whether Trump approved his $220 million DHS ad campaign that was “effective for his name recognition” but “places the president in a terribly uncomfortable position” given its price tag. He said the president gave the go-ahead, which ended up infuriating Trump to the point that I called Kennedy directly to complain about the senator’s interrogation of Noem.

On Thursday morning, the president was reportedly calling out the republicans on the hill to see if they thought he should fire Noem.

“Have a good trip”.

– Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

Noem’s ouster comes as Congress struggles to tie any new funding for DHS to major reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Democrats have refused to budge on this demand, while Republicans insist that the agency be funded while they debate ICE reforms separately.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that it’s great news that Noem is out, but it doesn’t change anything about Democrats’ insistence on real changes at ICE.

“Goodbye,” he told reporters of Noem’s ouster. “But the problems with this agency transcend just one person. The rot runs deep.”

Noem will be a prime target of Democratic investigations after November if they take back the House, something they are well positioned to do.

During Tuesday’s House Oversight Committee, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) whipped against the DHS secretary for having “regularly ignored court orders and lied to judges,” citing 210 cases in which his staff ignored federal court orders in 2026 alone.

“You are the secretary of DHS, for now,” Balint told Noem. “You think you’re immune from responsibility. But I promise you this: One day, he won’t be president anymore.”

Noem said nothing as the Vermont Democrat continued: “When that day comes, we will still be here … and at hearings like this,” she said. “We will continue to prove his guilt.”