Donald Trump sacks Kristi Noem as US homeland security secretary

LAST UPDATE | 10 hrs ago

DONALD TRUMP HAS announced that he is replacing Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary. 

Her departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits.

According to multiple media reports, Trump was upset with Noem’s testimony at a Senate hearing this week where she said the US president had approved a $220 million DHS advertising campaign in which she featured prominently.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said “highly respected” Republican senator Markwayne Mullin would be taking over the role from 31 March. 

He said Noem has “served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results,” citing the US border with Mexico. 

She will take up a new role, “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas”, which Trump described as “our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere”. It will be formally announced on Saturday in Doral, Florida, he added. 

“I thank Kristi for her service at “Homeland.”

Noem, in a post on X, thanked Trump for her new special envoy position and cited what she called “historic accomplishments” at DHS.

“We delivered the MOST secure border in American history,” she said, and “three million illegal aliens have left the US.”

‘Good riddance’

Democrats have welcomed her sacking. 

In a post on X, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote: “Good riddance.

“But the problems at DHS go much deeper than any one person,” the Democrat added. “The President must rein in ICE and end the violence.”

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X: “Kristi Noem is gone. Pam Bondi is next. Keep the pressure on these extremists.”

Senator Dick Durbin said: “Kristi Noem was the face of an unpopular, illegal, and outright dangerous mass deportation campaign that claimed the lives of innocent Americans and terrorized many more.

“Even the president finally conceded she was unfit for the job.”

Senator Adam Schiff of California said Noem “should have been fired a long time ago.”

Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term in office. 

The 54-year-old’s department has been heavily criticised for the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, which it oversees.

The backlash reached its peak following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens who were shot dead by ICE agents during separate protests in Minneapolis last year.

On Tuesday, Noem was grilled by Democratic and Republican politicians over the administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown during a tense Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.

‘Domestic terrorists’ comments

“Under your leadership, the Homeland Security Department has been devoid of any moral compass or respect for the rule of law,” Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, told Noem.

“DHS agents have wreaked havoc in our cities,” Durbin said. “They roam the streets in paramilitary gear and arrest and detain people based on the colour of their skin, their accents and the language they speak.”

Durbin and other Democrats repeatedly asked Noem to apologise for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and for calling them “domestic terrorists.”

Noem, making her first appearance before Congress since the shootings, expressed her condolences to the families over the “tragic” deaths but denied calling them domestic terrorists.

“I said it appeared to be an incident of (domestic terrorism),” she said, blaming the reference on “chaotic” first reports.

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Noem defended the department’s actions, saying US-Mexico border crossings have plummeted to historic lows and “nearly three million illegal aliens” have been removed from the US during the past year.

“Our department has delivered historic results and has made our community safer since the start of President Trump’s second term,” she said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham praised the immigration enforcement, saying the Trump administration inherited a “mess” from Democratic President Joe Biden.

“Sensible immigration died on Biden’s watch,” Graham said. “It was replaced by an out-of-control open border, just absolute chaos.”

‘No quotas’

Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who has announced plans to retire, also criticised the Biden administration’s border policies but had harsh words for Noem’s tenure at DHS and called for her resignation.

“What we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership,” Tillis said. “What we’ve seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens.”

Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, also questioned Noem about her characterizing Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists and expressed scepticism about DHS’s advertising spending on its deportation campaign.

“How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?” Kennedy asked.

Noem said the advertisements had been “effective.”

“They were effective in your name recognition,” Kennedy shot back.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons accused DHS of acting unconstitutionally in a bid to meet White House demands for “higher and higher numbers for deportations.”

Noem denied DHS was operating under a quota system.

“There are no quotas at the Department of Homeland Security,” she said. “When we do law enforcement operations we do them on targeted enforcement, getting public safety threats off of our streets and out of our communities to protect the American people.”

Noem’s firing comes amid a partial government shutdown that has choked off funding for parts of her department.

Democrats oppose any new funding for DHS until major changes are implemented to how the ICE agency conducts its operations.

They have demanded curtailed patrols, a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks and a requirement that they obtain a judicial warrant before entering private property.

Aside from immigration, Noem also faced criticism over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the Trump administration’s response to disasters.

Who is Markwayne Mullin?

A staunch conservative and early supporter of Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, Noem represented South Dakota in the US House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019 before being elected its governor.

Noem was reportedly under consideration to be Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election, but she torpedoed her chances with the admission in her memoir that she had once shot and killed her family’s young dog.

In the book, Noem described the 14-month-old dog, Cricket, as “untrainable,” an explanation which did not go over well for many pet-loving Americans.

In recounting putting Cricket down, Noem explained that it showed she was ready to do “difficult” things in both her personal and political life.

Markwayne Mullin spent ten years in the US House of Representatives before being sworn into the US Senate in 2023. He is the only Native American in the Senate. 

“A MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter, Markwayne truly gets along well with people, and knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that he will “make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security”. 

Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate. However, under a federal law governing executive branch vacancies, he would be allowed to serve as an acting homeland security secretary as long as his nomination is formally pending.

Speaking to reporters, Mullin said his focus will be “to keep the homeland secure.”

“I think there’s opportunities to build off successes,” he said. “And there’s also opportunities to build off things that maybe didn’t go quite as planned.”

With reporting from © AFP 2026

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