By Ted Hesson, Nolan D. McCaskill, Richard Cowan and Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday after months of controversy, including the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis and lawmakers’ questions over a $220 million advertising contract.
The Republican president will tap Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her by the end of the month, he said on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. The appointment would require U.S. Senate confirmation.
Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, became one of Trump’s most high-profile Cabinet secretaries with social media posts that portrayed immigrants in harsh terms, highlighted alleged criminal offences and used vitriolic language.
Her departure, after emerging as the face of an aggressive immigration crackdown that had grown unpopular according to recent polling, could allow Trump to reset his approach on immigration policy, a centerpiece of his agenda.
Shortly after Trump announced Noem’s replacement, she posted on X: “We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again.”
During congressional hearings this week, Democrats and some Republicans criticized Noem for her approach to immigration enforcement and management of her department, including concern over a $220 million advertising campaign that featured Noem heavily and had been awarded to two longtime Republican operatives without a standard bidding process.
Noem’s personal life also came under scrutiny, with a Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday asking whether she had a sexual relationship with top aide Corey Lewandowski. Both are married.
Noem called the question from U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove “tabloid garbage.” Lewandowski did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he did not sign off on the ad campaign, which prominently featured Noem and included a scene of her on horseback at Mount Rushmore, in her home state of South Dakota.
In one congressional hearing this week, Noem told Republican U.S. Senator John Kennedy that Trump had approved the ad campaign.
FIRST SENATE-CONFIRMED CABINET MEMBER FIRED IN TRUMP 2.0
Noem is the first Senate-confirmed member of Trump’s Cabinet to be removed this term. In Trump’s 2017-2021 term in office, 14 confirmed Cabinet appointees, who serve in the line of succession to the presidency, quit or were fired.
Noem faced criticism in January when she quickly accused two U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis of “domestic terrorism.” Videos that emerged after the deaths undercut the assertion by Noem and other Trump officials that the two deceased – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – were violent aggressors.
The public backlash over the deaths led the Trump administration to adopt a more targeted approach on immigration enforcement in Minnesota, after months of sweeps through U.S. cities that sparked violent clashes between federal agents and residents who opposed the crackdown.
Two Trump administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said the fallout over the fatal shootings, the $220 million contract, the mismanagement of DHS and the allegations of the affair all contributed to her firing.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives moved to impeach Noem, and at least two Republicans in Congress called for her to lose her job after the shootings in Minnesota.
Trump said on Truth Social that Noem would be appointed envoy to a planned summit in Miami to reinforce his Western Hemisphere policies.
Within minutes of Trump’s post about her replacement, Noem spoke at a law enforcement event in Tennessee for 40 minutes but did not mention her departure.
Noem was aware she would be removed before she spoke at the event, one of the officials and another person familiar with the matter said, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.
They added that Lewandowski was also expected to leave the department. DHS and the White House did not immediately comment when asked about Lewandowski’s future.
STRONG EMBRACE OF TRUMP’S HARDLINE IMMIGRATION APPROACH
Mullin, who spent a decade in the House of Representatives before becoming a senator in 2023, also supports Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mullin said he had not been expecting the call from Trump. He described Noem as a friend and said he had not had a chance to call her yet.
“She was tasked to do a very difficult job,” Mullin told reporters.
Democrats in Congress have blocked funding for DHS since mid-February, saying federal immigration enforcement must be reformed.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Noem’s firing would not be enough to break the stalemate.
“The problems at ICE transcend any one person,” he told reporters. “The president has to end the violence and rein in ICE.”
Trump’s immigration approach lost popularity as agents detained U.S. citizens and tear-gassed streets in an attempt to drive up deportations, which last year fell short of the administration’s goal of 1 million per year.
While Noem, 54, served as a prominent proponent of Trump’s agenda, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a longtime Trump aide, controls Trump’s immigration policy.
Noem was quickly confirmed to lead the 260,000-employee department in January 2025 after Trump took office. On social media, she referred to immigrants convicted of crimes as “scumbags” even as the number of non-criminals arrested by immigration authorities rose under Trump.
She joined immigration enforcement operations on the ground in New York City and visited a maximum-security prison in El Salvador where Venezuelan immigrants deported by the Trump administration were being held without charges or access to lawyers.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson, Nolan McCaskill, Rick Cowan and Jasper Ward; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Bo Erickson; Editing by Craig Timberg, Nia Williams, Deepa Babington, Chizu Nomiyama and Edmund Klamann)
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