Donald Trump fires Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as alternative named
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Kristi Noem has been fired(Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump has fired Kristi Noem, his embattled Homeland Security Secretary in a huge blow for his mass deportation agenda.
The US President says he’s replacing Noem and will nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin. Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats. Trump says he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Noem’s departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits. Just this week Noem faced an embarrassing grilling from a Congressional committee over claims she is having an affair with aide Corey Lewandowski. Both Noem and Lewandowski are married and have denied the affair.
Noem has also been under pressure over the killing of Minnesota protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti earlier this year at the hands of ICE agents, during the immigration crackdown overseen by her in the state.
The former South Dakota governor was also criticized over the way her department has spent billions of dollars allocated to it by Congress.
Frustrations over Noem’s execution of the Republican president’s hard-line immigration agenda — particularly her leadership after the shooting deaths of the two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis — as well as her handling of disaster response, paved the way for her downfall. She faced blistering criticism from Democrats, and some Republicans, in Congress hearings this week over those issues and others.
Aside from immigration, Noem also faced criticism — including from Republicans — over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the Trump administration’s response to disasters.
Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate, but 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.
