Trump cuts his losses on Noem after controversial tenure at homeland security. 16 hours ago. Daniel BushWashington correspondent. Sooner or later, advisers in President Donald Trump’s orbit all come to learn the same unwritten rule: no-one can outshine the boss.. Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, became the latest reminder of that on Thursday when Trump announced he was removing her as the face of the administration’s crackdown on immigration.. Noem will be replaced by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin at the end of the month, Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The US Senatewill have to confirm him in the post.. The president said Noem would move to a new job as special envoy for a new US security initiative in the Western hemisphere called the Shield of the Americas.. “I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland,'” Trump said.. It ends Noem’s controversial tenure at the top of the department, which is tasked with carrying out the president’s sweeping immigration agenda.. Noem was one of the administration’s brightest stars when she stepped into the role last year after Trump returned to the White House. She immediately gained attention for joining immigration raids, often appearing in a bulletproof vest alongside field agents carrying out enforcement actions.. She was a vocal advocate of Trump’s deportation drive, and touted policies that effectively closed the US-Mexico border. She also took the message abroad, in one instance visiting a maximum-security prison in El Salvador that took in some migrants deported from the US.. Reuters. But Noem’s unconventional approach courted controversy from the start.. Homeland Security secretaries do not typically partake in field operations. Noem’s decision to appear on the frontlines of Trump’s immigration crackdown was viewed by critics as an effort to burnish her image as the tough-talking immigration enforcer-in-chief.. She sparked a backlash by wearing a $50,000 (£37,500) Rolex during her visit to Cecot, the notorious prison in El Salvador. Noem also appeared on horseback in a DHS advertising campaign calling for undocumented immigrants to leave the US.. This led some of Noem’s critics on the left to brand her “ICE Barbie”. Democrats in Congress also blasted her for spending $220m in federal funding on an advertising blitz starring herself, and nearly $200m on two luxury jets for her official travel.. Noem defended the ad campaign in a Capitol Hill hearing earlier this week and said Trump was aware of the spending.. But Trump publicly contradicted Noem on Thursday before announcing her firing, telling Reuters he was not aware of the expensive campaign. “I never knew anything about it,” he said.. The president had an acrimonious call with Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to Noem, on Tuesday after her testimony to Congress, the BBC’s US news partner CBS reported. Lewandowski is also now leaving the department.. Trump is reported to have called Republicans in Congre
