Why Trump Changed His Mind on Kristi Noem

 by Nick Miroff, Michael Scherer, and Russell Berman, The Atlantic, March 7, 2026- Kristi Noem played “Hot Mama” as the walk-up song for her formal introduction at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in January 2025. President Trump had put her in charge of his signature campaign promise—the largest mass-deportation campaign in U.S. history—and Noem took a fast, flashy approach to the job. She dressed as a Border Patrol agent and an ICE officer, and rode horseback at Mount Rushmore in ads. She flew to El Salvador and posed in front of a prison cell crammed with tattooed inmates. She made no apologies for aggressive enforcement tactics on American streets, even those that likely broke the law, or for the deaths of two U.S. citizens who opposed her approach.

But it wasn’t the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year that finally cost Noem her job today, making her the first ousted Cabinet secretary of Trump’s second term. Instead, it was her self-promotion.

Noem’s standing was already shaky when she went to Capitol Hill to testify this week. On Tuesday, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, a Republican, asked whether Trump himself had approved Noem’s $220 million ad campaign that featured her urging migrants to self-deport. Noem said yes, and defended the ads as “effective.”

The ads “were effective in your name recognition,” Kennedy told Noem, saying that she put Trump “in a terribly awkward spot.” He was implying the commission of a cardinal sin for a Trump Cabinet member: seeking to outshine the president. (read more)

Rod's Comment
This is one of the points I made in my essay, "Why I am Cautiously Giddy About the Firing of Kristi Nome."  I wrote, "I suspect Trump is jealous of Noem. Trump wants it all to be about him. He wants to be the center of attention. He resents someone else building a support base and getting attention at his expense.  Calling the two Americans murdered at the hands of ICE, "domestic terrorists" will not get you fired. Being the center of attention will.

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