Dec. 15, 2025, 4:37 PM EST

This is an adapted excerpt from the Dec. 13 episode of “Velshi.”

The honeymoon period for Donald Trump is over. Multiple polls now show that his approval rating is deeply underwater, as the public grows weary of how his administration is handling —or mishandling — many of his top campaign promises.

A new poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Trump’s approval rating stands at just 36%, unchanged from last month, which represents a record low for his second term. It’s the third poll in as many weeks to show deep dissatisfaction with his job performance, following similar results from surveys conducted by Gallup and Reuters-Ipsos.

They offer strong proof that many Americans have soured on how the Trump administration is carrying out many of its top priorities, including its vicious and sometimes violent crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, which is terrorizing communities of color and tearing some families apart.

The reality, and the brutality, of how the Trump White House is carrying out its mass deportation operation is driving people away

If you recall, during the 2024 presidential campaign Trump made no secret of the fact that he wanted to deport millions of “criminal illegal aliens.”

But the reality, and the brutality, of how the Trump White House is carrying out its mass deportation operation is driving people away — and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has become the face of the merciless crackdown.

She’s been on the receiving end of a lot of intense scrutiny, including for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s inhumane and potentially illegal treatment of immigrants.

Those concerns began not long after she was confirmed by the Senate, but it became a huge flashpoint in the spring, after the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose Kafka-esque case has become a saga in itself.

Abrego is a Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. without authorization when he was a teenager. In 2019, a judge ruled that he could not be deported back to El Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang.

But that’s exactly what the Trump administration did back in March, sending him to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

A federal judge ordered his return to the United States, but the government has continued to hound him ever since, re-detaining him multiple times.

On Thursday, a federal judge ordered him to be released again, finding that the government detained him without any legal basis.

But fearing that authorities would immediately re-detain Abrego again, she issued a second order blocking the government from doing so.

Also on Thursday, Noem appeared on Capitol Hill for the House’s annual review of worldwide threats.

Democrats used that appearance in front of Congress as an opportunity to ask the secretary about her department’s overreach, including the fact that U.S. citizens and military veterans have been ensnared in ICE’s operations.

After that hearing, Noem has faced multiple calls for her resignation. Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois took it one step further by sending a letter to the House Judiciary Committee asking them to open an impeachment inquiry into the former South Dakota governor.

MS NOW has also reported that the White House has grown frustrated with Noem and that she could be replaced as soon as January. Her possible successors include Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose term ends in a few weeks, and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. And, according to Politico, former Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz also is in the mix.

The White House continues to deny that Noem’s job is in danger.

DHS Secy. Kristi Noem on ‘very thin ice’: Sources December 8, 2025 / 02:57

But the secretary is facing opposition from multiple fronts, including from Republican lawmakers who have concerns about her handling of the $170 billion infusion of cash they appropriated for Homeland Security earlier this year.

Those concerns grew after a ProPublica report found that a company involved in the $220 million no-bid advertising contract that was fast-tracked by the department this year has close ties to Noem and some of her aides.

Some Trump administration officials have also grown skeptical of her leadership. The Wall Street Journal and Axios both reported recently on the growing tensions between Noem and border czar Tom Homan. The two of them have opposing views about how to achieve Trump’s ambitious mass deportation goals.

Homan, a longtime immigration official, reportedly wants to rely on traditional methods to target deportable immigrants. Then there’s Noem, who reportedly favors a flashier, attention-grabbing approach that plays to Trump’s sensibilities, like when she visited the notorious prison in El Salvador where Abrego was sent and used prisoners as background decoration for a fearmongering propaganda video.

Noem appears to enjoy playing dress-up and donning the uniforms of ICE, Border Patrol and other agencies to ingratiate herself with Trump and spread his agenda.

She’s been unapologetic — even callous — about her department’s controversial tactics, deliberately engineering herself as the face of Trump’s brutal crackdown, with some speculating that she’s using the issue to boost her own profile ahead of the 2028 elections.

Jimson Rodriguez and Allison Detzel contributed.

Ali Velshi

Ali Velshi is the host of “Velshi,” which airs Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC. He has been awarded the National Headliner Award for Business & Consumer Reporting for “How the Wheels Came Off,” a special on the near collapse of the American auto industry. His work on disabled workers and Chicago’s red-light camera scandal in 2016 earned him two News and Documentary Emmy Award nominations, adding to a nomination in 2010 for his terrorism coverage.