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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will be nominated as Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security, a powerful position that will be tasked with carrying out the president-elect’s immigration crackdown.
In his announcement of the pick, Trump praised Noem as “very strong on Border Security” and noted that she had sent National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas eight times.
Outside of her fierce criticism of President Joe Biden’s border policies, Noem has little experience with homeland security issues. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be in charge of immigration enforcement agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Outside of her fierce criticism of President Joe Biden’s border policies, Noem has little experience with homeland security issues.
Noem has long been seen as a rising figure in Trump’s GOP, and she has been viewed as one of his potential running mates. But she has faced her fair share of scandals: In 2022, a South Dakota legislative panel found that the governor had improperly intervened to help her daughter obtain real estate appraiser certification; Noem denied any wrongdoing. Earlier this year, she courted controversy over an advertisement-like video she posted about a Texas dentist who had fixed her teeth. In May, Noem found herself banned from all tribal lands in her own state after suggesting that Native American leaders were “personally benefiting” from international drug cartels.
Noem’s greatest source of controversy arose from her memoir, which was released in the spring. She claimed to have met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who she wrote surely underestimated her since he had “no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants.” There is no record of such a meeting, and the book passage was removed. She also claimed to have canceled a meeting in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron because he had made a “very pro-Hamas and anti-Israel” remark, but Macron’s office said no such meeting had ever been scheduled. Noem’s spokesperson later said there were “two small errors” in the book that were being addressed.
Noem, a rancher, also recounted killing her young dog and a “nasty goat” to show that she’s able to do what’s “difficult, messy and ugly” when required, she wrote in her book. The anecdote was received extremely poorly, and Noem blamed “fake news” for the backlash.