Let’s get you up to speed: The Ice Queen is Out: Kristi Noem, You’re Dismissed
WASHINGTON POLITICS
The Ice Queen Kristi Noem has been sent packing. It ends Noem’s controversial tenure at the top of the department, which is tasked with carrying out the president’s sweeping immigration agenda. No-one outshines the President.
FEDERAL 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.
CURRENT STATUS
Noem will be replaced by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin at the end of the month and Neom will be sent to a new job, the Siberia of cabinet posts.
The Lowdown – What we know so far
Globally, Trump is his usual chaotic self, but at home, the president has been cleaning house – Kristi Noem, ICE Barbie, ICE Queen, she’s been melted, by order of the boss. She’s out, and in comes Markwayne Mullin.
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, pending a confirmation for the US Senate.
Was she a bit too bling?
Why? because you cannot outshine the President.
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.
President Trump 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.
Why was Kristi Noem fired?
Trump’s frustration with Noem had been clear for months if not longer. The administration faced a major backlash for its immigration crackdown in Minneapolis in January, after federal agents shot dead two US citizens.
Trump sent White House border tsar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to lead the response, which resulted in a decision to scale back the operation. Homan’s appointment was widely viewed as a rebuke to Noem, who might normally have been given the assignment.
Noem was also criticised for comments she made after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, particularly her claim, made without evidence, that Pretti had “committed an act of domestic terrorism” before he was shot.
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