March 05, 2026 01:35 PM UTC

Trump Fires Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been fired, er, reassigned to another role in the Trump administration.

As The Washington Post reports:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem is being replaced, President Donald Trump said Thursday, after more than a year leading some of his administration’s most controversial missions to remove undocumented immigrants from the United States and dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trump announced the decision on social media and said Noem would be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma)…

…The president said Noem’s new role is part of a Western Hemisphere security initiative that the administration will announce Saturday. The change is effective March 31.

The decision comes after months of mounting uncertainty over whether Noem would remain in her position as the public sours on the president’s mass deportation campaign and even some Republicans questioned whether she was fit for the job.

Trump had told advisers that he was unhappy with Noem after DHS’s controversial surge in Minnesota, in which two U.S. citizens were killed by officers, said two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the president’s conversations. Her testimony in front of the Senate this week caused further complications, with the president unhappy with Noem’s defense of a $200 million ad campaign — which starred the secretary — and her assertion that Trump had signed off on the campaign, the people said. The Wall Street Journal first reported Trump’s frustrations with Noem.

Noem’s firing was not unexpected after she completely bombed in high-profile congressional hearings on Wednesday.

Members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation were quick to weigh in on Noem’s ouster: