As world news marches on week after week, this Sunday we at Fair Observer decided to highlight a smaller blip, but still just as important as many of the other headlines you have read. In fact, you might be somewhat familiar with this story due to the story’s subject’s high-profile and its somewhat farcical nature. This week, we will be discussing the Trump administration’s firing of Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Noem is the first cabinet member to be fired during Trump’s second term. She was removed on March 5 in the wake of more than two months of a highly publicized surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the American state of Minnesota, allegations of corruption and speculation of an affair.

via Shutterstock

However, this shift in management also comes as the DHS department is facing a spending freeze during a partial government shutdown. The shutdown is largely due to congressional Democrats’ desire to reign in the DHS and ICE after over a year of a federal push to expel immigrants, largely headed by Noem. This seems to indicate it is not only her job performance being evaluated. Moreover, the lightness of her sentence sends another message: that she is still in good standing with the Trump administration.

Kristi Noem: a brief history

Kristi Noem has been in Republican Party politics for more than a decade now. She first won a seat in the House of Representatives in 2011 before becoming governor of the state of South Dakota in 2016. She was seen as a rising star in the party, and was even a vice-presidential hopeful in 2024, but her fame was tarnished after she bragged about shooting dogs in a memoir.

Nonetheless, she was an avid supporter of the eventual victor — and now current — US President Donald Trump, and was rewarded with a cabinet position for her support. After her confirmation, Noem quickly set to work on implementing many of the anti-immigration and anti-immigrant policies Trump had campaigned on, much to the outrage of the American left and Democratic Party. 

These include increasing ICE’s budget from $10 to $85 billion, thousands of detainments including that of American citizens, deporting Venezuelans and detaining them in an El Salvadorian maximum-security prison with seemingly little evidence or justification, and an extended and heavy deployment of ICE officers in Minnesota from December 2025 to February 2026 despite massive protests from locals.

These protests also resulted in ICE officers killing two American citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, in extremely high-profile incidents caught on camera. Neither of the victims were making any aggressive actions against the ICE officers, which sparked even more protests and calls for Noem to resign.

Noem, however, doubled down, calling Good a “domestic terrorist.” She also said that Pretti was threatening people despite being held down by multiple officers at the time of his killing. Noem then ordered even more officers into Minnesota.

Sources:

Kristi Noem | Britannica

How ICE became the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency | NPR

The men Trump deported to a Salvadoran prison | WLRN

2025–26 Minnesota ICE Deployment | Britannica

Democrats were furious. The protests continued before the ICE operation was taken out of Noem’s hands. The operation was slowly deescalated, but the damage was done, both to the local communities and the administration.

This also coincided with increasing scrutiny on Noem with allegations of mismanagement and wasteful spending. Then, a $220 million advertisement campaign was suspected as fraudulently enriching the secretary among other individuals in her orbit including Corey Lewandowski, a Trump loyalist and advisor for DHS who some have alleged is carrying on an extramarital affair with Noem.

All this among reports of infighting within the Trump administration ultimately led to Trump firing Noem from her position. This does not come as a total surprise: During his first term, Trump was infamous for constantly high-profile firings of senior members of his own administration, so much so that there is an entire Wikipedia article dedicated to it.

But unlike many of those firings, Noem has enjoyed a much lighter touch. Instead of being shown the door, Noem is being given another assignment within the Trump administration, where she would work as a special envoy.

Sources:

Inside the White House pressure campaign to fire Kristi Noem | POLITICO

Democrats are probing companies awarded a $220 million ad contract for ties to Noem, Lewandowski | NBC

Trump tells Reuters he did not sign off on ad campaign featuring homeland security secretary | Reuters

List of dismissals and resignations in the first Trump administration | Wikipedia

The probes into Noem’s finances also coincided with a partial government shutdown aimed squarely at DHS. Democrats are demanding reforms after Good and Pretti’s killings in a vote on February 14, something Republicans refused. Because of this, DHS has been operating without a budget for weeks now, forcing many workers in the department to go without pay.

As DHS also oversees airport security, this has also started to affect airport traffic, with long lines forming due to understaffing. This remains the most visible symptom of the DHS funding fight, but is also affecting ICE and other emergency services such as the Coast Guard.

This kind of tactic is increasingly common in American politics. Observant readers might recall the government shutdown in 2025, which affected the whole federal government, one of many shutdowns in the past decade. Both Republicans and Democrats try to posture during these negotiations, eager to paint their opponents as the part entirely at fault.

Sources:

5 things to know about the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security | NPR

Senate rejects DHS funding bill as shutdown nears one-month mark| POLITICO

Airports see hours-long delays due to TSA shortages as Homeland Security shutdown shows no sign of ending | CNN

2025 United States federal government shutdown | Wikipedia

Democrats’ Reckless DHS Shutdown Hits Americans Hard as 100,000+ Workers Go Without Pay | The White House

Of course, there are more calculations at work here on both sides. ICE and the DHS are both extremely unpopular with the Democratic base. Any eye-poke the Democrats can give the agency and its unpopular head is worth its weight in gold, especially in an election year. With primaries fast approaching in the summer months and democrats in the minority in both houses, incumbents are undoubtedly looking for some victory to show off to their bases.

Furthermore, the Democratic Party has a favorability problem within its own base. Many people feel that congressional democrats have not done enough to stop the Trump administration and are also frustrated with party leadership, who is seen as out of touch and unable to meet the moment. This is most apparent with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has become deeply unpopular within the broader Democratic Party.

Sources:

Many Democrats are still down on the Democratic Party | AP news

Schumer favorability at lowest point in 20 years among New Yorkers | The Hill

This also puts the Republican Party’s strategy into focus. Kristi Noem has led the DHS and ICE in particular into controversy and unpopularity. By removing the head of the department, it is likely many within the Republican Party and the Trump administration are hoping to quell some of the anger brewing with moderates and even members of their own voting bases who are outraged over her behavior and ICE’s conduct.

But, as previously mentioned, Trump was not willing to fully fire Noem. She is being reassigned to a new role within the administration, despite all the scandal and allegations of corruption. In fact, Noem is not alone in her miring. Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, has recently come under scrutiny for his department’s outrageous spending on food and other luxury items. Trump himself has been noted to have enormous conflicts of interest in many of his dealings.

Sources:

Pete Hegseth Blew Billions on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab | The New Republic

‘This is the looting of America’: Trump and Co’s extraordinary conflicts of interest in his second term | The Guardian

Trump administration to be paid $10bn for brokering TikTok deal

To bring things back to Trump’s first term one final time, it’s easy to compare the sheer volume of turnover and notice how quickly it all happened. But in his second, Noem is the first high-profile firing a full year into the administration.

Furthermore, it is also useful to compare this to the firing of James Comey, the former head of the FBI. Comey was fired because he was overseeing an investigation against Trump. Noem, meanwhile, has remained perfectly loyal to Trump and the party line, and was rewarded with a new role even after it became politically expedient to fire her for corruption. In short, birds of a feather will always flock together, even when the wind blows against them.

Kristi Noem Misled Congress About Top Aide’s Role in DHS Contracts 

DHS Scrambling to Fix Multimillion-Dollar Mistake of ICE Barbie Deputy, 28 

Exclusive: Trump tells Reuters he did not sign off on ad campaign featuring homeland security secretary

Democrats are probing companies awarded a $220 million ad contract for ties to Noem, Lewandowski

Who is Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s new pick for DHS?