Post Analytics

Kristi Noem’s ouster was the result of “unfortunate leadership failures” and self-promotion that “overshadowed and distracted” from Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, an administration official told Nick Miroff, Michael Scherer, and Russell Berman. Trump had put Noem “in charge of his signature campaign promise—the largest mass-deportation campaign in U.S. history—and Noem took a fast, flashy approach to the job,” the authors write. “She dressed as a Border Patrol agent and an ICE officer, and rode horseback at Mount Rushmore in ads. She flew to El Salvador and posed in front of a prison cell crammed with tattooed inmates. She made no apologies for aggressive enforcement tactics on American streets, even those that likely broke the law, or for the deaths of two U.S. citizens who opposed her approach. “But it wasn’t the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year that finally cost Noem her job,” the authors continue. “Instead, it was her self-promotion.” At a hearing on Tuesday, Republican Senator John Kennedy pressed Noem on whether Trump had approved her $220 million ad campaign that featured her urging migrants to self-deport. Noem said yes and defended the ads as “effective.” The ads “were effective in your name recognition,” Kennedy replied. “He was implying the commission of a cardinal sin for a Trump Cabinet member: seeking to outshine the president,” the authors write. A person familiar with the decision to fire Noem told the authors that the president was upset about Noem’s attempt to pass the blame for the ad campaign onto him, and for her equivocation on the questions about her alleged romantic relationship with Corey Lewandowski, who has been working at DHS as her de facto chief of staff. The White House declined to comment. “It’s unclear how Trump’s succession plan at DHS will play out over the next few weeks,” they write. But within the department, “Noem’s ouster was celebrated by some who viewed her as a self-promoter who ran the department erratically,” the authors continue at the link in our bio. 📸: Brendon Smialowski / AFP / Getty