NOEM-ORE MERCY

ICE Barbie Humiliated on Fox News Over Bizarre Boast

Kristi Noem’s claim she was “too successful” earned a savage Fox News reality check.

Kristi Noem’s claim that the Trump administration was “too successful” came back to bite her, with Fox News delivering a brutal reality check to the former secretary of homeland security.

Noem, who was fired by President Donald Trump in March, made the eyebrow-raising boast ahead of last week’s midterm elections, apparently convinced that the administration’s performance deserved applause. Noem was nicknamed “ICE Barbie” for her rotating wardrobe of law enforcement outfits while serving as DHS secretary.

“Larry Kudlow is correct. We were too successful the first year of the Trump administration,” she posted on X.

Kudlow, a former Trump economic adviser and Fox Business host, had confidently declared on the eve of the election that the economy was “booming,” predicting Republicans would hold the Senate and describing the House contest as closely balanced.

The actual results were rather less triumphant. Democrats seized control of both chambers, flipping a string of Republican strongholds in a devastating rebuke to Trump’s party.

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Noem’s victory lap didn’t land well even on Fox News, where host Trey Gowdy took aim at her extraordinary claim that she had simply been too good at her job.

“Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had a quite unique take on the law. She said she was too successful at doing her job. Calling dead Americans domestic terrorists before the investigation even commenced is not too much success. It is a perceived lack of empathy, which in turn motivates voters to then go send a message,” he said.

Gowdy was referring to the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last January, during Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed by an ICE officer on Jan. 7 while sitting in her SUV. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24 amid protests against the operation they were conducting.

Noem, then leading the Department of Homeland Security, swiftly cast the actions of both victims as domestic terrorism, defending the agents involved before investigations had established the full circumstances of the killings.

Videos of the encounters undermined key elements of the administration’s narrative, particularly its portrayal of Pretti as an armed threat. Footage showed him holding a cellphone, not a gun, immediately before agents tackled him and opened fire.

The killings ignited furious protests and helped transform immigration enforcement—once a political advantage for Trump—into a liability for the administration.

Trump eventually pulled the plug on Noem in March, after a mounting series of controversies, including allegations of corruption that threatened to engulf his administration.

The former secretary was subsequently handed a diplomatic envoy position created to soften her landing. That assignment expired in September, although she remains a State Department adviser.

Her former chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski, meanwhile, has attracted scrutiny of his own. The Justice Department began reviewing allegations last month that he improperly sought financial benefits through DHS contracting.

Lewandowski, with whom Noem has long been rumored to be romantically involved, denies wrongdoing and has not been charged.

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, who previously pressed DHS to preserve records relating to Noem and Lewandowski amid allegations of misconduct, had a pointed response to Noem’s boast about the administration’s success.

“Want to say that under oath?” Hassan asked on X, tagging Lewandowski.

The Daily Beast has contacted Noem for comment.

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