President Donald Trump has surveyed Republicans in Congress over whether he should get rid of embattled ‘ICE Barbie’ Kristi Noem, according to reports.
The temperature test comes as the secretary of Homeland Security, one of the president’s first appointees of his second term, was grilled by members of Congress on Wednesday. She was backed into a corner over an alleged affair with her top advisor, Corey Lewandowski, her handling of Federal Emergency Management Agency funding, and her lavish spending on glitzy ad campaigns, luxury jet travel, and more.
Her issues were compounded when the subject turned to her handling of Trump’s deadly ICE invasion of Minneapolis, and when she—via the medium of word salad—refused to apologize for accusing slain protestors Renee Good and Alex Pretti of domestic terrorism.
The attacks mainly came from Democratic foes, but exit-bound North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis delivered a gut punch when he crossed the ideological aisle and lamented the “disaster under your leadership.”
All of this has generated uncomfortable headlines for the White House, with Trump reportedly considering taking decisive action. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy summed it up during the congressional grilling when he said all of this “puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”
Punchbowl News reported that multiple Republicans who have spoken with the president suggest that he has been busy surveying GOP leaders on the Hill about whether he should fire her.
It reported that Trump called up Republican senators right after the uncomfortable scenes unfolded. Punchbowl added that even Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speculated about replacing Noem, while at a House Republicans leadership retreat in January.
Sam Stein from the Bulwark reported that some Republicans have even concocted a deal that would see Democrats release withheld funding in return for Noem’s head. However, the Democrats the Bulwark spoke to said it is unlikely the party would entertain this mutinous deal, instead aiming higher for actual reform at the department.
Noem risked Trump’s ire on Wednesday after she name-checked him when confronted with the cost of an ad campaign encouraging self-deportation.
“How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?” Kennedy asked.
“Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country, and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from,” she said.
Noem has frustrated both sides of the political spectrum, with John Fetterman, the Trump-loving senator from Pennsylvania, calling for her head weeks ago. He called her “grossly incompetent.”
“Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy,” he said as the department’s heavy-handed crackdown on immigrants and protestors in Minnesota raged.
This crackdown was also brought up on Wednesday. Despite the majority of Americans agreeing that ICE took it too far, she characterized ICE officers as heroes. “They are facing a serious and escalating threat as a result of deliberate mischaracterizations of their heroic work and rhetoric that demonizes our law enforcement.”
A DHS spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “Secretary Noem serves as the pleasure of the President. She is honored to serve the American people and lead DHS. Under her leadership, we have the most secure border in American history, 3 million illegal aliens left the United States, and we now have the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”
