Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings explained how the unceremonious termination of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem changes everything for travelers.
“If you’re at the airport and Kristi Noem is doing the ominous little message from the TSA screens, you no longer have to do anything she says,” Jennings, 51, said in a Bluesky post shortly after news broke of Noem’s termination. “Leave your laptop in the case, whatever.”
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the termination of Noem, 54, just one day after the former DHS official finished her disastrous congressional hearings.
In his Truth Social post, Trump, 79, reassigned Noem to a fake-sounding position as the “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” and nominated Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin in her place.
As the head of DHS, Noem recorded videos that played on TV screens above TSA lines, including one that airports refused to air in which she blamed Democrats for the government shutdown. The airport TVs will be Noem’s final onscreen appearances as the head of DHS after her Thursday press conference.
Jennings’s mocking social media post is not the first time the Jeopardy! host has rebuked Noem’s authority.
In January, Jennings wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he mocked Noem’s inability to answer rudimentary questions in a congressional hearing, leading him to argue that Americans need to watch more quiz shows.
“Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to define habeas corpus, a bedrock common-law protection under fire from the administration. Ms. Noem wasn’t even close,” Jennings wrote.
Jennings even appreciated Hassan’s response.
“‘That’s incorrect,’ noted Ms. Hassan, sounding as much like a quizmaster as a senator,” Jennings added.
Later that week, Jennings asked a Jeopardy! contestant the very same question, though the episode had been taped months in advance.
“The Jeopardy! contestant, you’ll be relieved to hear, responded correctly," Jennings wrote to end his op-ed.
The game show host also took aim at Noem and the rest of the second Trump administration after ICE agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renée Good in January.
“The ‘prosecute the former regime at every level’ candidate has my vote in 2028,” Jennings wrote on Bluesky.
When Jennings was poised to take over the Jeopardy! hosting gig following the death of longtime host Alex Trebek in 2020, the 74-time show winner apologized for his previous social media posts mocking conservatives.
Jennings apologized for the “unartful and insensitive things” he had tweeted over the years, lamenting the failure of previous “jokes” he had posted on the site.
As host, he’s continued to critique the current conservative administration on social media. With Noem gone, Jennings will have to find a new target for his online quips.
