Stephen Colbert celebrated the surprise firing of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, delivering one especially biting joke to remind viewers why the 54-year-old deserved to be let go.
Trump announced Noem’s ouster in a Truth Social post on Thursday. He wrote that Noem had “served us well” and that he’d picked Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to take her place.
Trump framed the announcement as a positive development for Noem, writing that she would be “moving to be Special Envoy in the Western Hemisphere.”
When the Daily Beast reached out to the White House for information about what this new job entails, a spokesperson replied, “This historic new security initiative, led by Secretary Noem, will advance cutting-edge strategies to defeat narco-terrorist cartels and stop illegal mass migration to make America and the entire Western Hemisphere safer.”
To Colbert, Noem’s new position seems like a clear step down.
“Sounds like someone’s about to become the FIFA Secretary of Homeland Security,” Colbert said, referencing the fake peace prize FIFA gifted President Trump in December.
“It’s too soon to know exactly why Kristi Noem is gone,” the late-night host told viewers. “Before we find out any more information about what happened, I just want to say with absolute certainty: she is a domestic terrorist who deserves to go to Gitmo.”
Colbert added, “I’m being told that is not true, but you know what? I acted on the information we had at the time.”
The joke was a direct reference to Kristi Noem’s false declaration in January that Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis citizen who was shot to death by federal border agents, had “committed an act of domestic terrorism.”
When criticized for the statement even by a few right-wing pundits, Noem explained days later, “We were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time.”
Noem never apologized for her comments about Pretti, but when asked about it at her senate hearing on Wednesday, she answered in a similar tone, “We were relying ... on information we were getting from our agents.”
Noem added at the hearing, “I did not call him a domestic terrorist. I said it appeared to be an incident of.”
Trump announced that Noem’s replacement, Markwayne Mullin, would take over as Secretary on March 31, although Mullin still needs to be confirmed by the Senate.
Mullin, one of Trump’s biggest defenders in Congress, has no law enforcement or national security background.
Mullin’s views on immigration appear similar to Noem’s. Shortly after Alex Pretti’s death, Mullin described him as a “deranged individual.” After the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE agent, Mullin blamed Good for “interfering with police activity.”
After Trump’s announcement that Mullin would be taking her job, Noem posted on X thanking Trump for the news.
“Thank you @POTUS Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas," she wrote. "@SecRubio and @SecWar are incredible leaders and I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren."
