Champagne corks are popping inside Trumpworld after “ICE Barbie” Kristi Noem was finally shown the door as homeland security secretary.
Trump insiders and staff at the Department of Homeland Security are toasting Noem’s downfall, the Washington Examiner reports.
“People in the office are actually crying out of happiness,” said one person who worked under Noem and top aide Corey Lewandowski, with whom she is allegedly having an affair.
President Donald Trump fired Noem, 54, on Thursday after she spent more than a year stumbling from one scandal to the next while dragging the DHS into intense scrutiny over her handling of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Noem’s exit—the first Cabinet firing of Trump’s second term—sparked relief among staffers who said Noem’s team had made their lives miserable and dragged the department’s reputation through the mud.
“It was only a matter of time,” one DHS insider told the Daily Beast.
A senior DHS official told the Examiner in a text message, “We’ve seen fake news and calls for resignation. I usually sympathize with the principle and instinctively, and actually, know the stories of their behavior are overstated or inaccurate. I cannot say that today.”
The official continued, “Her actions have led to the reputational loss of the DHS. Her continued hobbling of the component heads leads to more negativity regarding law enforcement pros. I suspect this is hard for POTUS, he deserves better!”
A senior Trump administration official reacted to Noem’s firing with an emoji of a smiling face with a halo and expressed optimism that Lewandowski, 52, would leave alongside the former South Dakota governor.
“The leaders of CBP and ICE will be able to do their job without constant interference and harassment by Corey Lewandowski,” the official told the Washington Examiner. The outlet said all insiders who commented on Noem’s exit were hopeful that Lewandowski will follow her out.
“Hopefully we have seen the last of Corey,” a former senior DHS official said, adding that “he is not a good person.”
Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, has not said whether he will leave with Noem. Asked on Thursday whether he would continue working at the Trump administration, he told the New York Post, “I haven’t made that decision.”
Lewandowski downplayed his influence at the DHS, calling himself an “unpaid volunteer” at the Trump administration.
But according to reports, Lewandowski operated as Noem’s de facto chief of staff—jetting around the country in a luxury jet, approving multibillion-dollar contracts, attending classified briefings, and terminating government workers—despite being classified as a temporary government employee.
A former senior DHS official who worked directly under Noem told the Daily Mail that Lewandowski was “pulling the strings behind the scenes” and called him “vindictive.”
“He was willing to bend the rules to do whatever he needed to make himself and Noem look good,’ the former official said.
“ICE Barbie,” her nickname coined by the Daily Beast thanks to her rotating wardrobe of law-enforcement agency cosplays, has been named to the newly created position of Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas by Trump.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DHS for comment.
