WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was already frustrated with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. But her performance at two congressional hearings this week is what finally cost her the job, lawmakers and people familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
Noem’s place in the administration had become increasingly unstable following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers during immigration operations in Minneapolis earlier this year, and amid her fraying relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard and other reported infighting at Homeland Security, the officials said.
Her firing by the president on Thursday in an online post comes after weeks of bad press involving DHS’ immigration enforcement operations, and as support for Trump’s immigration agenda, a top administration priority, has tumbled in recent weeks.
The president had been speaking with Republican lawmakers this week about his displeasure with Noem and told them he was considering replacing her, according to Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., two other Republican lawmakers who did not want to be named publicly, a person familiar with White House’s thinking and three people familiar with the president’s private discussions.
Still, the Truth Social post by the president on Thursday came as something of a surprise to Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who Trump declared would replace Noem.
Mullin was attending a Senate GOP lunch when he got a phone call from the White House switchboard, got up and rushed out of the room, leaving behind a full plate of food, according to GOP Sen. Roger Wicker, who said it raised suspicion among Republicans that something was afoot.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting the call today,” Mullin said. “I found out just before you guys did,” he told reporters.
In a phone interview with NBC News, Trump said Noem was "a fine person. She did a good job. I’m a big fan of the senator from Oklahoma. It wasn’t a hard choice.”
Mullin is expected to take over on March 31, though he told reporters that he hoped his confirmation process would begin right away, and Noem will assume a new role called “special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.”
Not long after Trump’s post, Noem appeared in Nashville, Tennessee, at a conference for members of police unions. Some in the room stood for her when she came out.
And she sent out her own social media post on X thanking the president for her new appointment.
“We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security,” she said.
A former South Dakota governor, Noem had been at the forefront of Trump’s signature policy agendas: mass deportation and clamping down on the U.S.-Mexico border.
But she often found herself under fire in the public eye. Noem quickly said the shootings in Minneapolis of Good, a mother of three, and Pretti, a nurse, by federal officers had appeared justified, to widespread criticism. Without evidence, she described Good and Pretti as engaged in acts of domestic terrorism, and federal law enforcement investigating the shootings took the unusual step of cutting out local authorities. The tension led Trump to send in his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to help bring down the temperature.
Noem, too, has clashed with the Coast Guard, the only member of the military branch that falls under the 260,000-person department.
At times, the tensions have escalated into confrontations, NBC News reported. In one contentious incident in May, Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, berated Coast Guard flight staff and threatened a pilot for taking off without one of the secretary’s personal items on board — a heated blanket, according to the current and former Coast Guard officials.
An administration official told NBC News that replacing Noem was based on the culmination of many “unfortunate leadership failures,” including staff mismanagement and constant feuding with others across DHS. She is the first Cabinet secretary to leave in Trump’s second term.
“Kristi’s drama sadly overshadowed and distracted from the administration’s extremely popular immigration agenda, which will continue full force,” the official said.
The sources say that while Trump has at times been unhappy with Noem’s performance leading DHS, his frustrations really escalated this week. One GOP senator said her performance during the hearings was “water boiling over the edge of the pot.”
The president was particularly frustrated by her response when she was repeatedly asked about her role in approving contracts, specifically a $220 million ad campaign to encourage immigrants to self-deport, the sources said. Kennedy described Trump as “pissed.”
At one point during questioning, Noem told Kennedy that Trump knew about her decision to approve the ad campaign contracts — an answer that did not sit well with the president, the sources said. The ad contracts went out through a process that limited competitive bidding.
Trump said he didn't know about the campaign.
"I wasn't thrilled with it," Trump told NBC News. "I spent less money than that to become president. I didn’t know about it.”
Senator Kennedy said Trump had called him after the Senate hearing, “when he was mad as a murder hornet. He asked me what I thought about Markwayne.”
“I said A, I like him; B, he’s very smart; C, he’s a very good businessman; and D, if I didn’t believe the three things I just told you, I’d lie to you because Markwayne would whip my ass,” Kennedy said.
Trump also called Lewandowski Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the call. One described the call as as contentious; the other said Trump asked about Lewandowski's role in contracting decisions made at DHS.
Trump had been calling around Capitol Hill asking for input on Noem since last year, but her support had been cratering among Republicans, lawmakers said.
Their chief complaint was that she and Lewandowski had been slow-walking critical disaster aid grants and were difficult to communicate with, according to two House Republicans and a senior GOP aide. Lawmakers’ requests for updates and briefings from Noem often went ignored, prompting GOP members to take their frustrations directly to the White House.
The White House had also considered as a replacement Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who recently announced he will not seek re-election, two of the people said.
And former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, had also expressed interest in replacing Noem, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions.
DHS funding expired Feb. 13, forcing a partial shutdown of the department that affects the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and cybersecurity.
Democrats have been negotiating with the White House over changes to immigration enforcement to secure their votes to reopen the agency in full. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said that Noem’s ouster might help negotiations.
“It might be easier for us to negotiate,” he said.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the personnel change would do nothing to change the situation.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats hadn’t discussed yet whether Democrats still planned to investigate Noem.
“We haven’t had that conversation yet.” But he added that Democrats will “make sure that every single taxpayer dollar is accounted for that she was allowed to brazenly abuse.”
