Tucker Scott ’26
Opinions Editor
During our Easter break, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was ignominiously fired and replaced with Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin. To that I just have one thing to say: it’s about time. Noem has been an utter disaster as DHS Secretary and if Republicans lose in the midterms it will almost single-handedly be because of her actions.
She singlehandedly made President Trump’s most popular issue, immigration, one of the most unpopular parts of his administration’s policy. In April of 2025, President Trump’s approval rating on his handling of border security and immigration was 49 percent supporting and 34 percent opposing according to NBC News — which is fairly good given how divisive President Trump, immigration policy, and the media coverage have been. By February of 2026, according to that exact same poll, his approval on the issue had dropped to 40 percent and strong disapproval had jumped 15 points from 34 percent to 49 percent. It would be impressive if it weren’t so mindnumbly frustrating. Especially given that Trump’s actual policy still remains quite popular. But in my opinion, Noem is the worst exporter possibly ever because she was too busy trying to set herself up for a 2028 run rather than actually doing the job she was tasked with doing. This was obvious to everyone who both was and wasn’t paying attention.
Compare this to Border Czar Tom Holman. The second he took over in Minneapolis the protests and riots stopped. The media coverage of ICE protests vanished almost over night. Why? Because Tom Holman did what he was supposed to do. Namely just focusing on enacting the policy of the President. It didn’t matter who gets the credit so long as the job gets done. So once Democrats realized they couldn’t bait Holman into saying something stupid or divisive, almost overnight all the protests vanished. Kristi Noem, however, is chronically online and lives for the credit and the glory.
She also was consistently mired in scandal, which served as another distraction from the job of the DHS. Whether it was all the performative politicking by recording videos in El Salvador, spending $220 million dollars on ads that are obviously election ads and don’t even mention the president that were created by groups friendly to Noem her getting over her skis and putting the administration in the untenable position of calling Alex Pretti and Renee Good domestic terrorists which, while agitators they were terrorists they were not, or the fact that “allegedly” she was having an affair with special advisor Corey Lewendouski on the tax payer dime Noem needed to go.
Thankfully, President Trump was paying attention and made the right call by firing her. In even better news her replacement, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, from all appearances appears to be a great candidate to fill the role. Hopefully Mullin can turn Noem’s disastrous tenure around and deliver some real victories for the American people. How a policy is enforced and how a policy is perceived deeply matters. If you want a policy to remain popular and successful, you have to do it the right way. Noem seemingly ignored this crucial truth and was content to just do whatever it would take to get the online crowd to cheer. To be fair to her, this is a problem many politicians today have. They are too chronically online and care way too much about what the Twitter warriors have to say and just ignore the average voter. Thankfully President Trump is not chronically online, despite what his Truth Social might have you believe, so he was able to recognize that Noem was a threat to his policy, his administration, and his movement so he replaced her.
Featured image courtesy of CNN
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