President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), CNN reported Tuesday.
Noem, who was at one point up for consideration to be Trump’s running mate, will head the agency responsible for everything from deportations to natural disaster relief efforts. The DHS has a $60.4 billion budget and oversees thousands of employees, including those with the U.S. Secret Service.
Trump, who ran his campaign on the promise of “mass deportation,” also selected Stephen Miller and Tom Homan to serve in his administration. Both men are unapologetic defenders of Trump’s hardline border policies and along with Noem, show that Trump is filling his cabinet with loyalists.
The South Dakota governor has long been an immigration hardliner. Throughout President Joe Biden’s term, Noem maintained that her state “won’t be taking any illegal immigrants.”
“My message to illegal immigrants… call me when you’re an American,” she wrote in a post on X in 2021.
Noem has had a tumultuous year, facing immense amount of backlash for revealing in her memoir that she killed her 14-month-old puppy, later claiming it was a danger to her children. The admission horrified the media and politicians on both sides of the spectrum, spurring Noem’s unpopularity and likely damaging her standing as a vice presidential candidate.
In Trump’s last term, the DHS saw five different leaders, only two of whom were approved by the Senate.
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