President-elect Donald Trump is planning to nominate South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem to serve as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to four sources familiar with the decision.
As Homeland Security secretary, Noem would oversee a number of key federal agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Secret Service, TSA and the Coast Guard.
Noem has been told by Trump that she is his pick for DHS Secretary, according to two sources familiar with the decision.
Noem, 52, has no significant experience with homeland security issues but has voiced support for the president-elect’s hardline immigration policies. She has defended her fellow Republican governors in their efforts to crack down on migrants in their states.
In January, for example, she said in remarks that there was an “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border and said that her administration was considering helping Texas deter immigration at the southern border by sending security personnel and razor wire to the state. In response to her comments, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota banned her from their reservation.
Noem has criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the border, echoing arguments made by Trump that violent criminals are flooding into the country.
“He is ignoring federal law and allowing people into this country that are incredibly dangerous,” she said in an interview in June on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And just this week I think we had four different people that were attacked or raped or murdered by illegal immigrants that have come in over our open border. And that cannot continue to happen.”
In the same interview, when asked about Trump’s possible plans to pardon Jan. 6 rioters who were convicted, she dodged the question and said that it would be his prerogative.
“I believe that Donald Trump, when he comes back to the White House and is in charge of this country, we’re going to have incredible opportunities to show that people in this country will be safer, that we’ll have law and order back in our streets,” she said. “If you look at one of the most violent areas of our country is often Democrat-run cities, sanctuary cities with an open border.”
Noem had been viewed as a possible vice presidential running mate for Trump in this cycle, but she was dogged by her admission in her book published in the spring that she had once shot and killed her dog.
“I would say that that was a story from 20 years ago about me protecting my children from a vicious animal,” she said on “Meet the Press.” “So we’ve covered that, and any mom in those situations when you have an animal that’s viciously killing livestock and attacking people it’s a tough decision.”
Noem has served as governor of South Dakota since 2019 and previously served in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019 and in the state House from 2007 to 2011.
Similar to Trump’s other allies, Noem had signaled support for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. In separate interviews on CNN in April and May of this year, she wouldn’t say if she would have certified that election and refused to say whether then-Vice President Mike Pence acted appropriately when he did certify Biden’s victory.
Noem is the latest in a flurry of picks Trump has made to join his second administration.
Trump has so far announced Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N.; Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff; former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., as EPA administrator; and Tom Homan to be “border czar,” a role Trump said will oversee all of the administration’s deportation efforts.
Homan, who served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration, is an advocate of hardline immigration policies and has vowed to carry out mass deportations, a major campaign promise of Trump’s. Two people familiar with Trump’s decision said that Homan was not vying for the Homeland Security secretary position.
Trump is also expected to name Stephen Miller, another immigration hardliner, to serve as White House deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller was a senior White House adviser during Trump’s first term, where he helped plan two of the administration’s most controversial policies: family separations and the so-called “Muslim ban.”
NBC News has reported that Trump has also selected Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., as national security adviser; and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as secretary of state.
