President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday after two days of congressional hearings in which Republican lawmakers criticized a $220 million DHS advertising campaign that featured Noem prominently, including in a video filmed near Mount Rushmore. An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deliberations, cited the campaign and “many unfortunate leadership failures” — including fallout from a federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota and mismanagement of her staff — as reasons for her dismissal after 13 months in office.
Trump said he will nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace Noem at DHS. He said he will appoint Noem as “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere.
The firing exposed a direct conflict between Noem’s congressional testimony that Trump had pre-approved the ad campaign and Trump’s own statement to NBC News that he had not known about it and was not “thrilled” — a discrepancy that Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told CNN prompted an angry call from the president after her testimony.
The ad campaign
The Mount Rushmore spot, one of several DHS advertisements featuring Noem, shows a montage of American historical imagery interspersed with footage of Trump being sworn into office. Dressed in Western riding gear and a cowboy hat and riding a horse through a pine forest, Noem delivers the department’s border message: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you.”
The Associated Press reported last year that DHS, citing “an unusual and compelling urgency” over conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border, bypassed a fully competitive bidding process when it launched the campaign early in 2025 and awarded the first portion of the $220 million to two Republican-linked firms.
Kennedy’s questioning
Kennedy pressed Noem across two days of hearings, questioning whether the expenditure was appropriate given the administration’s stated anti-waste posture.
“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?” Kennedy asked.
“Yes, sir,” Noem replied. “We went through the legal processes. Did it correctly.”
Kennedy told Noem the campaign appeared to have served her own public profile above other ends. “Well, they were effective in your name recognition,” he said.
Kennedy also said the campaign “puts the president in a terribly awkward spot” and told CNN he found it “hard to believe” Trump would have approved the plan had it been presented to him directly. After the firing was announced, Kennedy said Trump had been “mad as a murder hornet” following Noem’s testimony.
Conflicting accounts
Trump told NBC News he had not known about the campaign. “I spent less money than that to become president. I didn’t know about it,” he said.
Kennedy told CNN that Trump called him Tuesday evening and was angry, and that the two principals’ accounts diverged sharply. “Her version and the president’s version of whether the president, A) was informed and B) consented are decidedly different,” Kennedy said.
Noem’s tenure
Throughout her 13-month tenure, Noem placed herself at the center of DHS enforcement operations. Early in the administration she accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents making arrests in New York City. Later she appeared in a video standing before a cell at a Salvadoran prison, warning viewers not to enter the country illegally. She also joined agents on a raid near a Chicago Walmart and appeared in footage at the controls of a plane in Alaska.
The sustained public presence drew criticism following a January enforcement operation in Minneapolis in which federal officers shot and killed two protesters. Noem’s characterization of the victims as agitators drew particular scrutiny, though Trump publicly supported her in the aftermath, saying she was doing “great.”
The administration official who described the reasons for her firing said the pattern of self-promotion, combined with other leadership failures, ultimately proved untenable.