Senior administration officials are privately urging President Donald Trump to replace Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the effort and a person close to the White House granted anonymity to disclose the private push.
It comes as Noem remains under intense scrutiny, facing public calls from some GOP lawmakers to resign over her management of the sprawling department — including her response to federal agents killing two U.S. citizens.
But the frustration inside the administration — brewing for months — stretches well beyond that, including scrutiny about how she has used some DHS funding and her relationship with her special adviser Corey Lewandowski, who has played an outsized role at the agency.
“It certainly seems like there are people that are getting more aggressive in trying to get [her tenure] to come to an end,” the person close to the White House said.
This article is based on conversations with 10 people, including administration officials, former Trump officials, people close to the White House and Hill Republicans, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A DHS spokesperson said Noem “serves at the pleasure of the president.”
“She is honored to serve the American people and lead DHS,” the spokesperson said, who touted Noem’s leadership and success in deporting unauthorized immigrants, lowering the murder rate and securing the border.
Conversations over Noem’s future have included people at the highest levels of the Trump administration, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to four of the people. Border czar Tom Homan, who has often clashed with the DHS secretary, has been a key driver lobbying the president to remove her, said one of the people, who is close to the White House.
It’s not clear whether Trump will remove Noem or ask her to step down and the president has demonstrated a high tolerance for Cabinet officials under fire.
But the frustration within the White House has grown more serious in recent days. Noem’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday sparked serious angst within the White House including with Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the president’s private conversations.
During the hearing, Noem was asked about spending hundreds of millions of dollars on ads in which she featured prominently. She told senators the president approved of the controversial blitz. The ads, according to two of the people, are a sore spot within the White House, including with Trump, because they feed into a perception that Noem is using her position to set herself up for a future political run.
“POTUS did not sign off on a $220 million dollar ad campaign,” said a White House official. “Absolutely not.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune declined on Thursday to say if Trump had discussed Noem with him. He also sidestepped a question about whether Noem should remain as secretary.
“I’m not going to talk about private conversations,” said Thune, who formerly served alongside Noem in the small South Dakota congressional delegation. “The Cabinet secretaries serve at the pleasure of the president.”
Trump in conversations this week has gone so far as to quiz people he is talking with on potential replacements for Noem, according to two of the people, who both expected Trump to fire the secretary. A name he is floating, according to one, is Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a close ally of the president. Mullin’s name was first reported by the National Review.
“I haven’t talked to the president all week, so I couldn’t even help you with that answer,” Mullin told reporters Thursday when asked about being privately under consideration.
He declined to say if he was open to serving in Trump’s Cabinet calling it a “hypothetical,” adding that as long as Trump remains supportive of Noem then he also backs her.
POLITICO reported in December that Trump aides and allies were discussing possible replacements, including former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Fox News contributor and former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Trump officials have long been frustrated with Noem’s management of DHS, including her handling of billions of dollars in funding her agency received from Republicans’ domestic policy legislation enacted last year.
The GOP criticism facing the secretary intensified earlier this year, with White House allies blaming her for the chaotic fallout from the DHS enforcement surge in Minneapolis. Republicans criticized her for rushing to speak on television in the wake of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, arguing that her approach undermined public trust in ongoing investigations.
The criticisms facing DHS leadership also apply to Lewandowski, as current and former administration officials have questioned how he’s counting his days at the agency — given he was originally tapped as a special governmental employee, a temporary role that is supposed to be limited to 130 days per year of unpaid work.
Noem this week also refused to answer questions from House Democrats about her relationship with her special adviser, including whether they had “sexual relations” during her tenure at DHS.
Other outlets have alleged the two have had an intimate relationship, though both denied the claims.
Lewandowski has also been involved in greenlighting any contract exceeding $100,000 at the agency, as well as other high-level decisions. An administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that Lewandowski is also in trouble, pointing to DHS’s aborted decision last month to shutdown TSA PreCheck as a bargaining maneuver aimed at forcing Democrats to fund the department, among other incidents.
“All the contracts and other scandals are facing recurring scrutiny,” said the administration official. “No one is talking about the most secure border ever. Just the shitshow that is Noem and Corey.”
The DHS spokesperson, when asked about Lewandowski’s role in the temporary shutdown of TSA PreCheck, said the program “remains operational with no change for the traveling public” and that “TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis at the local airport level and adjust operations accordingly” as staffing constraints arise.
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