Dem
47
GOP
53
The wait is finally over, and we know which Trump v2.0 Cabinet member will be the first to be cashiered. It is, of course, now-former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who got a pink slip from Donald Trump yesterday. Actually, we haven't been able to confirm this, but despite being famous for "You're fired!," Trump famously lacks the fortitude to swing the axe himself. So, it was probably someone like Chief of Staff Susie Wiles who actually did the deed.
There was a long list of good reasons to fire Noem. She has overseen several ICE operations that were incredibly cruel, and politically disastrous, with Minnesota at the top of the list. She's been a grifter's grifter, from taking up residence in the house that's supposed to go to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, to spending tens of millions on bordello-in-the-sky luxury jets, to giving out sweetheart deals to various contractors. She's said all kinds of impolitic, and often racist, things. She's lied under oath, over and over again. She's been "very close" to Corey Lewandowski, and both of them have been extremely abusive to the people working underneath them.
But what actually did Noem in was that she violated Rule #1 of the Trump administration, which is "You don't embarrass The Donald." Her appearance before Congress, which we wrote about yesterday, was reprehensible. Yes, AG Pam Bondi pulled the same stunt, and was no worse the wear for it (or, at very least, Bondi did not lose her job within 48 hours of her appearance). The fatal mistake by Noem was that she not only executed a nine-figure grift—with that silly advertising contract she awarded without soliciting bids—but when the members of Congress challenged her on it, she threw Trump under the bus and claimed he'd approved it. Trump very clearly has no problem with grift, if he's aware of it, and especially if he's also benefiting from it. But he apparently did not approve the ad campaign (a campaign that angered even many Republicans in Congress), and he certainly did not appreciate being used by Noem like that. So, she's out.
That said, she's not 100% out. She will have to vacate the free house she's been living in, and presumably the jets are in her past, and she and Lewandowski will just have to get a hotel room like everyone else. However, Trump has appointed Noem to a newly created position, Special Envoy for "Shield of the Americas." This is an initiative from the Trump administration that is something like NATO, but for the Western Hemisphere. We don't quite understand why the White House engineered a soft landing for Noem, in view of Trump's irritation with her, but maybe this is a "better to have her inside the tent pissing out" situation, especially since she must know things that would be problematic for the administration if they were to come up in, say, a court hearing.
Trump has already nominated a replacement for Noem, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). We were very, very surprised when we learned that Mullin accepted the offer. As a Republican senator from one of the reddest states in the country, Mullin should theoretically have a job for as long as he wants it. Yes, he is up this year, and would have to win reelection, but there's no lane to the right of him, and running to the left of him is political suicide in the Sooner State. Now, he's thrown that away for a job that will last 3 years at best, much less than that at worst, and that will require regular and sustained pressing of Mullin's lips to Trump's hindquarters.
We will note that Mullin isn't a great fit for the Senate, culturally. He's the only current member without a college degree, and while that's not always important, in his case, it very much shows. He's said many and numerous ill-informed and embarrassing things during his fairly brief tenure; the most recent was not knowing that there have been two ayatollahs who ruled Iran, first Khomeini then Khamenei. He's also a very crude man; he once tried to provoke a fistfight during a committee hearing, for example, and he also likes to take embarrassing photos of people when they are asleep. It is possible that Mullin just doesn't like the job, in the same way that Sen. John Fetterman (D?-PA), who is also a poor fit for the culture of the Senate—albeit in different ways—also doesn't like the job. In any event, "ill-informed," "boorish," "disrespectful of other people's boundaries" and "100% MAGA" mean that Mullin is ideally suited to lead DHS in a Trump administration. He still has to be confirmed by the Senate, of course, but they rarely give the thumbs down to one of their own.
In contrast to his first presidential term, Trump has been notably—and, by all accounts, consciously—reluctant to fire his Cabinet members and to "give Democrats a scalp" (his words, reportedly). But it has also been reported that once the administration had passed the 1-year mark, all bets were off. Well, it has, and now the first head has rolled. Will others soon follow? There is certainly no shortage of candidates, even if the only excludable offense in this administration is "You made the president look bad." (Z)