Kristi Noem’s steady stream of publicity stunts has been a drag on her agency’s immigration enforcement efforts, according to a new report.
President Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security has gone horseback riding with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, joined the Coast Guard for boat and helicopter patrols, ridden an ATV through the Arizona desert, and traveled to El Salvador to film a propaganda video at a notorious torture prison.
During the ride alongs she has appeared in full glam—including hair, makeup, and false eyelashes—and has donned military fatigues, ICE jackets, cowboy hats, bulletproof vests, and firefighting gear. In one of them, she has pointed a gun at an ICE agent’s head.
The photo-ops have put her at odds with DHS employees, who say she’s acting more like a chief spokesperson than a director guiding agency operations, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.
The agency has allocated $200 million for an ad that features her standing in front of inmates at El Salvador’s nightmare CECOT prison warning migrants—in English—they would be sent there if they tried to enter the U.S.
Framed photos have been put up in different offices around the department showing Noem on horseback and riding an ATV, according to the Journal.
The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS for comment.
Noem has defended the stunts as valuable to employee morale.
“I will tell you that I oversee 26 different components of the Department of Homeland Security, and they are so proud of the fact that I’m willing to wear an ICE hat, that I’m willing to wear an HSI vest, that I’m willing to go into there and wear something and be proud of them and the work that they do. They didn’t have that with the last leadership team,” she told Fox News last week.
Thanks to her travel schedule, she spends just a few hours each week at DHS’s main campus in Washington, D.C., irritating many at the department, sources told the paper. Meanwhile, Noem has become distrustful of agency staff and has begun administering polygraph tests to people she suspects of leaking information.
The ICE cosplaying has also interfered with operations, according to her critics. In January, Noem accompanied ICE on a predawn raid in New York City—and posted about it on X while it was still ongoing.
The post hurt the element of surprise and led to fewer arrests than officials had hoped for, according to the Journal. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the paper the raid was almost over when Noem’s post went live.
Noem also reportedly has a tense relationship with other members of the Trump administration whose roles overlap with hers. Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has been charged with overseeing the White House’s promised mass deportation campaign, while deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has been put in charge of immigration policy.
Homan in particular has appeared on TV saying he’s personally in charge of directing deportation operations, which has annoyed Noem, the Journal reported.
“Secretary Noem, Stephen Miller, and Border Czar Homan are working hand-in-glove to achieve the most secure border in American history,” McLaughlin told the paper.
But privately, Trump is frustrated the deportations aren’t moving faster. His advisers think it’s only a matter of time before someone has to take the blame—and nobody wants the failure pinned on them.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the fixed-wing aircraft on which Noem was photographed holding the controls as a helicopter.
