Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is being blasted online for posing while pointing her rifle at an officer’s face in a new social media video.
In a 20-second video posted to X on Tuesday, Noem, who once boasted about killing her dog, stands between two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as she wields a gun. Social media users flooded the comments section of her clip to warn about the dangers of holding her weapon in that way.
“Here we are with Marco and Brian today. They’re letting me roll with them. We’re going to go out and pick up somebody who I think got charges of human trafficking,” she says in the video. “We earlier had an op that swept up somebody that was wanted for murder. So appreciate the good work that they do every day, and we appreciate them working to make America safe.”
Sporting an ICE-emblazoned vest, dark cargo pants, and a cap, Noem spoke to the camera as the two officers looked on stoically — but X users feared for the safety of one of them.
“Please be careful with that gun,” Andy Cohen wrote.
Alex Horton, a military reporter for the Washington Post, commented: “Noem is pointing the M4 muzzle at an agent with an open dust cover, indicating a chambered round. It's the worst possible place to point it. No one stopped her, including the agent to her left, who should know better but also has bad muzzle discipline.”
“I hope that is just an unloaded prop. You should not be holding that weapon like that,” one user remarked.
“Dude wtf!!! Get your gun pointed away from his head!!!!!!!!” another commented.
One user even took a screenshot and drew in an arrow from the muzzle of her gun to the officer’s ear.
Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich went in a different direction, seemingly referring to her past claim of shooting her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer: “Kristi Noem preparing to break down the door of your local pet shelter.”
Another X user followed suit, writing: “Kristi Noem got the dude on the right confused with a puppy.”
Fellow Democrat at Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego walked through what Noem should be doing differently in four steps, starting with telling her to close the ejection port and ending with: “Stop deporting people without due process.”
The Trump administration has been scrutinized for its handling of recent deportations involving students and alleged gang members.
In one case, government lawyers admitted a Maryland man was “mistakenly” sent to an El Salvador prison. After a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return him to the United States before midnight on Monday, Trump appealed to the Supreme Court hours before the deadline. The Supreme Court temporarily paused the federal judge’s order.
“This is just a temporary administrative stay, we have full confidence that the Supreme Court will resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” the man’s lawyer previously told The Independent.
Trump’s request to the nation’s highest court comes after an appeals court ruled that the government “has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process.”
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