Donald Trump is set to announce South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in his second administration, according to reports.
As the president-elect continues to shape his future cabinet, two sources told CNN on Monday evening that the 52-year-old one-time vice presidential hopeful has been tapped to head up the agency as part of Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
As part of the role, Noem will oversee a $60bn budget and thousands of employees from federal agencies ranging from the US Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the US Secret Service.
The report follows Trump’s rehiring of Tom Homan, the former acting director of ICE, as the president-elect’s “border czar”. Trump has also announced the appointment of immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as his incoming White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
Noem, a staunch Trump supporter and proponent of strict immigration policies, had once been a top contender to become the Republican presidential candidate’s running mate.
But the South Dakota lawmaker appeared to fall down the pecking order in April after she admitted to shooting dead her young “untrainable” and “dangerous” dog, Cricket, in her memoir titled Not Going Back.
A similar fate was set for a nameless “problem” goat, whom Noem wrote she dragged to the same gravel pit and killed the farm animal.
In May, Trump defended Noem as “loyal” and “great,” before adding that he was “really curious” about what happened to Cricket.
Noem had sat in the lower chamber of the House between 2007 and 2019, first as a representative for South Dakota’s sixth district before representing the at-large congressional district from 2011.
Trump endorsed Noem in the 2018 gubernatorial election, which saw her become the Mount Rushmore State’s first female governor in January 2019.
Upon her landslide re-election victory in 2022, the governor flipped 17 counties and set the record for the most votes received as a candidate in the state.
The longtime Republican went on to garner national attention during the Covid-19 pandemic as she refused to enforce statewide mask mandates.
Noem also hit headlines when she was “banished” from the land belonging to South Dakota’s largest tribe, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, with its leader claiming the governor was politicizing the border to influence Trump’s presidential campaign and boost her chances of becoming his running mate.
This came after Noem deployed the South Dakota National Guard to Texas to provide assistance at the southern border in January, declaring the US “is in a time of invasion.”
Noem’s purported appointment comes as Trump continues to fill the top ranks in his incoming administration with immigration hardliners after clinching re-election in the 2024 presidential race last week.
The Republican candidate surpassed the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes early on Wednesday after winning several swing states. Trump went on to win all seven battleground states.
Trump has so far also picked former New York Representative Lee Zeldin to take charge of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, in what is expected to see a thorough reshuffle.
Susie Wiles, who was co-chair of the Trump campaign and earned the sobriquet the “Ice Maiden”, has been appointed as incoming White House chief of staff.
On Sunday evening, the president-elect confirmed New York Representative Elise Stefanik as the incoming US ambassador to the United Nations, branding her as “strong, tough, and smart America First fighter.”
Marco Rubio has also been picked for Secretary of State, sources told CBS, with a flurry of GOP members of congress already congratulating the Florida senator.
Meanwhile, Florida Representative Michael Waltz, who was re-elected to the House’s lower chamber last week, is tipped to serve as national security adviser.
The Independent has contacted the representatives of both Trump and Noem for more information.
