Some obvious questions come to mind in considering Gov. Kristi Noem’s selection to lead the Department of Homeland Security in Donald Trump’s next administration.
Will the ghost of Cricket — the 14-month old German wirehaired pointer Noem shot and killed in an apparent fit of anger over the dog’s behavior — haunt her confirmation process? And will the hapless goat she blasted on the same day she executed Cricket bleat its way into the discussion?
Will Noem’s nomination be troubled by her questionable leadership during flooding last spring at McCook Lake in southeast South Dakota? The Federal Emergency Management Agency is part of Homeland Security, after all. And during the emergency at McCook Lake, Noem managed things by hustling back and forth between South Dakota and national political events in other states.
When faced with challenges in the nomination process, will Noem show the resiliency and stubbornness and message discipline that have marked her political career and left her with a perfect record of campaign wins?
How much will she benefit from the uproar over some of Trump’s more outrageous nominees? She won’t have the benefit of any Matt Gaetz nomination theater. The right-wing flame-thrower with the tabloid-worthy personal life withdrew from attorney general consideration when it became obvious he’d never get Senate approval.
But Noem will still get cover from other controversial Trump nominees, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department and former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump Republican Tulsi Gabbard, who sometimes seems a bit too fond of America’s enemies, as director of national intelligence. Then for Health and Human Services there will be the nomination gift likely to keep on giving: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the man who made the brain worm famous.
Kristi Noem is free of brain parasites, as far as we know. And while she has admitted to shooting a dog and a goat, there is no indication she has dumped any road-kill carcasses in city parks or chain-sawed any large marine animals.
And speaking of large animals, presuming she is confirmed, how long will it be before we see video of Noem on horseback riding along the southern border with border patrol agents? And will she be packing a gun?
As someone wrote on social media when word spread of Noem’s coming nomination: “She’s got a horse and a gun. What more does she need?”
A lot more, of course. But she does have a horse and a gun. Or several guns. She also has what seems to be the enduring affection of Donald Trump, which she has curried unremittingly in recent years. And Trump’s affection can take you far in politics and government these days.
How far could it take Noem? Well, probably to confirmation as Homeland Security secretary, which her home-state colleague and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader John Thune is likely to deliver. And my guess is Noem still has thoughts about a run for the White House herself.
Self delusion? Could be. But many of us thought Donald Trump was delusional in 2015 when he rode down the golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his run for president.
Many of us were ourselves delusional in believing he couldn’t win in 2016. And we were even more delusional when we thought denying the results of the 2020 election, conspiring to overturn it and inspiring an attack on the U.S. Capitol might disqualify Trump from ever serving again.
Compared to all of that, Kristi Noem for Homeland Security doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Her out-of-state distractions, love affair with conservative media and focus on grander political desires haven’t necessarily served South Dakota well the last few years. But she’s not without qualifications.
A former two-term state legislator and four-term member of the U.S. House, Noem seemed to be on a reasonably conservative road to some House leadership spot when she decided to run for governor. After making history as South Dakota’s first female governor, she is halfway through her second term and seems to be on her way to a cabinet-level position that she claims was the one she really wanted.
Who knows? Maybe that’s true. In the last couple of years she has seemed obsessed with what she relentlessly called the “war zone” at the southern border, and she expressed it in Trump-like rhetoric that the supreme leader of her party surely loved and encouraged.
She went to the border. She flew above it in a helicopter. She rode on it in an air boat. She sent Army National Guard soldiers multiple times there to assist in security and border-wall work. And wearing jeans, boots, a work shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a hard hat, she helped Guard members erect some barrier sections herself.
Could she have done all of that with the Homeland Security job in mind? Could she have been that crafty and strategic, possibly with guidance from advisers like Corey Lewandowski? Could she have even made her designs on the Homeland Security job clear to Trump months ago, and reached some quiet understanding?
Or was it just a happy coincidence for Noem that all of that posturing and hyperbolic rhetoric about the border put her in the perfect position for what now seems to be her dream job — as opposed, it seems, to the one South Dakota voters gave her.
When it comes to politics, I never sell Noem short. As for running a 260,000-employee, multi-agency department with a mind-numbing assortment of challenges and life-and-death security duties? Well, I’m not sure about that.
But I am pretty sure that if she gets confirmed, we’ll see her in a video clip on horseback along the southern border by summer.
