President Trump fires Kristi Noem as DHS secretary

US President Donald Trump has fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and announced he would nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats.

Trump said Noem had “served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results,” and would instead be made a special envoy for the “The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.

“Thank you @POTUS Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” Noem wrote on X. “@SecRubio and @SecWar are incredible leaders, and I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren.”

Noem is the first cabinet secretary to leave the Trump administration in the second term. The announcement comes after Noem spent two days being grilled by lawmakers in Congress over her leadership.

She faced rare but blistering criticism from Republican lawmakers. One particular point of scrutiny was a $220 million ad campaign featuring Noem that encouraged people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.

Noem told lawmakers that Trump was aware of the campaign in advance, but Trump disputed that in an interview Thursday with Reuters, saying he did not sign off on the ad campaign.