CNN: Trump Picks Noem for Homeland Security Secretary

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Get ready for a lot of dog jokes over the next few weeks. At one point, Kristi Noem looked like a solid choice for Donald Trump’s running mate, until the South Dakota governor decided to — what’s the best word? — overshare in her most recent memoir. Our late, great Jazz Shaw wrote at the time that killing a family dog because it wouldn’t hunt properly, rather than rehoming it, would end Noem’s electoral career. 

Maybe it has, but it hasn’t stopped Noem yet. According to CNN, Trump has picked Noem to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security, home of the biggest domestic crisis Trump faces:

Noem will be tapped to take over the agency as two key immigration hardliners — Stephen Miller and Tom Homan — are slated to serve in senior roles, signaling Trump is serious about his promise to crack down on his immigration pledges. With his selection of Noem, Trump is ensuring a loyalist will head an agency he prioritizes and that is key to his domestic agenda.

The department saw an immense amount of turmoil the last time Trump was in office. Then, DHS had five different leaders, only two of whom were Senate-confirmed. The agency has a $60 billion budget and hundreds of thousands of employees.

Noem, who previously was a South Dakota representative, will now be tasked with overseeing a sprawling agency that oversees everything from US Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US Secret Service.

Will this dog hunt? (I couldn’t help myself …) Probably, or at least it should. This isn’t an election, and Noem won’t have to deal with voter anger over Cricket. This is about ending an ongoing crisis of competence at DHS that includes not just the Biden border crisis but serial failures in the Secret Service. Given Trump’s victimization in the latter, the Senate should and likely will give him wide latitude to appoint whomever he thinks will best address the humiliating failures at DHS.

Besides, there’s nothing particularly unusual in this appointment. Trump’s choosing to put a successful governor at the head of one of the most complicated Cabinet orgs we have. Noem may not have great memoirist judgment, but she has succeeded in running South Dakota through two terms, including what ended up being wise leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic. She didn’t panic, she remained skeptical of “scientific” claims that proved to be based on nothing but hunches, and South Dakota largely avoided the social and economic storms over the past four years as a result. Jazz at the time credited Noem for her successes, too. 

Also, given the incompetence displayed at DHS over the last few years, the smart choice is to bring in an outsider with a track record of executive excellence. Several people could have filled that role, but Noem certainly fits that profile. Trump wants to “drain the swamp” and still have enough talent and skill in the organization to fulfill its missions, at least as DHS is currently constituted. That means bringing someone in who won’t hesitate to take appointees and careerists to the gravel pit. Figuratively speaking, of course. 

That does raise the question of whether DHS should remain constituted at all. We have had an 18-year experiment with this organizational monstrosity, and little of it has been successful. The border is worse than ever, Secret Service deteriorated when it got shoved into DHS, and the Transportation Security Agency is still TSA. Would Noem be the right person to oversee the dismantling of DHS and the return of its constituent missions to more efficient agencies? Noem has the temperament to address those issues, but much of that depends on Trump and the Senate. 

Finally, the crises at Homeland Security played a large part in getting Trump elected, and those crises certainly what animated him and his campaign, not to mention the voters. It makes sense to choose someone he trusts to take charge of the reform, renovation, or outright deconstruction necessary to get those resolved. Noem may not be the most popular politician after her weird memoir reveal, but she fits the bill otherwise, and the DHS wars won’t be a popularity contest anyway. The bureaucrats and Democrats will fight the necessary DHS reforms every step of the way, and that will require a Secretary who will fight rather than appease. Noem fits that bill, too.

As a matter of taste, as well as politics, one has to wonder whether Trump might have looked around more for someone less self-damaged politically who could fit those bills. Perhaps, but Trump won’t have to run for office again and he has plenty of political capital to spend at the moment. It’s a bold choice … and we’ll see if it pays off.