Trump Makes a Surprising Choice for His Homeland Security Secretary

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President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his next secretary of homeland security, according to two sources familiar with the decision who spoke to CNN.

“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,” CNN reports.

CNN then lamented that by selecting Noem, Trump is “ensuring a loyalist will head an agency he prioritizes and that is key to his domestic agenda.”

As if none of his predecessors have ever chosen people who wouldn’t undermine their agendas.

That wasn’t CNN’s only attempt to cast Trump’s pick in a negative light. The report went on to highlight the “immense amount of turmoil” within the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s previous term. At that time, DHS cycled through five different leaders, with only two confirmed by the Senate. The agency, which oversees a $60 billion budget and employs hundreds of thousands, was portrayed as struggling with instability during Trump’s tenure.

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.

Noem, once a rising star in the Republican Party and considered a potential running mate for Donald Trump, faced a wave of backlash following the release of her memoir, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” earlier this year. In the book, she recounted an incident in which she killed her dog, Cricket — not out of compassion to end an aging pet’s suffering, but due to Cricket’s unruly behavior during a pheasant hunting trip and a pattern of aggression toward people and other animals. Noem described Cricket as “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and even admitted, “I hated that dog.”

“At that moment,” Noem wrote, “I realized I had to put her down.”

In the memoir, Noem described taking Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her, a story intended to showcase her decisiveness in tackling tough situations. However, the account fell flat, casting her in a negative light instead. You don’t need to be a dog owner to see that this was hardly the kind of story likely to resonate positively.

The one redeeming factor in Noem’s story is that she was upfront about it — unlike Joe Biden, whose dogs have also been a source of controversy. Biden’s German Shepherd, Major, quickly became a problem upon entering the White House, reportedly biting multiple Secret Service agents before being quietly rehomed with a “family friend.” Soon after, the Bidens replaced him with a new German Shepherd puppy, Commander, signaling their pets were little more than media-friendly props, easily swapped out.

Even with all the resources at Biden’s disposal, Commander, too, began biting people and was eventually removed from the White House. The official excuse was the “high-stress environment,” an unconvincing claim considering past White House dogs under the Obamas, Bushes, and Clintons had no such issues. The Biden White House went to extraordinary lengths to cover up the incidents. Yet when the details of the cover-up were exposed, the media barely raised an eyebrow, even when a Freedom of Information Act suit against the Secret Service revealed reports of Biden mistreating his dogs, allegedly punching and kicking them.