In a March 5 post on Truth Social, President Trump announced the decision to replace Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). Trump announced that Noem will now serve as the “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” the anti-China initiative which is attempting to establish control over all of the Western hemisphere, forcing out any governments deemed to be “friendly” toward China. These changes will take effect on March 31.
Noem made herself the face of the increasingly unpopular immigration crackdown and the dismantling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Trump had become increasingly frustrated with her, but there is speculation that the final straw was her combative testimony on March 3 at the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she had trouble defending having spent $200 million on an ad campaign that seemed more like a self-promotion publicity stunt. In her House Judiciary Committee testimony on March 4, Noem contradicted her Senate testimony and admitted that some of the funding for these ads did not go through the traditional bidding process. Some of these no-bid contracts went to a subcontractor tied to her outgoing spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin.
