President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to four sources familiar with the decision.
As Secretary of Homeland Security, Noem would oversee a number of key federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Secret Service, TSA and the Coast Guard.
Noem has been told by Trump that she is his choice for DHS secretary, according to two sources familiar with the decision.
Noem, 52, Noem has no significant experience on homeland security issues but has expressed support for the president-elect’s hardline immigration policies. She has defended her fellow Republican governors in their efforts to crack down on migrants in their states.
In January, for example, she said in remarks that there had been an “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border and that her administration was considering helping Texas deter immigration at its southern border by sending security personnel and razor wire into the state. In response to her comments, members of the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota excluded her from their reservation.
Noem has criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the border, echoing Trump’s arguments that violent criminals are pouring into the country.
“He’s ignoring federal law and allowing people who are incredibly dangerous into this country,” she said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in June. “And this week, I think there were four different people who were attacked, raped or murdered by illegal immigrants who came across our open border. And that can’t keep happening.”
When asked in the same interview about Trump’s possible plans to pardon the January 6 rioters who were convicted, she dodged the question and said that would be his prerogative.
“I believe that when Donald Trump returns to the White House and is in charge of this country, we will have incredible opportunities to show that the people of this country will be safer, that we will have law and order. back on our streets,” she said. “If you look at some of the most violent areas of our country, they are often Democratic-run cities, sanctuary cities with an open border.”
Noem was seen as a possible vice presidential running mate for Trump this cycle, but she was haunted by her admission in her book published in the spring that she once shot and killed her dog.
“I would say this was a story from 20 years ago, where I protected my children from a vicious animal,” she said on “Meet the Press.” “So we discussed that, and any mother in situations where you have an animal that is viciously killing livestock and attacking people, it’s a difficult decision.”
Noem has been governor of South Dakota since 2019 and previously served in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019 and in the State House from 2007 to 2011.
Like Trump’s other allies, Noem had expressed support for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. In separate interviews on CNN in April and May of this year, she would not say whether she would have certified that election and declined to say whether then-Vice President Mike Pence acted appropriately in certifying Biden’s victory.
Noem is the latest in a series of choices Trump has made to join his second administration.
Trump has so far announced Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.; Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff; former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., as EPA administrator; and Tom Homan as “border czar,” a role that Trump says will oversee all of the administration’s deportation efforts.
Homan, who served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration, is a proponent of tough immigration policies and has pledged to carry out mass deportations, a key Trump campaign promise. Two people familiar with Trump’s decision said Homan was not vying for the post of Homeland Security secretary.
Trump is also expected to appoint Stephen Miller, another immigration hardliner, as White House deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller was a senior White House adviser during Trump’s first term, where he helped plan two of the administration’s most controversial policies: family separations and the so-called “Muslim ban.”
NBC News has reported that Trump has also selected Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., as national security adviser; and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as secretary of state.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
