Report: President-Elect Trump to Choose Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary

Reports say that President-elect Donald Trump is set to nominate South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

As the New York Post reports, two anonymous sources first made the claims to CNN, with no official announcement as of yet having been made.

The 52-year-old Noem is currently serving her second term as governor following her re-election in 2022. As head of DHS, she would oversee multiple agencies, including the immigration-focused agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Border Patrol, as well as the Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among others.

Noem first rose to political prominence for her speech ahead of President Trump’s Independence Day rally in front of Mount Rushmore on July 4th, 2020. She was briefly considered a top candidate for his running mate in the 2024 election, until she was met with universal backlash for a scandal in which she admitted to killing her pet dog many years ago. She told the story in her autobiography “No Going Back,” trying to justify the action by saying that the 14-month-old puppy, Cricket, was “untrainable” for hunting purposes.

President-elect Trump has also announced that former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan will serve in the unique role of “Border Czar,” charged with overseeing mass deportation operations in a second term. This position does not require confirmation by the Senate, and although Homan will presumably work with DHS Secretary Noem, he will answer directly to the president rather than the secretary.

Noem would be the latest in a series of high-profile Cabinet and personnel announcements that have either been officially made or leaked to the press in the week since the election. President-elect Trump first announced his co-campaign manager Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff, the first woman to ever hold the position. He also announced Stephen Miller, a former Senior Advisor from the first term, as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.

Other positions that have been announced or leaked include Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for Ambassador to the United Nations, former Congressman Lee Zeldin for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Congressman Michael Waltz as National Security Adviser, and Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.