In his second term, President Trump has been extremely reluctant to fire or even publicly rebuke his aides. So it was no small thing on Monday when he unmistakably gave Kristi Noem, his homeland security secretary, a serious knuckle rapping.
Facing an intense and increasingly bipartisan fusillade of criticism over the killing of a protester in Minneapolis and how Ms. Noem and other officials sought to portray the victim as a “domestic terrorist,” Mr. Trump removed the official running the deportation campaign in Minnesota and replaced him with an aide reporting directly to him, effectively cutting Ms. Noem out of the chain of command.
When asked later about Ms. Noem’s characterization of the victim, Alex Pretti, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, declined to defend it, distinctly distancing Mr. Trump from her remarks.
Mr. Trump’s apparent displeasure with the handling of the situation in Minnesota was quickly mirrored in conservative media. A New York Post front page called Ms. Noem “Iced Barbie.” On Fox News, a morning host argued that she should be replaced.
But her time in Mr. Trump’s penalty box was measured in hours. By Monday night, she was in the Oval Office, meeting with Mr. Trump. By Tuesday the president was telling reporters that her job was safe and that the media should focus more on her role in shutting down illegal immigration into the country, not the chaotic scenes coming out of Minnesota in which agents who report to her have twice shot and killed American citizens protesting their presence.
“I think she’s doing a very good job,” Mr. Trump said. “The border is totally secure.”
Still, the episode was the latest in a year in which her high-profile efforts on behalf of Mr. Trump’s aggressive drive to shut off illegal immigration and deport millions of people have drawn intense criticism and caused heartburn for the White House.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican retiring at the end of his term, told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday that Ms. Noem’s actions had been “amateurish” and that she should be fired.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Mr. Tillis said.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
She has frustrated Mr. Trump with some of the department’s tactics, like work-site raids that harmed businesses, including one on a Hyundai factory, according to people familiar with the matter. She has angered Republican senators with her handling of grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And her propensity for flashy, self-promotional displays has generated some backlash among the rank and file of her agency.
Some members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement disliked what they perceived as Ms. Noem’s theatricality, according to three former agency officials who were granted anonymity to speak frankly.
They objected to photo ops that showed her in field gear accompanying agents on immigration operations, accusing her of cosplaying, such as an episode in Phoenix in which her bulletproof vest appeared to be improperly secured.
In one ICE field office, agents used disparaging nicknames for Ms. Noem that played on her self-promotion, such as “ICE Barbie,” one of the people said.
Some inside the agency believe that leading immigration enforcement is part of a broader effort on her part to run for president in 2028.
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And Ms. Noem’s choice of aides has drawn scrutiny, particularly her reliance on Corey Lewandowski, the onetime Trump political adviser who is a constant presence at her side and was among those in the Oval Office with her on Monday night.
Inside ICE, there have been high levels of distrust of both Mr. Lewandowski and Madison Sheahan, who was installed as deputy director last year. Ms. Sheahan was previously a political aide of Ms. Noem’s. Some officials at ICE believed that Ms. Sheahan was relaying what was happening at the agency to Mr. Lewandowski.
Beyond those concerns, there have been more practical issues. Agency officials have been frustrated with being forced to get Ms. Noem’s approval for every contract worth $100,000 or above.
At ICE, according to one official, that made it more difficult to spend the extra money received from the domestic policy bill signed into law last year by Mr. Trump, especially as the White House presses for huge expansions of detention capacity for the deportation drive.
The official said that even existing contracts had expired as they waited for approval, forcing the agency to pay late fees to companies it contracts with.
There was also frustration at the level of power she gave Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official who had been the public face of the deportation campaign in Minneapolis before being removed by Mr. Trump on Monday. Ms. Noem had installed him to run deportation operations across the country, and, according to three U.S. officials, he reported to Ms. Noem.
The decision to remove him from Minnesota, said one official, helps with returning the agency to a more normal chain of command.
Ms. Noem’s approach to the job has caused bipartisan pushback — both to her tactics on the immigration crackdown and also to her handling of the department’s intelligence analysts — who have been directed to focus more on immigration than other security issues — and the downsizing of FEMA.
After the raid on a Hyundai facility in Georgia in early September, in which agents detained hundreds of South Korean citizens on hand to help build a new battery plant, Mr. Trump told his top immigration officials to use a more targeted approach when it came to his deportation campaign, according to a senior White House official.
Mr. Trump told the officials to “focus on the criminals,” rather than to target work sites like Home Depots, restaurants, hotels and farms. Mr. Trump has told his aides they need to be conscious of the business community when it comes to their mass deportation campaign.
After the Hyundai raid, people familiar with the episode said, he told a group of senior officials, including Ms. Noem, to “use your heads.”
Ms. Noem’s push to downsize FEMA has also raised alarm among leaders of disaster-prone communities, including Republicans, about the nation’s readiness for emergencies.
Ms. Noem has said cuts to FEMA’s staffing and spending are needed to make the agency less bloated and Washington-centric, and to allow states and communities to lead disaster response, but she has faced blowback for the impacts those changes may have on communities.
North Carolina’s Republican senators repeatedly held up votes on homeland security nominees in the fall until FEMA approved delayed aid for parts of western North Carolina still recovering from Hurricane Helene in 2024.
Other Republican senators were among a group of lawmakers that gathered privately with FEMA veterans this month to raise questions about the ways a FEMA overhaul could affect their constituents.
Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said on Monday that he had appealed both to FEMA and to Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, about delays in disaster recovery funds to his home state.
Ms. Noem’s partisanship has prompted pushback on Capitol Hill from Democrats, more than 160 of whom have signed on to an effort to impeach Ms. Noem. The articles of impeachment, filed by Representative Robin Kelly of Illinois, accuse her of obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust and self-dealing.
The impeachment push will go nowhere while Republicans control the House. But House Democratic leaders said they would keep up the pressure if Mr. Trump refused to fire her.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California.
Erica L. Green, Catie Edmondson, Nicholas Nehamas and Scott Dance contributed reporting.
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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