A former administration official says it is clear what finally got ICE Barbie Kristi Noem canned.
Noem’s disastrous testimony in front of lawmakers this week, during which she falsely claimed her $220 million self-serving advertising campaign was greenlit by Donald Trump, was the final straw for the president, says former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino.
“You serve at the pleasure of the president, folks; it’s his Cabinet,” Bongino said on his show Friday. “If he feels like something’s become a distraction to him, and clearly he didn’t like how the hearing went, then he’s going to move on.”
Bongino, who left the FBI in January, went on to praise Noem’s supposed achievements at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security, but still conceded it was “pretty clear there were some issues” with her leadership.
Noem, 54, was a negative headline machine for Trump. He stood behind her amid rumors of an affair between her and the department’s top adviser, through her lie-filled spin to justify the killing of American citizens by federal agents in Minnesota, and the repeated photo shoots that earned her the nickname “ICE Barbie.”
However, her defense of a $220 million advertising campaign, featuring her on horseback in her native South Dakota, rubbed Trump the wrong way. Noem testified that the president was aware of the campaign and its hefty cost, but Trump told NBC News and Reuters that was not true.
“I wasn’t thrilled with it,” he said of her commercial. “I spent less money than that to become president. I didn’t know about it.”
Bongino said Noem will be remembered more for her successes at DHS than her scandals, but still added, “Obviously something didn’t go right.”
Also departing Homeland Security is Noem’s alleged lover, Corey Lewandowski, who was her unofficial second-in-command. Insiders said he was running much of the show, telling the New York Post he “tightly controlled department operations, building a reputation for abruptly firing staff and instilling fear among fellow Trump aides.”
DHS did not respond to a request for comment about the departures.
Noem, 54, and Lewandowski, 52, are each married with a combined seven children, but their romantic relationship has been described as one of Washington’s “worst-kept secrets.”
The Daily Beast has reported on their relationship as far back as February 2025, when Lewandowski was spotted taking out the trash in Noem’s apartment building. Attention on the pair was amplified in February when the Wall Street Journal revealed they were jetting across the country in a 737 MAX airliner with a private cabin at its rear.
Trump has privately weighed in on the sex scandal. The Post reports that he “frequently” tells a story about witnessing the pair take sips from the same can of soda—an obvious tell, at least in the eyes of the germaphobe president, that they are romantically involved.
“You can’t do that, it’s pretty obvious!” Trump is quoted as saying. “You can’t do that, everyone’s going to know!”
Trump announced Thursday that Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, of Oklahoma, is his pick to be the next DHS secretary. Bongingo said he thinks Mullin’s Senate confirmation process will be a formality.
“He’s going to have a pretty smooth sailing through the confirmation process,” Bongino said. “I, knock on wood, don’t anticipate any problems, while Democrats will try to fabricate one.”
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