White House insiders say they have “always” wanted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fired—but Donald Trump keeps protecting her, according to a new report.
Noem, 54, has become unpopular with colleagues and been given the nickname “ICE Barbie” for her habit of strapping on body armor to join immigration agents on raids—a photo-op instinct that critics say prioritizes optics over competence.
The South Dakota Republican’s 13-month tenure at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has lurched from one controversy to the next. They began even before she was nominated for the role, with her admission that she shot dead her own puppy, and culminated in widespread scandal after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, which prompted Republican senators to demand her resignation and Trump to ignore her in a January Cabinet meeting.
The soap opera around Noem’s rumored affair with senior aide Corey Lewandowski, 52, which Trump is believed to view unfavorably, is the latest pressure point amid calls for her to go.
According to Semafor, a White House source says Noem now sits at the top of an informal kill list of Cabinet officials that aides most want to jettison before the November midterms, as they warn that if Senate “margins go down even more,” the president may “have a very difficult time confirming” who he wants in their place.
“The president’s instincts here are probably not to, but we’ve always wanted Kristi to go,“ the source reportedly told the outlet.
Noem is not the only Cabinet member facing internal pressure. The Semafor report also named scandal-hit Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer as a candidate for removal.
FBI Director Kash Patel has drawn scrutiny for his taxpayer-funded trip to Italy, where he was spotted chugging beer with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team in their locker room, among other crime-fighting flubs that have earned him the nickname Keystone Kash.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has stumbled over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s future at the Energy Department has also been the subject of speculation—though Trump is said to have urged him to stay and given him expanded responsibilities, Semafor says.
But for the GOP, Noem is the name that keeps coming up. Sen. Thom Tillis, 64, one of the two Senate Republicans to publicly demand her resignation in the wake of the Minneapolis killings, told Semafor that Trump should “look at public opinion and drive your priorities based on the people who have screwed up most, causing that erosion of public support.” His verdict was unsparing: “Top on the list is Kristi Noem.”
Noem’s future has been a running saga on the pages of the Daily Beast. When Noem blamed White House aide Stephen Miller for the catastrophic public messaging around Alex Pretti’s Jan. 24 killing—in which she initially called the VA nurse a domestic terrorist—the Beast reported a senior administration official asking pointedly: “Does Kristi really want to go to war with Stephen?”
That debacle sent Noem’s odds of being the first Cabinet departure into the stratosphere—prediction market Polymarket listed her at a 56 percent chance of leaving the administration by year’s end, ahead of Bondi and Chavez-DeRemer.
Trump’s decision to hand control of the Minneapolis operation to border czar Tom Homan, sidelining both Noem and the now-departed Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, 55, did little to quiet the speculation. “Homan taking control is a disaster for Noem,” a DHS official told the Beast at the time.
More recently, the Beast reported that Noem has been privately exploring whether to use the swelling impeachment pressure—120 House Democrats have co-sponsored a resolution to remove her—as cover to exit the Cabinet and mount a primary challenge against Sen. Mike Rounds in South Dakota.
Sources familiar with the situation told The Atlantic they were skeptical she would follow through, and an adviser dismissed the idea. But the mere fact that such an escape route is being mapped underscores just how dramatically her position has weakened since Trump installed her at DHS in January 2025.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito predicted that any changes would wait until after the midterms. “I just don’t think he’s going to do that before the election,” she told Semafor. “I just think it’s perceived as too disruptive.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told the outlet he would welcome clarity on which officials Republicans will be working alongside heading into the campaign season, though he deferred to the president on personnel. “Those guys all serve at the pleasure of the president,” he said.
Some Republicans are simply hoping for a decision—any decision—and soon. “Folks are going to want to know that the team’s going to stay together through the election,” Sen. John Hoeven told Semafor. “You don’t want to be trying to hire people to train them in, going into an election.”
Trump’s reluctance to shake up his Cabinet marks a break from his first term, which was defined by relentless personnel turbulence. Tom Price became the first to go, departing as HHS secretary less than nine months after taking office.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and the White House for comment.
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