Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has earned a reputation as a coquette for her unusual publicity stunts involving dolling up and posing in front of immigration detainees. Now, even the White House can’t help laughing.
“ICE Barbie,” as she’s come to be known, has become a source of amusement inside the White House, where officials have been “mockingly” circulating clips of her TV appearances, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It’s easy to see why.
Dolled up in full glam, Noem has rotated through an array of outfits—military fatigues, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jackets, and cowboy hats for horseback rides with ICE agents—for stunts that include posing for pics in the cockpit of a Coast Guard plane and for ATV rides in the Arizona desert. She even filmed a propaganda video at a mega prison in El Salvador wearing a $60,000 watch and pointed a gun at an ICE officer’s head in a clip posted to X, prompting backlash and concern.
Even Fox News thinks she might be going too far. Host Jesse Watters pointed out that critics said Noem looked “too glamorous” for wandering through a mega prison and that she “shouldn’t be all tacked-out posing for cameras.”
It’s not just critics outside the agency questioning her flashy publicity stunts. An earlier WSJ report suggested Noem’s camera-ready antics are frustrating her own colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security, who are concerned she’s acting more like a chief spokesperson than a director.
In one case, Noem posted about an ICE raid in New York City while it was still ongoing, people familiar with the operation told the WSJ.
Others say she’s spending more time taking part in these stunts than at the office, leaving many at the agency irritated.
But Rep. Michael Guest (R., Miss.) came to her defense, praising her for being “out in the field.”
“She’s with the men and women that are serving, she’s been down at the border, she’s been to El Salvador,” the lawmaker said, according to WSJ. “I think we need more people willing to get out of their office, get out from behind their desks, get in the field to see the men and women that are working there and be able to see their needs firsthand.”
Noem has said the DHS is “proud of the fact that I’m willing to wear an ICE hat, that I’m willing to wear an HSI vest, that I’m willing to go into there and wear something and be proud of them and the work that they do.”
“They didn’t have that with the last leadership team,” she told Fox News last week.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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