Noem Performs On Stage Minutes After Being Fired

This is your TPM evening briefing.

Mar 05, 2026

*Now-fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. TPM illustration/Getty Images/Truth Social*

While social media was lighting up with reactions to President Trump’s Truth Social firing of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, she was on stage speaking to local law enforcement.

She did not mention her firing, and some wondered if she was even aware of it; Fox News later reported that Trump had called her shortly before making his post announcing she was being replaced.

Standing before a wall of flags at the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Noem fielded questions and/or obsequious flattery from assembled officials.

At one point, she mentioned an upcoming event appearance she has with Trump; it’s unclear whether she will attend as DHS secretary or in her new, fantastical sounding role: Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas. Trump said he’d swap in Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) “effective March 31, 2026.” It’s unclear how that’ll work, too, since DHS secretary is subject to Senate confirmation.

“We’ll have a big agreement that I’ll be there with him on Saturday with the Department of War and the Department of State on how we’re going to go at the drug cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere,” she said on stage.

She posed for a photo after a standing ovation, cheerily waving at the crowd as she exited stage right — on her way to her new job demotion.

Trump has been facing pressure to fire Noem for months, but it was her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that reportedly sealed Noem’s fate. Not because she dodged questions about sending ICE to polling places in the fall nor because she didn’t say anything as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) compared her DHS leadership to the time she killed her own dog with a gun. Trump was reportedly incensed that she threw him under the bus when Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked her if Trump had signed off on “spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.”

So upset, in fact, that he spoke to Reuters on the phone to set the record straight:

“I never knew anything about it,” the Republican president told Reuters in a phone interview.

This all comes against the backdrop of new reporting from NBC News today, revealing that Noem handpicked the contractors for a $100 million ad campaign to recruit more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a process that usually involves multiple bidders and is typically handled by other officials, not department heads.

But in return, Noem successfully fashioned herself as the face of the most unpopular and dystopian moments of Trump’s second term. Maybe the horseback rides across Mount Rushmore were worth it.

— Nicole LaFond and Kate Riga

Noem Firing Doesn’t Move Dems

Noem’s firing won’t have any impact on congressional Democrats’ protest of a DHS funding bill. Republican efforts to try to bully Democrats into funding the department now that Trump has launched a war in Iran — or at least make them look bad about it — failed this week, when measures to fund DHS failed in the House and the Senate. Democratic leadership confirmed as much, as well.

“A change in personnel is not sufficient, we need a change in policy,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said at a press conference Thursday.

“The problems at this agency transcend any one person. The rot is deep. The president has to end the violence and rein in ICE,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.

— Nicole LaFond

Trump Is Not Happy With Paxton

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hinted in a Twitter post on Thursday that he might not drop out, even if Trump endorsed Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a clear rebuke of President Trump who just announced that he would endorse someone in the primary race soon and warned whoever he doesn’t pick that they better drop out.

“Well, that’s bad for him to say,” Trump told Politico this morning when they informed him that Paxton wouldn’t commit to dropping out. “That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction.”

In a post around noon on X, Paxton then said he would only “consider” dropping out if Republican leadership in the Senate changed the filibuster rules so that it can pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping voter suppression bill that cleared the House last month. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has repeatedly said that there’s no appetite for such a maneuver in the Senate even though Trump really wants them to go nuclear and force Democrats to engage in a talking filibuster to block it. Thune has also been lobbying Trump to endorse Cornyn, so Paxton has some loaded beef with the guy.

“I would consider dropping out of this race if Senate Leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and passes the SAVE America Act,” Paxton wrote.

“The truth is clear: No one has been more loyal to Donald Trump than me — fighting the stolen 2020 election, being in Mar-a-Lago when he announced his 2024 campaign, and standing with him in NY in the face of lawfare,” he continued. “For the good of our country and for the good of passing President Trump’s agenda, I am determined to help him get this done.”

The social media post was obviously designed to remind Trump of Paxton’s fealty but also to remind Trump that he is mad at Thune about the filibuster. It may backfire.

— Nicole LaFond