by Susan Crabtree and Philip Wegmann
Unlike during his first term, President Trump has, so far, been reluctant to tell any of his aides or Cabinet members, “You’re fired!”
Trump is clearly concerned by how the Department of Homeland Security has become a lightning rod for the administration’s critics. But any high-profile dismissal would hand a political victory to Democrats – who have demanded the scalp of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem after the killing of two anti-ICE protestors in Minneapolis.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that Noem would not step down. “I think she is doing a very good job,” the president said before leaving the White House for a speech in Iowa, less than 250 miles from Minneapolis where protests continue unabated. Although once on the ground, he admitted, “I do that all the time, I shake up teams.”
It is the potential for a shakeup that has piqued the interest of at least three serious candidates to replace Noem. Former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz and former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are both believed to be open to joining the administration. Multiple sources tell RealClearPolitics that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is also a contender for the position.
A senior White House official earlier this month tried to tamp down speculation but confirmed to RCP the list of names being circulated as potential Noem replacements. “I don’t know where this is coming from,” the aide said, explaining that “the president loves Kristi and thinks she is doing a great job.” Asked if a departure would happen anytime soon, the official replied, “There is zero chance she will leave.”
Then Minnesota.
Alex Pretti, a registered nurse with a concealed carry permit, was wrestled to the ground, pepper-sprayed, and shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday while he filmed ongoing deportation operations. He was reportedly carrying a Sig Sauer P320 9mm pistol. Video of the incident shows agents seizing the holstered weapon before shots were fired.
Noem claimed at a Sunday press conference that Pretti was brandishing a weapon at the time of his death, alleging that he was engaged in “domestic terrorism” – language nearly identical to how she described Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old woman shot in her car at another ICE protest in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
In her remarks in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s shooting, Noem added, “This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work that they were doing.”
Bystander video, however, never shows Pretti reaching for his firearm even as he is tackled to the ground by Border Patrol.
Along with longtime aide Corey Lewandowski, Noem met Monday with Trump at the White House for more than two hours. The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave later Wednesday.
Reacting to those images, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has threatened to introduce articles of impeachment if Trump does not “immediately” fire Noem. More than 140 Democrats have already co-sponsored an effort in the House to remove her.
A bigger headache for Trump: the Republicans breaking ranks.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who has announced his retirement, told reporters that Noem was “amateurish” and “terrible,” adding that the ham-fisted deportation operation in Minnesota “should be disqualifying” and makes “the president look bad.” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said of the embattled DHS chief, “She should go.”
Trump bristled at the GOP criticism in an ABC News interview. “They’re terrible senators. One is gone, and the other should be gone,” the president said. “What Murkowski says – she’s always against the Republicans anyway. And Tillis decided to drop out. So, you know, he lost his voice once he did that.”
Nonetheless, floating names for positions even when those jobs are not vacant is part of the regular political churn in Washington. Momentum inside the Beltway is built through whispered conversations before direct appeals are made.
While Chaffetz, Youngkin, and Zeldin all remain in the good graces of the president, a senior Trump official told RCP that any shakeup at DHS would invite controversy, launch an unnecessary confirmation battle in the Senate, and sideline one of the most effective members of the Cabinet. Pointing to the precipitous drop in crossings at the southern border, the official said, “The results stand for themselves.”
Chaffetz has kept Trump’s attention through his perch at Fox News. Though he retired from Congress nearly a decade ago, the Utah Republican has a strong resume as the former chairman of the House Oversight Committee and maintains friendly relationships inside the administration. He did not return request for comment. But a senior Trump official did not hold back in assessing the former congressman, however, asking, “What credentials does he have to do this job?”
The same could be said for Noem herself. While a popular South Dakota governor before helming the massive Homeland Security Department, she leap-frogged over border czar Tom Homan, a career federal law enforcement official who served as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the first Trump administration and was a top border official in Barack Obama’s second term. Now, Trump has sent out Homan to clean up the mess in Minneapolis, appearing to, if not sideline Noem from ICE operations, at least put her in a temporary penalty box.
If Noem were to be eased out, Homan would be her natural replacement. A man who was awarded a prestigious public service medal by Obama, he has made no secret of his desire to focus ICE raids on illegal immigrants with criminal records. Noem and Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and a top Homeland Security adviser, have pursued a larger agenda of increasing deportations of all illegal immigrants.
Chaffetz, for his part, is intimately familiar with the problems plaguing one critical DHS agency: the Secret Service. While at the helm of the House Oversight Committee, Chaffetz held numerous hard-hitting hearings on the failures of the Secret Service. Chaffetz was also highly critical of several White House fence-jumping incidents – so much so that the fence surrounding the complex was raised.
In 2015, Chaffetz and committee staff also produced a detailed, bipartisan report on “The Secret Service: An Agency in Crisis,” which recommended numerous reforms, many of which the agency has yet to implement, and which could have helped to prevent Trump’s near-killing at the 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania, rally and another assassination attempt on a golf course just two months later.
Youngkin has his own immigration credentials. As Virginia governor, he signed an executive order directing state law enforcement to cooperate with federal deportation operations, providing what the Trump administration described as “invaluable support.” He is also out of a job after leaving office earlier this year. Trump allies praise his even-handed, neutral reputation and say the technocrat could bring a sense of order to the chaotic deportation operations.
A spokesman for the former Virginia governor downplayed the possibility, telling RCP that they had not heard of any jostling for rank one way or the other. A senior Trump official, meanwhile, dismissed Youngkin as too soft: “The conservatives would just never go for it. He’s not tough enough.”
Zeldin remains a Trump favorite because of his deregulatory crusade at the EPA and his work in New York during the last election that helped the GOP maintain its House majority. He was also easily confirmed in the Senate. Trump allies say that a lawyer and Army veteran like Zeldin could tamp down the drama at DHS. The move from EPA would be a step up, capping his career as a Cabinet secretary, not just an agency administrator.
The move would come with a tremendous increase in responsibility. A senior Trump official noted that even the Transportation Security Administration, an agency within DHS responsible for airport security, has more employees than the EPA. “I am a big fan of Lee Zeldin,” the official said, “but DHS might sound like it is easy. It’s not. This is probably the most difficult department in all of government to run.”
Zeldin has impressed Trump with how he swiftly managed the environmental and debris cleanup after California’s wildfires and with his negotiations with Mexico over the Tijuana sewage issue impacting San Diego border towns and Navy SEALs who train on Coronado Island. Earlier this week, Trump tapped Zeldin to take over Los Angeles-area wildfire permit rebuilding after the city and county have approved only a fraction of the permits that wildfire victims have submitted.
The decision belongs to Trump alone. But finding someone who wants the job after the recent chaos in Minneapolis and choosing a leader who can calmly navigate different deportation agendas within the White House and DHS without giving Democrats more political ammunition is no easy task. A senior Senate Republican source told RCP that if the White House wanted a replacement for Noem, that candidate could be confirmed “in a month,” before noting that a bipartisan majority confirmed Zeldin last year.
Getting the job requires more than just political arithmetic. There is an art to courting this president. “Trump’s not a guy who rolls over very easily,” the aide cautioned. “If you try to push in one direction, he doesn’t normally take too kindly to that.”
While Republicans feel confident in their Senate majority, the calendar is also a concern, and a confirmation battle could complicate the midterm elections. “Do I expect her to still be here in April or May? Probably,” the Senate Republican said of Noem. “Do I expect her to be here at the end of the year? Probably not.”
For now, the president appears to be standing by Noem. The chaos that defined the southern border during the presidency of Joe Biden has disappeared entirely from the headlines. Construction of the wall, a physical barrier in some places and digital censors in others, continues apace as the number of illegal crossings not only returned to pre-Biden levels but plummeted to levels not seen since the 1970s. But will that be enough?
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent and Philip Wegmann is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Photo “DHS Sec. Kristi Neom” by DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.
