CNN
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By choosing South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to be secretary of Homeland Security, President-elect Donald Trump is tapping a longtime supporter to lead an agency expected to play a central role in cracking down on immigration. are.
She will work closely with two immigration hawks, incoming deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller and the administration’s “border czar” Tom Homan, both of whom have said Trump is pushing for mass deportations. It was an early choice that showed they were serious about their pledge.
Noem, 52, is a former state lawmaker who served four terms in the House of Representatives and was elected governor of South Dakota in 2018 and up for re-election in 2022. Her profile rose during the coronavirus pandemic, when she rejected mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing.
But she is perhaps best known nationally for the controversy that followed the publication of excerpts from her memoir earlier this year. In it, she revealed that she shot and killed her dog, a 14-month-old wire-haired pointer named Cricket. The dog was placed in a gravel pit because it was “untrainable” and “a danger to anyone who came into contact with it.”
In the face of backlash, Noem defended her actions and said her book contains “a more realistic, honest and politically incorrect story that the media is holding its breath over.” I wrote this.
He also retracted the book’s article about a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, suggesting such a meeting never happened.
It was part of a series of ugly stories in which hopes for Noem appeared to be dashed in a February poll that asked attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference who they wanted President Trump to pick. Ta. He will be the vice presidential candidate.
If Noem is confirmed by the Senate to lead the vast government agency created under President George W. Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she will be in the South Dakota governor’s office. Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden will take over as his successor. The 65-year-old former state lawmaker has just over two years until his current term ends.
Noem attended Northern State University but did not graduate, returning to her hometown in 1994 to manage her family’s farm in rural Hamlin County, South Dakota. My first child was born.
After four years in the state House, Noem ousted Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in 2010. Eight years later, she defeated Attorney General Marty Jackley in the Republican gubernatorial primary and won the general election over Democratic Sen. Billy Sutton. Win the governorship.
As governor, she resisted lockdown measures imposed by many other governors during the coronavirus pandemic. She also presented Trump with a 4-foot-tall replica of the face of Mount Rushmore when he visited the site of the Fourth of July fireworks display that Nomu promoted in 2020. , actively appealed to President Trump’s goodwill.
Instead of running in the Republican primary, she endorsed Trump in 2023, helping him win the Republican presidential nomination for the third consecutive year.
She has also implemented several anti-immigrant policies as governor. She opposed accepting Afghan refugees in 2021 and sent the South Dakota National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
Noem established a political action committee early in the 2024 election cycle and regularly travels to events to support Trump. Seasoned military veterans have left her office, and she has replaced them with more controversial aides, including former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
She also faces an ethics complaint in South Dakota for improperly using her office to help her daughter obtain her real estate appraiser license. And recently, all nine of the state’s Native American tribes were barred from their land after the governor said their leaders were more focused on profiting from drug cartels than on children. Ta.
Still, Noem remained a staunch ally of Trump. In the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, The Atlantic reported that Noem participated in a strategy briefing with President Trump and questioned campaign officials’ findings about the current state of the race. And in October, Trump hosted a memorable town hall where he swayed to music for more than 30 minutes.
Noem was one of the Republicans along with Trump on election night. The day after President Trump’s victory, she told CNN’s Erin Burnett, “Many families have come to him during this campaign and loved them because of illegal immigrants, rapists, murderers, dangerous terrorists. “We recognize that they have told us tragic stories of human loss.” To this country. And he’s focused on making the community safer. ”
“President Trump today is focused on dangerous people. When I was on the trip with him, he was focused on making this country safer,” she said.
CNN’s Daniel Strauss, Alaina Treen, Kristen Holmes and Kit Maher contributed to this report.
