Kristi Noem ousted from Homeland Security post amid recent turmoil

Trump reportedly furious with Noem's performance in congressional hearings this week over controversial ad contract

Charles Creitz / Fox News

 

Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota congresswoman and governor who has led President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security thus far in his second term, was ousted from her position on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump announced his he will nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace her on Truth Social. 

Noem, 54, will likely be at least temporarily replaced by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, a Navy veteran and former mayor of Los Alamitos, California, in the line of succession for the agency.

Noem’s tenure marked a distinct reversal of the open-border policies permitted by predecessor Alejandro Mayorkas during the Biden administration, and DHS has notched record drug interdictions totaling more than half a million pounds of illegal drugs in her first year.

Her management of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda has also led to more than 2 million reported self-deportations in 2025 and about 670,000 removals of illegal immigrants, a figure supporters have hailed as the most successful immigration enforcement operation in history. Read more and see video here.