Trump picks Kristi Noem to serve as his Homeland Security secretary

Donald Trump, the president-elect, has chosen South Dakota Governor. Kristi Noem will be his next Secretary of Homeland Security.

Noem is set to be the next to lead the agency, as Stephen Miller and Tom Homan are both slated to hold senior positions. This shows that Trump means business when he says he will crackdown on immigration. Trump ensures that a loyalist, Noem will lead an agency that he values and is important to his domestic agenda.

When Trump was president, the department experienced a lot of turmoil. DHS then had five different heads, of which only two were confirmed by the Senate. The agency has hundreds of thousands of staff and a budget of $60 billion.

Noem was previously a South Dakota Representative. He will now be responsible for overseeing an agency that includes everything from US Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Secret Service.

Noem was once on Trump’s list of candidates for vice president. However, her relationship with Trump changed after the negative publicity surrounding her book, “No Going back: The Truth on what’s wrong with Politics and how we Move America Forward.” She revealed in the book that she killed her wirehair pointer Cricket when she did not display the characteristics of a good hunting dog.

The Guardian first published excerpts that showed the governor writing about how “untrainable” his dog was. Noem said that the anecdotes had been meant to demonstrate her ability to do some of life’s more difficult jobs when needed.