No more Noem mess. But don’t pop the champagne yet
HE joyful cruelty matched only by the audacity of his incompetence.
Packed with cosplay costumes – cowgirl, soldier, even firefighter and pilot — We needed to see him strong. But far mother of dragons He seems to envision himself as the murderer Cricket (poor cub)an infantile narcissist working a deadly serious job.
It was so exaggerated that it didn’t even need a name. You I know who I’m talking about. So it’s no wonder when President Trump dumped Kristi Noem As head of Homeland Security this week, much of America — even a bipartisan segment — had similar reactions. Residents of Oz when the house falls into the hands of the evil witch.
From late night talk shows to halls of power, There was more than a little celebration and, in fact, a fair amount of schadenfreude. Normally, the misfortune of others isn’t something I pile on, but oh, did that woman deserve some scorn.
While I’m not one to discourage even a moment of joy in these troubling times, Noem’s unceremonious firing and what comes next likely won’t provide the relief and reset many are hoping for. or they claim that it is. For all the chaos and suffering caused by federal agents from various departments under Noem’s leadership, there is every reason to believe that Trump has plans to continue and even expand his deportation efforts, and perhaps even use these poorly trained, poorly supervised troops to impose his will in the next election.
What we are witnessing, rather than an acknowledgment of policy gone awry, is spotlight envy from a junior president who doesn’t like to share the spotlight, and a backroom concession that perhaps optics might matter when trying to squeeze white nationalism into a pluralistic country.
According to Fox News and other media, it was a sworn claim that Trump authorized Noem to spend more than $200 million. self-promotional advertisements who had it canned instead. This death knell, which points to how unpopular Noem has become even in the Trump-verse, resulted from a trap set by GOP senator John Kennedy (R-La.), who, with admirable political skill, led Noem to her own demise.
After forcing Noem to repeatedly claim that Trump knew about and approved the megaspend on Noem’s ridiculously overproduced ads (while also raising questions about the contract and who benefited), Kennedy — who almost certainly knew Trump would see it — unloaded the dig on her with his Southern knife-in-the-back charm.
“This, in my opinion, puts the president in an extremely awkward position,” Kennedy continued, possibly planting the complaint squarely in the president’s mind. “I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth. Knowing the president as well as I do, it’s hard for me to believe that you could say, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut and I’m going to spend $220 million to run them,’ and he would agree to that.”
Shortly after, Trump posted on social media that Noem was out. I bring this up because that wasn’t the substance of the actions that ultimately led to Noem’s firing. At the same hearing on Capitol Hill, Democrats criticized Noem for the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis and her subsequent false portrayal of them as domestic terrorists; the conditions that lead to deaths in our ever-expanding network of detention centres; and even the mile-high airplane bedroom where he may or may not be carrying on an extramarital affair.
None of this seems to bother Trump. This was his introduction. And it was this same self-promotion and constant demand for attention that likely convinced those around Trump to abandon him; because it increased the deep unpopularity of immigration roundups, which lowered Trump’s approval ratings, which could hurt Trumpists’ chances of voting in the medium term.
A Quinnipiac poll last month found: 58% of voters He called for Noem’s impeachment, and nearly 60% of voters disapproved of Trump’s immigration policies.
Noem was the public face of this disapproval; stood out with arrogance in the face of public condemnation; It was a real clown show of incompetence. The possibility of him being removed from office and replaced by another Trump loyalist, the first-term Senator from Oklahoma. Markwayne MullinTrump is removing the most visible and frustrating sign that his policies are unpopular.
Combative (a former MMA fighter) and happy to create her own dubious headlines, Mullin is also much more low-key than Noem and knows who owns the spotlight. By not being so press-hungry, it will almost certainly make deportations and detentions look more palatable (at least to some). It’s a low bar, but there you are.
But Mullin has made clear that he supports the most extreme immigration policies a Trump world has to offer, and that he has little disagreement with Stephen Miller, the architect of this bleak moment, who is running things somewhat off-screen.
The risk now is that Mullin, being less aggressive than Noem, could continue or even expand these policies with less scrutiny. Detention centers are being built at a rapid pace. ICE started in Arizona Charging fees from legal immigrants By a Cold War-era law if they don’t carry their documents with them at all times. Ministry of Justice Elimination of the possibility to appeal deportationsto hasten them without recourse. Nothing changes except the speed and power of ICE.
And Trump has set the stage for some kind of intervention in the upcoming election by doubling down on claims that illegal immigrants are responsible for mass voter fraud. Election deniers were placed in key positions. Mullin himself is one of them.
Noem’s impeachment is less a reset than a contraction; It is an attempt to shift our focus away from the deeply troubling connection between immigration policy and the threat to democracy and, in effect, continue down that dark path.
We couldn’t help but watch at a moment when the government would rather we stop looking because Noem is a train wreck.
