Two cardinal rules of politics are don’t go against your boss, and don’t make him look bad. As outgoing secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem found out when Donald Trump demanded her resignation last week, in the anything-goes second Trump administration, they might be the only rules.
Noem, who was previously the governor of South Dakota and has no law enforcement or “security” experience, was widely hated within the department. However, it is doubtful that her departure and replacement by nominee Markwayne Mullin augurs any serious change in the department’s widespread violation of civil and human rights or its repeated, deliberate flouting of the law and dozens of court orders.
If you believe the New York Post, Trump demanded Noem’s resignation after she was unable to convincingly deny to Congress that she was having an affair with Corey Lewandowski, her de facto chief of staff and an on-again-off-again Trump adviser. Trump was also reportedly outraged at Noem’s testimony that he approved a $220 million advertising campaign, largely starring Noem herself. Trump later said he did not know about the expensive PR blitz.
It is worth dwelling for a moment on a partial list of widely reported events Noem presided over at Homeland Security that did not induce Trump to demand her resignation.
Agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have shot and killed numerous US citizens and residents in the streets, with the evidence typically whisked away before anyone can investigate the officers involved. These same agencies have engaged in what amounts to military occupations of Chicago and Minneapolis, and tried, with less success, to do the same in Portland, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. They have targeted activists exercising their First Amendment rights, not only brutalizing them in the streets but showing up at their homes and addressing them by name, apparently using mass surveillance tools that are…
Auteur: Ben Beckett
