The U.S. Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary on Saturday (January 25, 2025), putting the South Dakota Governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and President Donald Trump’s plans to clamp down on illegal immigration.

Republicans kept the Senate working Saturday to install the latest member of Trump’s national security team on a 59-34 vote.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was also confirmed in a dramatic tie-breaking vote Friday night, joining Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The Senate will next vote Monday evening on Scott Bessent’s confirmation as treasury secretary.

Ms. Noem, a Trump ally who was in her second term as Governor, received seven votes from Democrats. Republicans, who already held the votes necessary to confirm her, have expressed confidence in her determination to lead border security and immigration enforcement.

In a statement afterward, she pledged “to secure our southern border and fix our broken immigration system” while working to “detect and prevent terror threats and will deliver rapid assistance and disaster relief to Americans in crisis.”

Ms. Noem was scheduled to be sworn in by Vice President J.D. Vance on Saturday afternoon, but that was called off after she was delayed, according to a person familiar with the events who was not authorized to discuss them and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The homeland security secretary oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services. Beyond those agencies, the department is also responsible for securing airline transportation, protecting dignitaries, responding to natural disasters and more.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday that “fixing this crisis and restoring respect for the rule of law is one of President Trump and Republicans’ top priorities. And it’s going to require a decisive and committed leader” at the department.

Democrats are split on how to handle border enforcement and immigration under Trump, with some warming to his hard-line stand.

Still, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, as well as most other Democrats, voted against Noem. He pointed to “bipartisan solutions to fix the mess at our border,” adding that Noem “seems headed in the wrong direction.”

Trump is planning major changes to how the department functions, including involving the military in immigration enforcement and reshaping the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those plans will immediately put Noem in the spotlight after the new president visited recent disaster sites in North Carolina and California on Friday.

During her Senate hearing, Ms. Noem was repeatedly asked by Democratic senators whether she would administer disaster aid to states even if Trump asked her not to.

Ms. Noem avoided saying she would defy the President, but told lawmakers, “I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done with no political bias.”

Six people cycled through as homeland security secretary during Trump’s first four years in office.

Ms. Noem, who held her State’s lone U.S. House seat for eight years before becoming governor in 2019, has risen in the GOP by tacking closely with Trump. At one point, she was even under consideration to be his running mate.

Her political stock took a momentary dip, however, when she released a book last year containing an account of her killing her hunting dog, as well as a false claim that she once met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Following her confirmation, she was succeeded as South Dakota governor by Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden, a rancher and former state House member who was elected alongside Noem in 2018.

Ms. Noem will be tasked with delivering on Trump’s favorite issue, border security. The president’s goals of deporting millions of people who entered the country illegally could put Noem, with her experience governing a rural state and growing up on a farm, in a difficult position. In South Dakota, many migrants, some in the country without permanent legal status, power the labor-heavy jobs that produce food and housing.

She has so far pledged to faithfully execute the President’s orders and copied his talk of an “invasion” at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Ms. Noem joined other Republican governors who sent National Guard troops to Texas to assist Operation Lone Star, which sought to discourage migrants. Her decision was especially criticized because she accepted a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire to cover some of the deployment cost.

She said she opted to send National Guard troops “because of this invasion,” adding that “it is a war zone down there.”

Washington:

The US Senate on Saturday confirmed South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a key agency in President Donald Trump’s push to clamp down on illegal immigration.

The vote came a day after US lawmakers narrowly confirmed former Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth to be Pentagon chief, adding to previous national security posts already greenlit for Trump’s cabinet, including the secretary of state and CIA director.

Kristi Noem, 53, a Trump ally and second-term governor of the north central US state, takes control of the US agency overseeing border enforcement and migrant deportations, but which also leads federal efforts on cybersecurity, terrorism and emergency management.

Trump on Friday said he would sign an order seeking to scrap the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), after he harshly criticized its response to two devastating hurricanes during last year’s election campaign.

Kristi Noem is best known internationally for sinking her chances of being Trump’s vice-presidential pick with her cheerful admission that she had shot her dog, Cricket, because it was “untrainable.”

She is also known for making South Dakota — far from the border with Mexico — among the first Republican-led states to send National Guards troops to the frontier, earning plaudits from conservatives.

During her confirmation hearing last week, Kristi Noem said the southern border would be a top priority, asserting America’s “responsibility to secure our borders against those who would do us harm,” while stressing that the system must be fair and lawful.

Kristi Noem was also asked at the hearing to address the distribution of disaster aid.

She vowed “there will be no political bias to how disaster relief is delivered to the American people.”

But Trump on Friday, after expressing his intent to close FEMA, threatened to withhold assistance to California as it faces a historic wave of wildfires, unless the Democratic-led state changes its voting laws and environmental regulations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington DC:

US President-elect Trump has set up the stage for a fiery “day one” in the Oval Office, with the promise of pardoning January 6 Capitol riot prisoners, sealing America’s southern border and rolling back protections for transgender students. To ensure the swift implementation of his radical changes, the incoming president has nominated individuals who are not only loyal to him, but bring their own ideas about how to enact the Republican’s agenda. 

We look at some of Donald Trump’s most notable pledges and his cabinet picks entrusted to deliver those promises. 

1- Mass Deportation Of Undocumented Migrants: One of the biggest pledges of Trump’s campaign was the largest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history. He also promised to complete the construction of the wall at the border with Mexico that was started during his first term as US president. 

To oversee his immigration promises, Trump has picked border hardliners Kristi Noem as the Homeland Security Secretary and Tom Homan as his Border tsar.

A four-term congresswoman who became governor of South Dakota in 2018, Noem is a vocal critic of President Joe Biden’s border policies. She was the first governor to send members of her state’s national guard to Texas to help with border enforcement. 

On the other hand, Homan is a former police officer who was acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first term. He was an early advocate of separating children from their parents or caregivers who crossed the border without documentation, which became one of Trump’s more controversial immigration policies during his first presidential term.

2- Moves On Economy, Tax And Tariffs: Trump’s campaign had promised to “end inflation” by imposing new tariffs of at least 10 per cent on most foreign goods. He also pledged sweeping tax cuts. 

To ensure the implementation of his economic agenda, Trump nominated Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary and Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.

Lutnick was the co-chair of Trump’s transition team and has backed the President-elect’s economic plans, including wide-ranging tariffs. He has also advocated for deregulation of cryptocurrencies and the elimination of income tax.

Meanwhile, Bessent is a Wall Street financier who once worked for liberal billionaire George Soros. He supports Trump’s calls for new tariffs on imports, and like Lutnick, has suggested that the US government sees tariffs primarily as a negotiating tool and not as a permanent source of US revenue.

3- Cost Cuts And Dismantle Bureaucracy: Donald Trump has pledged to restructure federal agencies and ‘dismantle’ bureaucracy by announcing a new entity called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He picked billionaire executive Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the entity.

Though not a federal department, Trump said DOGE will “provide advice and guidance” from outside the executive branch and work closely with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to propose cuts. 

As part of his new role, Musk has suggested a possible $2tn in spending cuts and vowed to send “shockwaves” through the government. Ramaswamy has also backed the idea of dramatically shrinking the size of the federal government, streamlining agencies and cutting costs.

4- Abolish Climate Regulations: Trump has promised to cut regulations, especially in a way that helps the American car industry. He pledged to increase production of US fossil fuels on day one in favour of renewable energy sources such as wind power.

Much of this work will be overseen by North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Trump’s new energy czar and pick for Interior Secretary, along with Chris Wright, a Colorado-based natural gas fracking CEO and Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary. 

Both are staunch fossil fuel advocates, but each has also worked with clean energy.

5-Foreign Policy Change With Ending Russia-Ukraine War And China Tariffs: During his election campaign, Trump criticised the tens of billions of dollars spent by the US administration on supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia. He pledged to end the conflict “within 24 hours” through a negotiated deal. He also pledged to levy a 60 per cent tariff on all goods from China. 

To oversee his foreign policy and national security, Trump has picked Marco Rubio and Secretary of State, Michael Waltz as National security advisers and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

Rubio, who represented Florida since 2011, is part of the Senate intelligence and foreign relations committees and is known for his hard-line positions on Iran and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as China.

Waltz too, like Rubio, has talked tough on China. As chair of a House subcommittee, he argued that the US should prepare more for conflict in the Pacific.

A military veteran who served with a medical unit in Iraq, Gabbard has routinely opposed American foreign policy. A former Democrat, she blamed NATO for the Russia-Ukraine war and echoed a Kremlin claim that there were US-funded biolabs in Ukraine. As Trump’s intel tsar, her role will be critical for US-backed wars.

6-Affordable Care Act Repeal: Donald Trump aimed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and propose its replacement with a system that would lower premiums and expand health savings accounts. 

Trump picked a longtime lawyer and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F Kennedy Jr as Health and Human Services. Despite having no medical qualifications, he would have broad remit over US federal health agencies – including those that oversee approval of vaccines, whose use he wants to review.

The Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, suggested on Sunday that President Joe Biden’s dog, Commander, should face a similar outcome as her own 14-month-old dog, Cricket. In her forthcoming memoir, Ms. Noem disclosed that she had to shoot Cricket due to its aggressive behaviour.

On Sunday, the Republican vice-presidential hopeful appeared on CBS’ “Face The Nation” and asked Americans to “make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal”.

Talking about President Biden’s dog, Ms Noem said, “Well, number one, Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people. So how many people are enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog? And –That’s the question that the President should be held accountable to.”

Last year in October, the Biden administration announced that the dog had been relocated off White House grounds after incidents of it attacking and biting U.S. Secret Service agents.

As per a CNN report, Kristi Noem outlined her day one priorities in her book “No Going Back,” stating that if she were president she would ensure that Commander “was nowhere on the grounds.”

The report quoted her as saying in the book, “What would I do if I was president on the first day in office in 2025? Thanks for asking. I happen to have a list. The first thing I’d do is make sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds (‘Commander, say hello to Cricket for me’). But my dog, Foster, would sure be welcome. He comes with me to the capitol all the time and loves everyone.”

While defending her actions of killing her 14-month-old dog Cricket, Ms Noem in the same CBS interview said, “This was a dangerous animal that was killing livestock and attacking people. And- and I had little children at the time, our operation had many kids running around and people in interaction with the public. And I made a difficult choice. I think you’re a mother too. And you have little kiddos, would you make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal?”

She continued, “And I think I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation. Because that’s what I faced and I talk about it because what I’m tired of in this country is politicians who pretend to be something that they’re not. That they aren’t willing to have the hard conversations and look at the past and the tough decisions that they’ve made. I’m- what I talk about in the book extensively when people are able to get it on Tuesday is to see the whole story and the truth, not the spin that the media has put on this story. The media has put some or removed most of the facts and the reason this is in there is because I want people to know that I don’t ask anybody else to take on my responsibilities. I understood my responsibility. As a mom, I made a choice between protecting my children and protecting them from a dangerous animal that was killing livestock and attacking people. And that’s a decision that I made—“

Ms Noem further explained that her dog remained uncontrollable despite undergoing months of training.

She added, “This dog was well, this dog was a working dog. And it had come from a family that already had issues with this dog. And I had put months and months of training into this dog. This dog had gone to other trainers as well. So -so all of that is the facts of the story. All of that shows that when you put someone in a position where they have to make a decision, and they want to protect their family and protect children and other people from getting attacked by an animal that has attacked others and killed livestock, that’s the choice I made over 20 years ago. And that I didn’t ask somebody else to take that responsibility for me, that I had to make that decision myself.”

Kristi Noem, a contender to become Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, has stirred controversy after she said that she killed a family dog and a goat.

Noem, who is also the governor of South Dakota, said in her upcoming memoir that she killed an “untrainable” dog called Cricket on her family farm.

She said that the 14-month-old dog behaved like a “trained assassin,” and was “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.”

In her memoir, excerpts of which were first published by The Guardian on Friday, Noem also said that she “hated” the dog, which ruined a hunt and attacked chickens owned by a local family.

“I realized I had to put her down,” she wrote, adding that she got her gun and then led Cricket to a gravel pit.

Noem also said that her family owned a male goat that was “nasty and mean” because it had not been castrated.

The goat smelled “disgusting, musky, rancid” and “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and ruining their clothes.

She wrote that she decided to kill the goat the same way she had just killed her dog. 

Reacting to the excerpts, Joe Biden’s Democratic Party called them “horrifying” and “disturbing” and tried to make a 2024 election argument about the shooting of the animals.

“If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners – and vote Democrat,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement, giving voice to the dogs.

PETA Slams Kristi Noem

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) decried Kristi Noem’s decision to kill the dog and said that she fails to understand the vital political concepts of education

Colleen O’Brien, senior director at PETA, said, “Most Americans love their dogs, and we suspect that they’ll consider Gov. Noem a psychotic loony for letting this rambunctious puppy loose on chickens and then punishing her by deciding to personally blow her brains out rather than attempting to train her or find a more responsible guardian who could provide her with a proper home.”

“Noem obviously fails to understand the vital political concepts of education, cooperation, compromise, and compassion,” she said in an official statement.

Kristi Noem Defends Herself

Kristi Noem, however, defended herself against the attacks over her account of shooting her dog.

Taking to her official X account, she said, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.

If you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping,… pic.twitter.com/bKhpUkchHV

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) April 26, 2024

Her book – No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward – will be published in the US on May 7.

According to reports, she is on a list of candidates being considered by Donald Trump to be his vice presidential running mate.

Trump faces a general election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden on November 5.