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NOEM 2 DHS

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see mass deport; cosplay, ISIS videos el salvador

SEE RENEE GOOD MINNE INS MASS DEPORT TERROR BS

SEE LEWANDOWSKI CORRUPT

SEE PAlanteer

// TROLL CAUCUS

see VOTER SUPPRESS HEATHER HONEY CLETA ELECTION INTEGRITY BS

EMERG --> CORRUPT AD CONTRACTS YOHO TRICIA

SEE FEMA GREGG PHILLIPS POW fail wildfires NEUTER AGY

SEE POSSE COMMITATUS MARTIAL LAW PORTLAND CHIC BLUE CITIES

:{see dhs IHS GOONS? NJ :{FASCISM}: CRUEL pOLAND DUDEK

NAWROCKI COOL DICTATOR BUKELE}:}:

antifa wh mtg: noem She also said that “this network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TdA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them.”}:}:

SEE CONCENTRATION CAMP

STUDENT SUPPRESS // RUBIO ~ CT

ACTIV SUPPRESS MINNE CHURCH RELIG LIB BS

hatch act

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rumors of firing?

impeach bill in house

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Agents stunned as ex-Trump official’s 'catastrophic' flub exposed

an 10 26

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AN 9 26

NOEM?

Trump officials caught 'intentionally destroying' evidence during court battle

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AN 9 26

A Trump administration official and former senior aide to Kristi Noem was recently "disgraced" after a bruising story came to light, but according to a new report from The Daily Beast, she has moved on to an "extraordinary" new position, all the more alarming given her recent conduct.

Earlier this month, The Daily Beast turned up court documents revealing that Karen Evans, the one-time acting director of FEMA under fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, had been caught "intentionally destroying" workplace correspondence, which she had previously been ordered to retain as evidence in a lawsuit dealing with President Donald Trump's efforts to gut the disaster response agency. This included deleting messages sent on the communications app, Signal, which members of the administration have been caught using for under-the-radar talks repeatedly. Some of the group chats in which messages were deleted included Noem and her top lieutenant, Corey Lewandowski.

On Tuesday, the outlet's investigative Substack, PunchUp, published a follow-up report on Evans, revealing that instead of being let go, she was moved to an eyebrow-raising new role within the administration.

"After Donald Trump, 80, fired Noem in March, Evans was dumped as FEMA’s acting administrator after less than six months in the role," The Daily Beast detailed. "But rather than following her boss out of the door, she was made the department’s director of the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Task Force — three weeks before the court found her to have deleted evidence, PunchUp reports."

One anonymous source within the department, described as "beleaguered" in the report, gave the outlet a blunt response to this news.

"That sounds pretty appropriate for this admin," the insider said.

"Evans’s actions have brought grave consequences for the Trump administration," the report added. "The ruling by [Judge Susan] Illston, a Clinton appointee, means the court will now assume the missing messages would have helped prove that DHS directed and carried out the plan to slash FEMA staffing."

Evans reportedly returned to DHS 15 days prior to the judge's ruling, beginning her new role leading the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. DHS undersecretary for management Brian Cavanaugh issued a statement about Evans taking on the role, praising her for her "extensive background in federal IT and cybersecurity leadership, along with her deep experience in public service."

"But as PunchUp notes, Judge Illston’s ruling raises questions about why Evans still runs a task force dedicated to rooting out fraud after the finding, and what Cavanaugh and the department knew when she was rehired," the report noted. "DHS was asked whether Evans has faced any disciplinary measures over the destruction of government records, and if it still considers Evans an appropriate official to lead its efforts to combat fraud. Declining to comment on whether Evans had faced sanctions, the department said it was grateful for her service and work at DHS."

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ON THE MEDIA

TRIED TO KILL FEMA

News clip:President Trump has just announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is out of a job.

Alt-FEMA:As soon as I heard the news, I remember calling my co-worker and telling them, but as soon as they picked up the phone, they said, "The witch is dead. The witch is gone. She's out of here."

Micah:The past, present, and future of FEMA after this.

MICAH: From WNYC in New York this is On the Media. Brooke Gladstone is out this week. I’m Micah Loewinger.

On March 27th 2025, Cameron Hamilton, Trump's interim top leader at FEMA, was meeting with some high ranking officials in an undisclosed secure location. He wouldn't tell me who he was with or where. Just that he had to run out abruptly.

Cameron Hamilton:I received a phone call that was, uh, very distressing

It was Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee, working closely with Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem. Lewandowski was ripping mad.

Cameron Hamilton:He proceeded to berate me over the fact that the media got ahold of a story and was running a topic that they felt was too sensitive and not fit for public domain.

Micah:The topic was abolishing FEMA.

Cameron Hamilton:Correct.

MICAH: A day earlier, Politico had published a story about a meeting, where Corey Lewandowski, Kristi Noem, and Cameron Hamilton had discussed whether to dismantle the agency and how they might do it. Lewandowski was now calling, because he believed Hamilton had leaked the story.

Cameron Hamilton:To which I responded. I'm not a liar. I'm not a leaker. I'm a man of honor. And if I tell you the truth, it's the truth.

Lewandowski didn't buy it.

Cameron Hamilton:I wanted to choke somebody. And that's exactly what came through my mind. [laughter]

Micah:Oh my God.

Cameron Hamilton:Just living in my flesh, doing some very un-Christian things to a certain person, but nonetheless…

Micah:A, a certain person being Mr. Lewandowski.

Cameron Hamilton:No, no, we're, yeah, I think you can read between the lines on that statement.

MICAH: After his call with Lewandowski, Hamilton got an email from a DHS official, asking him to submit to a voluntary polygraph test, as in, a lie detector. Hamilton told me he had nothing to hide but he was shocked and not sure how to respond. So he started calling his friends around Washington.

Cameron Hamilton:I called people in the White House. I called people in Congress, people in the Senate. My first question is, is this normal? I've never encountered such unprofessionalism ever in my life. To which unanimously their perspective was, I've never seen something like this. And then the second argument that I had received from others was, do I resign in protest or do I do this?Overwhelmingly the advice was, please do not resign. They will try to destroy you if you do. Publicly. So they said the honorable thing to do is to take the test, pass it, and then look 'em in the face and remind them that you're not a liar. So that's what I chose to do.

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AN 4 26

President Donald Trump’s former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, threatened national security, pointed out a former adviser to President George W. Bush on Wednesday — and that should be the focus of coverage regarding the many scandals surrounding Noem and her husband.

“The Daily Mail reports that it has reviewed hundreds of messages involving Byron and three women ...” Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist who consulted the last GOP president before Trump, said in his recent Substack post.

Schmidt went on to describe the litany of controversies surrounding the Noems, including Kristi Noem’s alleged affair with her unqualified adviser Corey Lewandowski and her bragging about murdering a puppy after it did not properly hunt despite inadequate training. He particularly singled out Noem spending millions in taxpayer dollars on glorified photo opportunities for herself.

“Over and over again, Kristi Noem wanted attention on herself,” Lewandowski said. “Look at the photographs. Look at the pictures. Here's Kristi Noem in the Coast Guard. Here's Kristi Noem in a fire costume. Here's Kristi Noem. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.” Yet despite these moral offenses, as well as “signing contracts on dozens of warehouses across the country, paying five times their value, eight times their value, to turn them into concentration camps, to turn them into prisons,” Schmidt remarked that Noem now wants Americans’ prayers after her husband’s photographs leaked.

“There is no official who has abused more people, broken more laws, or engaged in more corrupt acts — besides Trump himself,” Schmidt said. And Bryon Noem, despite leaving his wife’s side when she refused to deny her alleged affair with Lewandowski, did not seem to object to his wife’s violence and murdering toward innocent people while Secretary of Homeland Security.

“The simple truth is: Kristi Noem, when American citizens were murdered, she called them terrorists,” Schmidt said, playing a clip in which she used that term.

“And you know what?” Schmidt concluded. “She doesn't deserve any sympathy. She doesn't deserve any respect. And she absolutely doesn't deserve any of our restraint. Byron Noem and Kristi Noem were up to no good.”

Despite Schmidt’s harsh take on Bryon Noem, the New York Times reported in the aftermath of the photo leak that many of his South Dakota neighbors depicted him in sympathetic terms.

“These men all knew Bryon Noem as the nice, tall insurance salesman who married Kristi Arnold, the town beauty queen who grew up to be governor,” the Times reported. “But now there were these pictures.”

The article later added, “In interviews with locals and friends of the couple before and after The Daily Mail published its pictures, the prevailing sense that emerged was this: People can’t help but feel sorry for Bryon Noem. His marriage had been the talk of the prairie since long before Tuesday.”

The reported that “one man who was in there Tuesday morning looked at the report in The Daily Mail and shook his head sorrowfully. He didn’t know what to believe about Bryon Noem. Only that he liked him.”

The individual then said, “Such a nice man. It just tears me up.”

Noem was fired as Secretary of Homeland Security last month when a senator from her own party, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), publicly criticized her for spending $220 million in taxpayer funds on self-promotional advertisements.

"It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president, as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,’ that he would have agreed to that,” Kennedy told Noem at the time. Trump later denied authorizing the ads and cited Noem’s answer to Kennedy as a reason for her termination.

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AN 4 26

According to new reporting from the Daily Mail, Bryon Noem — husband to former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — has been leading a double life as a crossdresser with a “bimbofication” fetish. When the allegations emerged, a spokesperson for former Secretary Noem revealed she was “devastated.”

The Daily Mail claims to have spoken with multiple models who say they’ve engaged in online relationships with Mr. Noem, who communicated using the name “Jason Jackson.” These models operate specifically in the realm of “bimbofication,” which involves attempting to look like a real-life Barbie doll via the accentuation of oversized breasts and other physical features.

At the same time, the Daily Mail shared photos it asserts are of Mr. Noem dressed in pink hotpants and a set of massive fake breasts. Supposedly, he dons this attire while chatting with the models, who assert that he “lavished praise on their surgically-enhanced bodies, confessed his lust for ‘huge, huge ridiculous boobs,’ and even made indiscreet remarks about his 34-year marriage to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi.” He reportedly paid some $25,000 dollars to these sex workers, asking one to turn him “into a girl.”

“Ms. Noem is devastated,” said a spokesman. “The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time.”

Over the course of the MAGA movement, traditional family values and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric have been at the core of its messaging, with Kristi Noem herself touting the importance of such values and attacking various forms of gender non-conforming behavior.

While this may seem like a personal incident with little bearing on national matters, national security experts noted that Bryon Noem’s secret life could have opened up his wife and the White House to blackmail.

“If a media organization can find this out,” said former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos, “you can assume with a high degree of confidence that a hostile intelligence service knows this as well.”

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AN 3 26

President Donald Trump recently fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on the grounds that doing so will improve her department — but a Republican national security expert argued Sunday that the problems are much deeper than that.

“The switch is cosmetic: The problem with DHS isn’t Noem or [Trump’s nominee GOP Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne] Mullin or whoever else will run it,” explained Paul Rosenzweig, who served as deputy assistant secretary for policy of the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush (2005-2009) and currently cybersecurity at the George Washington University Law School. “The problem is with the agency itself.”

While some of the problems are longstanding, such as issues with FEMA or the TSA, Trump has made them worse, Rosenzweig opined.

“Under Donald Trump, ICE and Border Patrol have become rogue agencies, accused of unnecessary violence and disregard for the rule of law,” Rosenzweig argued. “In January alone, ICE violated more court orders than most federal agencies violate in their entire existence, according to a federal judge in Minnesota. ICE has also adopted what appears to be a blatantly unconstitutional search policy.”

He added, “Meanwhile, more than 40 people have died in ICE custody since the start of Trump’s second term. The answer to such abuses is not reform; it is wholesale disassembly and restructuring.”

From there Rosenzweig suggested several new policies to overhaul the Homeland Security Department. These include returning “its focus to the original objective—foreign counterterrorism—which remains a serious concern. Retain those portions of DHS that serve a counterterrorism function—CBP officers at ports of entry, TSA screeners at airports, Border Patrol agents at the nation’s land borders—and return the other components to more appropriate federal departments.”

From there, “most of the rest of DHS should be disaggregated. Terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are so infrequent that FEMA can, and should, go back to being an independent agency. Likewise, immigration adjudication (currently housed in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) can be returned to the Department of Justice. The home of the few agencies whose functions are decidedly mixed—such as the Coast Guard—should be decided on a case-by-case basis, but whatever the outcome, joint task forces that coordinate response activities should be developed.”

Rosenzweig argued that the “most important” change would be to “eliminate the possibility of the creation of a federalized interior police force. Border Patrol can be limited to the border, and Homeland Security Investigations can be retargeted toward their traditional function of sophisticated transnational commercial crimes. Meanwhile, the single gravest militarized threat—ICE—should be reined in and restructured under new leadership, so that it focuses on its core mission of genuine civil-process interior enforcement.”

As Rosenzweig noted, the Senate did not seriously propose any reforms along these lines, instead treating the problems with Homeland Security as an issue primarily of Noem’s bad leadership. For example, Trump’s decision to fire Noem was based on the ex-Cabinet officer inaccurately claiming the president authorized her $220 million ad campaign.

“I was stunned when Noem answered categorically that the president approved every single bit of it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told Fox News at the time. “Later that day, I got a call from President Trump. He was mad as a mamma wasp. He said, ‘Kennedy, I hope you understand that I had nothing to do with this.’ I said, ‘I do believe you, Mr. President.'”

He added, “He was not happy. It was clear to me after that conversation that the secretary’s time at the department was limited. To be blunt, she was dead as fried chicken.”

Noem was also grilled by House members for her alleged affair with a special government employee she hired to work for her, former lobbyist Corey Lewandowski.

"Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure…have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?" U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) asked Noem during a hearing earlier this month.

Noem told Sydney Kamlager-Dove, "That is garbage and it is offensive that you have brought that up.”

Kamlager-Dove replied, "It is about your judgment and decision-making.”

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AN 3 26

Although Missouri is a red state — Donald Trump carried Missouri by 18 percent in 2024 compared to roughly 14 percent in Texas — its largest city, St. Louis, is a Democratic stronghold. Tensions have long existed between St. Louis' Democrat-dominated city government and Missouri's GOP-controlled state government in Jefferson City, and those tensions escalated when Donald Trump became the Republican Party's most influential figure.

St. Louis-based journalist Devin Thomas O'Shea describes the growing tensions between that city and Missouri Republicans in an article published on March 20.

Those tensions, according to O'Shea, are underscored by Republican responses to a May 2025 tornado that killed five people in the St. Louis and inflicted considerable damage.

"In St. Louis, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been antagonistic to recovery efforts," O'Shea explains. "Neither the president nor this last year's Homeland Security director, Kristi Noem, believe that FEMA should exist. Some Senate Democrats believe Noem's pausing and delaying FEMA payments violated federal law, but the effect is that Missouri has been added to a growing list — alongside North Carolina after Hurricane Helene — of states cut loose, left to rebuild on their own."

O'Shea continues, "Noem cut FEMA's workforce by thousands to achieve this result, and if St. Louis is a test case for contemporary climate disasters, the verdict is in: You're on your own."

St. Louis City Mayor Cara Spencer, according to O'Shea, "admits that things have moved too slowly" with tornado recovery efforts "and that money has not reached storm victims."

"While some Missouri Republicans claim they are upset about FEMA's dysfunction, they are also using the tornado recovery to lash St. Louis," O'Shea notes. "This year, the GOP plans to bankrupt the city. This is not an exaggeration — in January, the Missouri Legislature turned $100 million in relief into a weapon to compel St. Louis to enact the budget policy of eliminating the earnings tax, a prime source of city revenue. It's also not an exaggeration to say that the Missouri State Legislature spent last year moving forward with the re-invasion of the City of St. Louis."

O'Shea adds, "The Republican-controlled state spends much of its legislative time trying to overturn voter referendums. State-wide, Missourians approve abortion, vote in favor of increasing the minimum wage, and reject right-to-work legislation. Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers go to work to criminalize abortion, lower the minimum wage, and get right-to-work back on the ballot. In March 2025, three months before the tornado, Gov. Mike Kehoe rejected a 2012 voter referendum that granted local control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (STLPD) to the City of St. Louis."

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AN 3 26

DHS officials ridicule Noem for handing key contract to CEO who bankrupted airline - Alternet.org

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STRICT SCRUT KRISTI NO MO?

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AN 3 26

The Department of Homeland Security has become embroiled in a "power struggle" following the ouster of Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a new report from The Daily Beast, with sources indicating that an employee dubbed her "hatchet man" had been ousted.

Donald Trump announced last week that Noem was being removed from her post as DHS secretary, amid reports that he was furious with her for claiming that he signed off on a $220 million ad campaign. She will depart the role by the end of March, and the president has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her.

In the meantime, The Daily Beast reported on Thursday that a notable Noem loyalist, Deputy CBP Commissioner Joseph Mazzara, had been "escorted" out of DHS after an alleged effort to force out one of the outgoing secretary's internal enemies, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. Sources within the agency called Mazzara, who had no prior law enforcement experience and was hired only three months ago, a "henchman" for Noem and her "special government employee" Corey Lewandowski.

"Mazzara, who is an attorney with no history of law enforcement, was appointed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Deputy Commissioner less than three months ago by Noem’s chief aide and rumored lover, Lewandowski, in an apparent attempt to undermine and force out CBP’s long-serving Commissioner Rodney Scott," the report detailed. "It didn’t work."

Sources indicated that the directive to fire Mazzara came from Trump himself, with his office being "emptied" as he "was walked out of the building" on Wednesday.

"Mazzara was very much in the Noem camp, and Rodney Scott can’t stand him," one source from CBP told the outlet. "So perhaps Scott was able to get him booted. With Noem gone, Scott was able to fire him. He had the opening and he took it.”

Mazzara's appointment was announced via a memo circulated around DHS in late December. It instructed staffers to direct claims that would have once gone through Scott to the new deputy.

"He was Corey’s #1,” another DHS source said. “He was Corey’s henchman and sought to fire anyone not loyal to Noem, Corey and Trump."

“From the day he arrived, Mazzara served happily as the administration’s, and specifically Lewandowski’s, hatchet man,” one senior offical told The Daily Beast. “He personally removed well over a dozen senior career leaders, some who had served in government since the Reagan years, and replaced them with Trump loyalists. Quite the turn of events for him to be removed from his post.”

The senior source added: "Mazzara showed no interest in the actual work of the department. He was more concerned with ‘owning the libs,’ at the expense of the department’s mission and obligation to keep America safe.”

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MOJO

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security handed a massive aviation contract, potentially worth nearly $1 billion, to a relatively new company with no federal contracting experience, following an opaque and seemingly hurried process.

The deal has sparked criticism from a rival contractor in a scathing lawsuit, and records obtained by Mother Jones reveal the extensive involvement of a senior DHS official who formerly worked with the winning company’s CEO. The lawsuit alleges the contract was “unlawful, rushed, and noncompetitive.” As the Trump administration pours billions of dollars into DHS for its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the contract adds to a growing number of deals that have prompted questions about the integrity of DHS contracting.

The three-year deal to fly migrants back to their home countries went to Salus Worldwide Solutions, a company founded by a former State Department official named William Walters. Until early September, the DHS division overseeing the contract was run by Christopher Pratt, a former State Department colleague of Walters. The White House had nominated Pratt for a high-level position to serve as the State Department’s main liaison with the Pentagon, but pulled his nomination on September 29.

Internal DHS records seen by Mother Jones show that Pratt was involved in the contract award to Salus. In April, before the contract was awarded, Pratt scheduled DHS offsite meetings at Salus’s office, and he personally congratulated Walters after his company won the contract.

Neither Pratt nor Walters responded to questions about the contract and their relationship.

If the plan takes off, this program could prove extremely lucrative for Salus, a firm that appears to have only a handful of employees and was launched in 2023 by Walters, a former Army medical officer.

The contract, worth up to $915 million, is for air operations to support the administration’s effort to persuade millions of undocumented immigrants to “self-deport,” a key plank in the Trump administration’s immigration policy. The White House calls the program “Project Homecoming.” Under it, immigrants who use a Customs and Border Protection app to self-deport are being offered a $1,000 “exit bonus” and free travel. This program is at least partially funded by money that Congress earmarked to provide foreign aid to help refugees, but which the Trump administration has repurposed for “self-deportations,” as Reuters previously reported.

Screenshots from the CBP Home self deportation app

It is hard to know how many people have so far accepted the offer. But if the plan takes off, this program could prove extremely lucrative for Salus, a firm that appears to have only a handful of employees and was launched in 2023 by Walters, a former Army medical officer. A federal contracting website describes Salus as a “Women Owned Business.” The company did not respond to questions about the basis for that claim, but on October 2, days after Mother Jones asked about it, Salus’ federal contractor registration was updated to remove that description.

Walters previously led a State Department unit called the Bureau of Medical Services, which helped to evacuate department personnel in emergencies. Several former Bureau of Medical Services staffers have followed him to Salus Worldwide.

Formed during the Obama administration, this State Department outfit gained attention helping the department deal with the pandemic in 2020. Walters was lionized in a Vanity Fairprofile for his unit’s “daring and often dangerous operations to rescue Americans from peril abroad.” And then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeoreportedly okayed the unit’s upgrade from a directorate to a bureau in 2020. But that move was blocked in 2021 by his Biden administration successor Antony Blinken. Walters resigned from the State Department shortly thereafter.

During the 2024 campaign, Walters criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and bashed the Biden administration for failing to help Afghans who had aided American forces immigrate to the United States.

A person familiar with the process said DHS originally planned on awarding the deal to the company without competition but eventually opened it up to bidding for two business days, which a competitor’s lawsuit called “an impossibly short” period.

In an October 2024 Washington Times op-ed with the headline “Biden-Harris admin abandons our allies in Afghanistan,” he argued Biden had “left behind” over 130,000 Afghans who supported US efforts there, while making it easy for “people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti” to enter the US. Walters then asked if the Biden administration was “prioritizing the creation of a new voting bloc,” by making it easy for “likely Democratic voters” to immigrate—a suggestion reminiscent of aspects of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory popular on the far right.

In April, DHS said it would not renew temporary protections for around 12,000 Afghans who were able to immigrate to the US under Biden, setting them up for potential deportation to Afghanistan, where many could face reprisals from the Taliban. Walters does not appear to have publicly commented on that decision.

The Salus contract has an unusual history. A person familiar with the process said the department originally planned on awarding the deal to the company without competition, but DHS eventually opened it up to bidding for two business days, which a competitor’s lawsuit called “an impossibly short” period.

The Salus contract award is in support of DHS’s Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans. The office is closer on the DHS organization chart to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem than to ICE itself, which normally runs deportation flights.

CSI Aviation, a longtime federal contractor that missed out on the large contract, charged that DHS had “foreclosed fair competition by secretly inviting only hand-picked vendors” in a process that excluded CSI.

Pratt oversaw that office until September. It is now run by Robert Law, who previously held a top immigration-focused job at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank launched in 2021 by top officials from his first administration. In November, a few weeks after Trump’s election victory, the organization gave Walters an “AFPI Patriot Award” at agala event held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. AFPI did not respond to an inquiry about that award. VID]

In a legal protest filed in August in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, CSI Aviation, a longtime federal contractor that missed out on the large contract, charged that DHS had “foreclosed fair competition by secretly inviting only hand-picked vendors” in a process that excluded CSI.

CSI already had an ICE deportation flight contract worth up to $586 million, and one of its subcontractors provided planes that the agency used back in March to transport people to a notoriously brutal El Salvadoran prison, whom the Trump administration unpersuasively claimed were all members of the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua gang, despite a court order blocking the flights.

But CSI maintains it was shut out of the bidding for the self-deportation deal. DHS gave a predetermined list of contractors just two days to submit proposals, the complaint alleges, justifying the tight timeline by claiming it had an “unusual and compelling” need to remove migrants due to anexecutive order issued by President Trump. But Trump’s order had been issued nearly five months earlier, CSI noted. “For five months, the Agency withheld notice from the public and kept the procurement behind closed doors—contradicting its own claim of ‘urgency,’” CSI alleged. “DHS ensured only a select few were aware of and able to compete for the contract, and affirmatively barred others—including CSI—from participating.”

The department’s request for proposals from potential contractors showed clear signs of haste, according to CSI. It was full of typos and other errors, “including listing the value of the procurement at $95 million instead of $915 million,” the company’s filing said.

Questions about the Salus award come amid a broader criticism of the department’s contracting process under DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

CSI also said that DHS “inexplicably removed” an online contracting notice in May after CSI asked about submitting a proposal, and that DHS never responded to the company.

CSI and an attorney representing the company did not respond to requests for comment.

As the lawsuit over its contract continues, Salus appears to be gearing up. The company is currently hiring for more than 20 positions, including aviation security jobs.

Questions about the Salus award come amid a broader criticism of the department’s contracting process under Noem. In June, she issued a new policy requiring that she personally approve any spending worth more than $100,000, which has created large backlogs of unapproved contracts, according to multiple reports.

Noem and her adviser Corey Lewandowski, who is working as a special government employee, have also reportedly involved themselves in DHS contracts awarded as part of the self-deportation program. In February, the department, on an expedited basis, doled out contracts to two GOP-connected firms to craft ads encouraging undocumented immigrants to self-deport, part of a $200million TV ad blitz featuring Noem. One of those firms is owned by a Louisiana-based political consultant who has previously worked with Lewandowski.

After Noem and Lewandowski visited a Palantir facility in March, “Lewandowski told officials at the Department of Homeland Security to give the firm additional work,” the Wall Street Journal reported. DHS expanded Palantir’s contract to assist the administration in tracking self-deportations. (Lewandowski denied he played a role.)

Noemclaimed in [VID] August that “hundreds of thousands of people have left on their own” outside of the DHS program encouraging them to leave. Government data released through Freedom of Information Act requests suggests the number was around 4,200 in July.

A DHS spokesperson told Mother Jones that “tens of thousands of illegal aliens have utilized the CBP Home app,” and said the effort is part of a successful policy. “The results speak for themselves: 2 million illegal immigrants have left the United States population since January 20,” the spokesperson said via email.

The department declined to address questions about the Salus contract.

“DHS will not comment on pre-decisional procurement matters, nor will the Department speculate on contractor motivations or individual political views,” the spokesperson said. “All DHS acquisitions are subject to applicable federal procurement laws and oversight, which ensure transparency, competition, and the prudent use of taxpayer funds.”

*This story was reported with theProject on Government Oversight.

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an 3 26

IFrame Content

Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will reportedly leave behind a major mass of pending contracts when she exits the agency, according to Axios, the result of a system she paradoxically implemented to cut down on "waste."

President Donald Trump announced last week that he would be removing Noem from her position at DHS at the end of March, amid reports that he was furious with her for claiming he had signed off on a controversial $220 million ad campaign. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin was nominated to replace her, while she will be moved to a role within the "Shield of the Americas" defense program.

In a report from Wednesday morning, Axios revealed that Noem will be leaving behind "dozens of pending contracts on her desk" by the time she leaves DHS. This pile-up resulted from her demand as secretary that all contracts valued at $100,000 or more be personally reviewed and approved by her. Even before her pending departure, this new system had caused major delays and disruptions for contractors and vendors.

"The impact of Noem's policy can be seen in delayed DHS payments to vendors, causing disruptions now being compounded by the shutdown," Axios explained. "Dozens of ICE facilities currently holding detainees have contract extensions waiting for Noem's signature and are awaiting payments, two sources familiar with the agreements told Axios. An agreement with Camp East Montana, an immigration facility in Texas that ICE data indicate held almost 3,000 people a day in mid-February, expired at the end of February."

"From everything that I've heard, it's still a giant s—— show up there," an anonymous source with knowledge of the situation told Axios. "

Beyond just the contracts, this demand for personal approval has caused an overall delay in DHS's ability to pursue Trump's key goals, including his mass deportation promises and his much-desired southern border wall. The allocation of disaster relief by FEMA has also been slowed down considerably, leaving some concerned about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters.

"The ramifications of her tenure are going to be felt for years and years and years and years," the same source added. "We're not really going to know exactly how bad it is until we have a major hurricane that unfortunately impacts someplace in the United States."

"There's a mountain of backed-up contracts and invoices on her desk that the new guy will just have to deal with," another anonymous source said.

Corey Lewandowski, Noem's "special government employee" and de facto chief of staff, defended her system and claimed that it saved the department $15 billion, though he declined to confirm whether or not he would recommend that Mullin continue approving contracts in the same manner.

//

Corey Lewandowski was unconcerned with laws while working at the Department of Homeland Security, staff told the New York Post.

In a tell-all piece, staff who worked under outgoing DHS Secretary Noem and Lewandowski revealed details of their work environment.

It's consistent with what Lewandowski said last year, according to another Post report. In that case, Lewandowski alleged he can “do whatever the f—— I want. President Donald [Trump] will pardon me."

The comment was a flippant aside during discussions of official actions, the source said.

Noem was fired by a Truth Social post last week after several tumultuous days testifying about the misappropriation of funds for DHS. Both Noem and Lewandowski are slated to leave the department this month.

One source said that Lewandowski “was telling people he was going to get [a] pardon so he didn’t have to worry."

It's unclear what Lewandowski has done in his capacity at DHS that could necessitate a pardon, but it is now likely to raise red flags to lawmakers conducting oversight on Capitol Hill.

Four other sources told the Post that they didn't hear the remark, but acknowledged it sounded like something he would say.

"Both sources who recounted Lewandowski’s pardon boast heard it as an all-encompassing declaration of immunity from a wide range of alleged professional and personal misconduct, exemplifying what critics view as a years-long power trip," said the report.

“Never said that. Never asked for a pardon and have no reason to receive one,” he denied when asked for comment by the Post.

During Lewandowski's tenure in the office, anything related to Noem was tightly controlled. This includes approving federal contracts.

NBC News reported last Thursday that Trump was asking whether Lewandowski personally profited from the $220 million ad campaign featuring Noem. Allegations around who approved the contracts and why they were so expensive have sparked questions by lawmakers about whether Noem and those connected to her were enriching themselves using federal taxpayer dollars.

“Corey has always behaved like the rules don’t apply to him. People around Trumpworld have been waiting to see how that ends,” one former Trump campaign adviser told the Post.

Speaking before the Senate, Noem threw Trump under the bus when asked about the advertising funds, saying that he approved them, which Trump has denied. However, the “final straw,” came when Noem gave a "sputtering non-denial of having sexual relations with Lewandowski," the report said.

In the past, Noem and Lewandowski have denied their relationship.

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an 3 26

Dems kick Kristi Noem while she's down with new investigation - Alternet.org

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Noem tapped 28-year-old to carry out 'possibly criminal' contracts scandal - Alternet.org

AN 3 26

Outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is embroiled in a scandal involving public contracts for the millions she spent on ads for recruitment videos for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has now been revealed that the staffer whom Noem tapped to her former political director, Madison Sheahan, to handle funding.

NBC News reported on Thursday that the sum she managed was $100 million, but Washington Examiner reporter Anna Giaritelli noted on Friday that they "did some digging" and found that Sheahan oversaw the entire budget of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"The random helper was Madison Sheahan, a 2019 Ohio State University graduate who worked as Noem's political director when she was South Dakota governor. Sheahan was roughly 23-25 years old at the time. Last year, at the approximate age of 28 (give or take a year) and with no immigration law experience, Sheahan was tapped by Kristi Noem to oversee ICE's $9 billion budget," wrote Giaritelli.

She was responding to a comment from the Daily Wire's Luke Rosiak, who discovered that Sheahan didn't handle just one $100 million contract. She ordered that a second contract be given to the same firms.

"The contracts scandal at DHS is extremely bad, possibly criminal," wrote Rosiak on X.

"Noem claimed that 'career officials' somehow picked three firms connected to her politically as the only ones who should be able to bid on the $200M ads, just like 'career officials' kept [Corey] Lewandowski's time to make sure he didn't work more than 130 days per year, which would violate [Special Government Employees] SGE rules," he added.

Sheahan is now running for Congress in Ohio.

There have been huge conflicts at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General. The IG, appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote a letter saying that leaders under Noem "systematically obstructed" his inquiries, including a "specific pending criminal investigation."

"Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly?" asked Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. “That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’ve called for your resignation."

With Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) taking over the department, the IG will have a new opportunity to investigate any allegedly questionable behavior under Noem's leadership.

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FIRED AN 26 WHILE ON AIR?

'Reign of terror' over: Noem's alleged lover slammed by fellow Republicans - Alternet.org

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TRICIA FIRED 2 26 HEAT SHEILD?

AN 2 26

When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke at a press conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 13, she echoed President Donald Trump's claim that the Grand Canyon State is a hotbed of voter fraud. But when a reporter asked her for specific examples, Noem couldn't provide any and remarked, "Oh, I'm sure there's many of them."

In an opinion column published on February 17, MS NOW's Steve Benen emphasizes that MAGA Republicans have a pattern of making voter fraud claims but never offer concrete proof to back them up.

"The point of her trip to Arizona was to advance Republican conspiracy theories related to voting and election administration," Benen explains. "In fact, the South Dakotan insisted, during her trip, that Arizona is 'an absolute disaster' when it comes to elections…. When a reporter asked whether she was aware of any examples of voter fraud actually happening in the state, the secretary pointed to nothing."

Benen continues, "This led to ample pushback from state officials, who explained in detail that the state's system of elections is already secure and that they're already doing what Noem says needs to be done…. When a powerful federal official travels across the country to accuse a state of having a system of elections that's become 'an absolute disaster,' she really only has one job: Prove it. The very least Noem could have done is to offer one example of fraud."

The MS NOW columnist and "Rachel Maddow Show" producer notes that similarly, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) claims that undocumented immigrants are voting in U.S. elections in big numbers but never offers substantial proof to support his claims.

"It's worth emphasizing that after the 2020 election," Benen recalls, "Republicans thought they'd finally come up with a real example of voter fraud: A Nevada man named Donald Kirk Hartle claimed that someone had cast a ballot in the 2020 election on behalf of his late wife, who'd died three years earlier…. Except they were wrong."

Benen adds, "Hartle had lied and ultimately pleaded guilty to having cast the ballot himself. The single best example Republicans could come up with wasn't real. Six years later, Noem is 'sure' there are 'many'” such examples — but she just can't tell you about a single one."

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CORY GOT BADGE BUT NOT GUN? ~ GOT FIRED

FIRED COAST G PILOT WHO LOST SNUGEE BUT REHIRED TO FLY THEM HOME; PVT CABIN 737 MAX ALSO DEPORTS? 2 JETS WSJ?

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AN 2 26

Secretary Kristi Noem is facing another day of bad press as reports swirl about the "culture of fear" inside the Department of Homeland Security.

Axios and The Atlantic are both out with reports talking about Noem's abuse of staffers and her realization that she's likely to be impeached if she doesn't leave office.

TheAtlanticrevealed that someone placed a poll in the field in South Dakota to gauge Noem's popularity because she might challenge Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) for his seat. The report said that Noem is well aware she's not long for the Trump Cabinet and she's looking for a new job.

Over the past few weeks, reports have exposed the conflict between Noem and the U.S. Coast Guard, including her mistreatment of officials in the branch. An NBC News report said she demanded a plane being used for search-and-rescue be taken off a mission to be used for deportations. A Wall Street Journal report revealed she fired a Coast Guard pilot who left her blanket on a plane, only to realize she was stranded without him.

The same Wall Street Journalreport said Noem screamed about Tom Homan, the executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), who appeared on television more than she did.

Axios reported Friday that things are so bad at DHS that there is now a huge staffing shortage. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is down about 2,000 staffers.

The Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has also hemorrhaged top officials and staff, including the executive director. They're down about 1,000 people, and there hasn't been a Senate-confirmed leader for about a year.

At FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there are 1,600 fewer staff, Axios reported, citing anOffice of Management and Budget report. The Federal News Network reported that about 10 percent of DHS employees have quit in the last year since Noem took over.

Meanwhile, about 80 percent of ICE's career leadership has been fired or demoted, even as DHS is so desperate for more staff that it's offering $50,000 signing bonuses, Axios said.

One Washington Examiner report stated that Noem and her top aide, Corey Lewandowski, wanted Border Patrol Commissioner Rodney Scott to step down, so they launched their own pressure campaign. Axios characterized it as going to "extreme lengths" to get him to resign. The Border Patrol office lost "a century of combined experience" after firing its top leadership.

At the same time, White House aides aren't happy with Noem either, believing she relies too much on Lewandowski to run things while she has become the "face" of the department.

Democrats have told Noem to her face that she must resign. Republicans have followed suit, saying the same. One Illinois Democrat has already introduced articles of impeachment. Given the power balance in the House, the articles aren't likely to go anywhere. But if Democrats take over the House in November, that could change if Noem hasn't resigned already.

DHS spokespeople denied the reports.

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AN 2 26

Donald Trump has his own posse of "mean girls," and they have big plans for the midterms.

The Hill's Myra Adams on Fridaybroke down what she called Trump's group of MAGA "mean girls," four women in influential and highly visible positions within and adjacent to his administration. In addition to fueling his second-term ambitions, Adams warned that they are also plotting a "rampage" against the upcoming midterms.

Among this group are members of Trump's staff, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. The only non-appointee in the group, according to Adams, is far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who holds substantial sway over Trump despite not collecting a taxpayer-funded salary. Adams wrote that she first "zeroed in" on these women early on in Trump's second term, and as the months have gone by, their impact has "just kept getting worse."

Being the oldest among this group with the most high-profile jobs, Adams observed that Noem and Bondi are " role models," whose "unorthodox conduct is especially consequential and despicable." During her time in office, Bondi has demolished the wall of independence between the president and the Justice Department, effectively acting as Trump's own personal attorney. This was typified, Adams wrote, by a message to Bondi Trump shared on Truth Social last year explicitly ordering her to ramp up prosecutions against his perceived enemies.

Noem, meanwhile, has seemingly been competing with Bondi for generating "the most controversial headlines and cringeworthy videos for their presidential audience of one." In addition to her leadership making Trump's deportation agenda increasingly unpopular with voters, she has also become the subject of mockery for her tendency towards over-the-top outfits, which many critics have likened to costumes.

"Noem may never live down her infamous video from El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, where she posed before prisoners in a skin-tight top, form-fitting jeans, dazzling hair and a $50,000 Rolex," Adams wrote.

The youngest in the group, Leavitt's purpose within the administration has been to "intimidate anyone who dares contradict her version of the truth," with Adams suggesting that she would be more aptly known as the "White House director of propaganda."

"Laura Loomer’s job, so to speak, is to unearth disloyalty and report to Trump, her good friend," Adams wrote. "Those she targets are MAGA-marginalized or fired without recourse, regardless of rank or service to the nation. With her 'protect Trump at all costs' attitude, Loomer is a powerful force who regularly makes headlines. No one wants to be 'loomered.'"

Each of these women, Adams warned, is primed to play a major role in the White House's "rampage" against the midterm elections to prevent Democrats from taking power. Bondi is "intertwined" in Trump's efforts to delegitimize the results of the 2020 election, and could do much the same later this year.

"The midterms are coming, and Bondi knows that if Republicans lose control of either congressional chamber, there will be hell to pay," Adams wrote.

Noem has also recently been criticized for pledging efforts "to make sure that we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders..."

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AN 2 26

It's become accepted religion on MS-NOW political talk broadcasts – and in Democratic circles in and out of Congress — that one way or another, Donald Trump is actively aiming to disrupt the November elections.

The tools for disruption vary from Trump attempts to tilt the balloting rules orpush for gerrymandered districts to full-blown deployment of armed Homeland Security armies around voting precincts in at least 15 jurisdictions, picking up from Trump's own projections about where he intuits widespread voter fraud without a shred of evidence to persuade, say, a judge.

To a certain extent, then, Trump already has proved successful in at once annoying and frightening Americans with his ever-present, evidence-free, authoritarian push.

It is Trump, of course, who is pushing this argument by word and deed. Rather than accept that the slice of voters who decide between wins and losses is a relatively small, fickle group that drifts back and forth between parties, Trump cannot stomach a loss or even the suggestion that his every act is not adored by friend and foe alike. And so, we have White House trumpeting about "nationalizing" elections that are Constitutionally assigned to states, a public seizure of 2020 ballots in Atlanta, involvement of officials who have nothing to do with elections in precincts where Trump has suffered losses, redrawing of districts, and a so-far failing campaign to grab every state's voting rolls for Trump's own review.

It is Trump who is making clear that he wants to interfere and control elections before voting, in the actual submission of ballots, and, naturally, with the counting of votes. The goal in November is to retain majorities in both houses of Congress and the incessant questioning, oversight activities and possibilities of impeachment that could follow a return of a Democratic majority in even one house.

What Evidence?

Much as Fox, Newsmax and other outlets on the right regularly promote deportation efforts and the need to preserve voting from undue, "fraudulent" voting by immigrants, the MS-NOW crowd of regulars sees a different reality in Trump's dedicated march to undercut voting by making the process more difficult and results always questionable.

Both sides repeat their vents over election tactics endlessly, to the exclusion of other public issues also in contention.

The difference, of course, is that the MS-NOW pundits base their thinking on plethora of actions as well as statements that offer warning signs, on scores of court decisions that have found the "fraud" and "rigging" of elections arguments to be without merit, and on current laws in states that already bar voting by non-citizens and voter registration processes in most states that require showing various documents to be eligible to vote even in local elections.

The "pro-democracy" pundits are reacting to welcomed pressure on the White House coming from Steve Bannon, among others within MAGA, to do anything, including deploying military troops or paramilitary border police to surround polls, discourage voting even in person, and, naturally to eliminate such efforts as mail ballots that encourage more voting, not less.

This weekend, Trump promised on social media that he would issue an executive order to require voters to show identification in the midterm elections even if Congress does not do so. Trump posted, "There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!"

Trump has already attempted to use an executive order to alter voting laws last March, but in January, a federal judge threw it out, finding that the president does not have the authority to unilaterally alter election procedures.

Trump is stumping for something called The SAVE Act in Congress, which would require voters to show passport or other documents each time they vote – and would require all states to turnover state voter rolls loaded with personal information to Trump's government, presumably for unspecified checks against citizenship records. For anyone who has worked with data, name checks are the worst possible way to match records because of name or initial changes, spellings, relocations among jurisdictions. Voter rolls do not list who actually voted, just who once registered.

Like most legislation, there is some kernel that makes sense, but partisan disagreement about its effects, about how it would be used, and the broader un-Constitutionality of putting the feds in charge of activity directly assigned to states.

A Campaign Against Voting

Taken together, Trump's activities towards elections past and present show a consistent line: He wants to sow distrust for the results. On some level, it makes no sense. He supported the outcome of the same voting techniques and procedures when he won in 2016 and 2024, but not 2020 – or apparently in the looming November results.

For those who followed the investigations of activities ending in the Jan. 6, 2021, efforts to remain in office despite election results, it feels all too familiar. These are the same drumbeats that Special Counsel Jack Smith was prepared to prosecute as illegal conspiracy to overturn election law.

Trump does not help himself in these matters when, as over the weekend, he takes his tales of election woe to a military base in North Carolina, in a partisan address to Fort Bragg soldiers in blatant violation of military tradition, if not law. Trump does not help his credibility by sending Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence to participate in a search warrant seizure of ballots in Atlanta, or dispatching Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem to Arizona over securing voter rolls. Rather, those come across to the public as sending willing co-conspirators in what seem warning signals that this federal government will intervene in state elections.

Here was Noem in an Arizona interview: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure that we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country." Regardless of party, how are we not supposed to take this as between inappropriate and dangerous?

What most ails our voting in this country is that its residents don't vote. A 60 percent turnout is considered high. Only Trump sees widespread fraud – especially when the same exact ballot elects those Republicans in Congress or state legislatures who must carry out Trump's assault on voting focused on minority precincts in states whose outcomes he did not like.

What most ails our Trump administration about voting is that it seeks to depress the vote, and uses the hammer of immigration as a supposed explanation for what seems genuinely widespread unhappiness with most of Trump's policies about tariffs and prices, access to health care and childcare, a vastly growing gap between rich and poor, the abuse of the Justice Department and FBI towards partisan political ends, its opposition to climate concerns and the promotion of self-aggrandizing schemes for Trump's own family, friends and backers, and the attack on democracy itself.

Watch for the actions as well as bluster of Truth Social posts.

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noem boyfriend

CORRUPT BEN YOHO NO BID ADS TRICIA

AN 2 26

Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, is considering a run for governor of New Hampshire, Politico reported Thursday.

The report comes as the White House weighs backing a primary challenge against current Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R).

“Governor is the only job in politics I would ever consider giving up what I am currently doing for,” Lewandowski told Politico.

According to the report, he did not indicate whether the potential run had been discussed with the White House.

The possible candidacy comes amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and Ayotte over redistricting.

The White House is reportedly frustrated with Ayotte’s resistance to redrawing congressional maps that would strengthen Republican control of the U.S. House ahead of the midterms.

The report noted that Lewandowski’s role at DHS has drawn internal scrutiny. Initially appointed as a special governmental employee, a position limited to 130 days of unpaid work per year, questions have emerged about how his time is being counted.

Despite the temporary designation, he has wielded significant influence, with current and former administration officials saying he has veto power over DHS contracts and grants exceeding $100,000.

He is listed on the agency's website as a chief adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and is regularly seen traveling with her.

Speculation about Lewandowski’s future at DHS intensified this week amid reports he might be leaving the department.

Lewandowski addressed the rumors in a post on the social platform X Wednesday night, writing, “I thought it only fitting today to share the words of the famous Mark Twain … ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.’ Lots of Fake News out there… don’t believe the MSM.”

He previously floated a 2020 Senate bid against Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, which failed to gain traction within the state’s GOP establishment.

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Right-wing media miss the mark on explaining wildfire recovery in Los Angeles

The Trump administration has denied Los Angeles $34 billion in disaster relief

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

:{:{Published 02/11/26}:

Experts are skeptical about whether federal agencies even have the authority to implement the executive order, and survivors say a lack of access to money to fund construction is more of a barrier to rebuilding than permitting. Meanwhile, DHS has reportedly created a “$17 billion bottleneck” that is impeding federal disaster response, and the administration denied Los Angeles $34 billion in disaster relief.

Right-wing media insisted that climate change had nothing to do with the wildfires, despite the clear connection, and instead blamed forest mismanagement and water policies. In reality, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water policies have no relationship to the LA fires or low water pressure in fire hydrants, debunking another popular narrative on the right, while the conditions driving the fires and their clear connections to climate change were dismissed. PBS News, [_{8/9/21;}_Media Matters, 1/10/25, 1/10/25, 1/15/25]

Hannity, 1/28/26]

MMA //

  1. ### Right-wing media personalities seize on arson charge to falsely deny the role of climate change in Palisades Fire

:{:{10/10/25}:

  1. ### Fox News is mostly silent on Trump's ill-advised and dangerous release of water in California after weeks of attacking the state’s water policies

:{:{02/07/25}:

  1. ### Trump’s executive order on California water policy canonized right-wing media misinformation about the LA fires

01/24/2

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// recruit gun nuts, proud boy?

an 2 26

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), led by Secretary Kristi Noem, hired 21-year-old Peyton Rollins — a former U.S. Labor Department employee — to help manage its social media accounts. But the hire is now being scrutinized by the New York Times, which reports that Rollins made posts on Labor Department accounts that "raised internal alarms over possible white-nationalist messaging."

Times reporter Evan Gorelick, in an article published early Wednesday morning, February 11, explains, "Mr. Rollins has spent most of the past year giving the Labor Department's social media pages a makeover in Mr. Trump's image. Current and former employees said career staff members had been pushed aside after Mr. Rollins' arrival and rarely, if ever, crafted social media posts once he took control. Instead, Mr. Rollins personally posted social media content, which he has included on his personal website."

Recent federal government posts, according to Gorelick, "have used evocative imagery, some reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s, with phrases like 'Restore American Greatness' and 'he globalist status quo is OVER.'"

"During the period when those posts were made," Gorelick reports, "the department's social media following exploded, even as colleagues warned superiors that the department's accounts could be seen as promoting white-supremacist rhetoric, Nazi imagery and QAnon conspiracy theories. Some employees who have since left the Labor Department said that the agency's posts had grown increasingly questionable."

Gorelick notes that according to "dozen internal e-mails and Microsoft Teams conversations obtained by The New York Times," Rollins' co-workers "expressed personal discomfort with the posts, cited data showing engagement with right-wing extremists, and urged a more moderate messaging style."

Former Labor Department employee Egan Reich, who spent 15 years with the agency before leaving in April 2025, told the Times, "It's incredibly chilling and disappointing, and I do feel it diminishes the work my colleagues and I did over the years to educate people about the government."

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AN 2 26

Panicked Republicans warn 'something is seriously wrong' with Kristi Noem

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MMA

Fox misleadingly claimed that a government shutdown would impede relief for winter storms, glossing over the real threat to disaster-stricken communities

Disaster management experts say that the agency has enough funding to support current relief efforts – but ongoing aid has been held up by Kristi Noem’s “$17 billion bottleneck”

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Published 02/03/26

The Associated Press reported that disaster management experts and former FEMA officials said that the agency has enough funding — $7 billion to $8 billion — to support current relief efforts even in the event of a government shutdown.

While Fox personalities are expressing concern about the fate of FEMA, they’re glossing over the real issues impeding federal disaster response, including staff and program cuts along with Noem’s requirement that any expenses over $100,000 be personally approved by her office.

The network’s approach is part of an ongoing trend since Trump took office — a particularly cynical one given how critical the network has been of disaster response under Democratic leadership.

In April, Trump canceled a FEMA program that allocated billions of dollars in disaster preparedness grants to “help local, state and tribal governments protect residents from future disasters such as floods, wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes,” NPR explained. Even some Republicans like Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have asked Trump to reconsider the cuts because, as Cassidy said, the program providing the grants “protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run. That’s efficient in my book.” Truthout, [7/12/25; NPR, 5/1/25; Cassidy.Senate.gov, 4/10/25]}:

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AN 2 26

President Donald Trump has frequently had to answer for one of his top advisors, who has angered everyone from ordinary Americans, to Republican senators and even CEOs of public traded corporations. However, the president has yet to take any concrete action to limit his influence and power.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller – who has been a key member of Trump's inner circle since his first administration – is an increasingly divisive figure in the president's second term. Trump's hardline immigration enforcement tactics seen in Minneapolis and Chicago are the brainchild of Miller, who convinced the president to center his 2024 campaign on immigration rather than the economy.

However, the Trump administration's actions in Minneapolis – which include the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti — have put Miller in the spotlight. After Pretti was killed, the deputy White House chief of staff asserted that Pretti was an "assassin" wanted to do "maximum damage to law enforcement." This is despite ample video evidence showing the 37 year-old ICU nurse never reached for his gun, let alone threatened federal agents.

The Journal's Josh Dawsey and Tarini Parti wrote in their report that "cracks have appeared" in the Oval Office, as the administration faces mounting pressure over its heavy-handed tactics.

"The president, aware of polls showing that much of his immigration agenda isn’t popular, has told advisers he wasn’t comfortable with how far Miller has gone on some fronts, according to people who have spoken with Trump," the Journal reported. "The president has said that business officials are calling and complaining to him about longtime workers being thrown out of the country."

Miller has also attracted the ire of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has called on both Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired. The retiring Republican senator accused both Miller and Noem of taking Trump's strongest issue and turning it into a liability for Republicans ahead of the midterms.

"That is amateur hour at its worst,” Tillis said, adding, “Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence.”

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AN 1 26

Although President Donald Trump's overall approval ratings are weak, he continues to poll well among his hardcore MAGA base — including far-right white Christian fundamentalist evangelicals. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her allies in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are using Christian nationalist arguments to recruit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, quoting scripture in videos posted on Instagram.

But Never Trump conservative Peter Wehner, in an article published by The Atlantic on January 20, argues that the Trump Administration's militarized ICE raids are inconsistent with traditional "Christian values."

To make his point, Wehner references Tobias Cremer — a member of the European Parliament and author of the 2023 book, "The Godless Crusade."

"Right-wing populists don't view Christianity as a faith; rather, Cremer suggests, they use Christianity as a cultural identity marker of the 'pure people' against external 'others,' while in many cases remaining disconnected from Christian values, beliefs, and institutions," Wehner explains. "Many right-wing populists, despite being secular, are successfully recruiting Christians to their cause. And rather than Christians leavening the secular right-wing movements, those movements are prying Christianity further and further away from the ethic and teachings of Jesus."

Wehner continues, "The Trump Administration has gone one step further, inverting authentic Christian faith by selling, in a dozen different ways, cruelty and the will to power in the name of Jesus. It has welcomed Christians into a theological twilight zone, where the beatitudes are invoked on behalf of a political movement with authoritarian tendencies."

The Never Trump conservative notes that Christianity, over the years, has had "glorious moments" as well as "some very dark turns."

"Huge numbers of American fundamentalists and evangelicals — not just cultural Christians, but also, those who faithfully attend church and Bible-study sessions and prayer gatherings — prefer the MAGA Jesus to the real Jesus," Wehner laments. "Few of them would say so explicitly, though, because the cognitive dissonance would be too unsettling. And so, they have worked hard to construct rationalizations. It's rather remarkable, really, to see tens of millions of Christians validate, to themselves and to one another, a political movement led by a malignant narcissist — who is driven by hate and bent on revenge, who mocks the dead, and who delights in inflicting pain on the powerless."

Wehner adds, "The wreckage to the Christian faith is incalculable, yet most evangelicals will never break with him. They have invested too much of themselves and their identity in Trump and what he stands for. This moment, and what it reveals about American Christianity, will be studied for a long time to come."

*Peter Wehner's full article for The Atlantic is available at this link (subscription required).

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an 1 26

'Hundreds of projects' sit 'frozen' on Noem’s desk after she demands to approve funding

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AN 1 26

Roughly two and one-half weeks after the fatal January 7 shooting of motorist Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) agent, yet another Minneapolis resident was fatally shot during a protest in the city: 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti, who worked in an internal care unit in a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller are claiming that Pretti was shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents in self-defense, noting that he was carrying a concealed weapon. But critics of President Donald Trump's ICE raids in Minneapolis are countering Pretti never pointed the gun at Border Patrol agents and that he was shot after being forced onto the ground and disarmed.

In an article published on Monday, January 26 — two days after Pretti's death — Salon's Amanda Marcotte offers a blistering critique of the response that far-right white evangelicals have had to the unrest in Minneapolis.

"The Christian Right will never turn down an opportunity to make false accusations of religious persecution," Marcotte argues. "These days, they're especially eager to play the victim. Doing so allows them to distract from the ugly reality that they, in voting for Donald Trump, have helped to unleash in Minnesota: A woman killed in front of her wife, children ripped from their parents, a baby nearly killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents firing tear gas at a family driving home from a basketball game. On Saturday, there was another unjustifiable shooting. Video appears to show 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive-care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, helping a woman to her feet when Border Patrol agents swarm and pepper-spray him — and then shoot him in the head."

Marcotte adds, "All this, though, apparently pales in comparison to a more serious form of oppression: right-wing Christians being told it's immoral to support a brutal, racist assault on their neighbors."

The Salon journalist is referring to a Sunday, January 18 protest in which activists disrupted a service at the evangelical Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota because one of the pastors, David Easterwood, is an ICE field director in the area. MAGA Republicans, from Noem to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, described that disruption as an attack on religious freedom — an argument Marcotte considers disingenuous.

Tim Whitaker, a former Christian nationalist, told Salon, "Cities Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which was founded in 1845 over the right to own slaves. This church should be disrupted. As far as I'm concerned, Jesus would've been right with those protesters…. (Cities Church) is home to a pastor that works for a federal agency kidnapping brown-skinned immigrants and killing unarmed citizens."

Marcotte notes that one of the protesters arrested during the January 18 protest at Cities Church is herself an ordained Christian minister.

"Unfortunately, the right's histrionic language about 'religious freedom' has cowed many centrists and even liberals into thinking the protesters who interrupted a single church service are in the wrong," Marcotte writes. "Instead, they should be applauded as following the tradition of Jesus himself confronting the moneychangers in the temple."

Religious freedom means the right to worship as you see fit. By the same token, it also allows everyone else the right to question what churches are teaching — especially when they impact people and communities outside the church doors."

Marcotte adds, "In an era when Christian churches are condoning outright evil actions such as ICE’s deadly rampage through Minnesota, it’s more important than ever to not allow this dishonest definition of 'religious freedom' browbeat the rest of us into silence over spiritual oppression."

Amanda Marcotte's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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AN 1 26

President Donald Trump's administration frequently requests that the left stop using inflammatory language, accusing them of being Nazis or white supremacists. Former MSNOW host Mehdi Hasan responded that the administration should address such concerns first.

Hasan, who founded Zeteo News, wrote in a column for The Guardian on Thursday arguing that government officials with connections to extremist movements are employed in the Trump administration.

Hasan cited recent social media posts and referenced the 1978 book Which Way, Western Man by William Gayley Simpson, noting that phrases from the book have appeared in recent government communications.

A meme posted by the Department of Homeland Security regarding Greenland asks, "Which way, American man?"

Hasan argues that this phrase echoes language that has circulated on far-right internet forums. A second meme from the White House featured the caption "Which way, Greenland man?"

According to Hasan's column, official government accounts have posted content that researchers say contains imagery and language associated with extremist movements.

The Department of Labor posted a video with the caption "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage." Another Department of Labor post stated "America is for Americans."

Hasan notes that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem used the phrase "One of ours, all of yours," which Holocaust historian Page Herrlinger connected to historical references.

Hasan references White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller's speech at Charlie Kirk's memorial service. Snopes analyzed the speech and noted similarities to other historical speeches.

Dalton Henry Stout, identified as founder of the Aryan Freedom Network, stated in August: "[Trump] awakened a lot of people to the issues we've been raising for years. He's the best thing that's happened to us."

Stout added, "Our side won the election."

Hasan lists several examples throughout his column of government communications and staffing decisions he says warrant scrutiny.

In his conclusion, Hasan distinguishes between political disagreement and substantive concerns about staffing and messaging. He writes: "This is about government employees and their communications, as well as the rhetoric used in official capacity."

Read the full column here.

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AN 1 26

A Reagan-appointed federal judge declared that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had “conspired” to chill First Amendment rights in a case involving pro-Palestinian student protesters.

Senior Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, on Thursday said that Rubio and Noem had “failed in their duty to uphold the constitution,” as Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported.

Judge Young’s remarks were reported in real time by journalists covering the proceedings and shared on social media as the hearing unfolded.

“What happened here is an unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people, to twist the laws,” Judge Young said, denouncing the lack of any actual policy. “Two cabinet secretaries conspired … they intentionally, knowing what they were doing, counseled by professionals who cautioned them, nevertheless went ahead to pick off these people with the intention that your clients would be chilled. And did so rather effectively, by the way.”

Judge Young, 85, also invoked President Donald Trump.

“The big problem in this case,” Young said, “is that the cabinet secretaries and ostensibly the president of the United States are not honoring the First Amendment.”

Young, who has served on the bench for over four decades, continued, saying, “let’s talk the truth here,” as he denounced decisions made at DHS that directed professionals to be “taken off anti-terrorist investigations.”

“They were taken off human trafficking investigations all to look up … what dirt they could find on this group … the very highest levels of the DHS decided – that’s the best use of those people.”

He called it “chapter and verse about how the government can be weaponized against a disfavored group.”

According to All Rise News editor-in-chief Adam Klasfeld, Judge Young also slammed President Trump.

“It’s fairly clear that this President believes, as an authoritarian, when he speaks, everyone, everyone, in Article II, is going to toe the line absolutely.”

According to Reuters, Judge Young indicated that he would issue an order presuming immigration actions against the plaintiffs’ members were retaliatory unless the government could prove otherwise in court.

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an 1 26

Top aide to President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, spoke to Fox News on Tuesday, and one legal expert says he may have just made things worse for the administration.

According to Evan Bernick, associate professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law, both Miller and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are creating a paper trail that will not work out well for them.

DHS posted the interview with Miller in which he tells Fox: “To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist — can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. The Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”

Bernick commented, "I encourage the administration to continue to leave a paper trail for future lawsuits — which are inevitable, because following this advice will lead to civil rights violations."

Qualified immunity, as explained by the Legal Defense Fund, personally protects government officials, including cops, when they're sued.

"The doctrine holds that officials who violate other people’s constitutional rights can only be held responsible if there exists a previous court decision, with very similar facts, that resulted in other officials being held accountable. Qualified immunity has been used in many cases to protect officials who have engaged in a variety of misconduct, including fatal shootings, police brutality, stealing, sexual misconduct, and more."

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AN 1 26

A prominent Democrat is demanding to know how many January 6 “insurrectionists” have been hired by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as critics warn that federal agents under President Donald Trump are increasingly engaging in violent enforcement actions.

“We know that several participants in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have been rewarded with high-ranking positions in the Department of Justice (DOJ),” U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

“However, it remains unclear how many more have been invited to join the ranks of this Administration, including among the masked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and officers that have dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, shot, and killed citizens and non-citizens alike in communities across the country,” he added.

According to Raskin, Jared Wise, a former Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “stormed his way into the Capitol Building” on January 6, 2021.

“As he did so, he taunted and threaten police officers defending the building and the ones inside, screaming: ‘You guys are disgusting. I’m former—I’m former law enforcement. You’re disgusting.”

Raskin included additional language attributed to Wise, then wrote that he “has never expressed remorse or contrition for his criminal actions.”

Wise was pardoned by President Donald Trump, along with nearly 1,600 others, “including hundreds of cop beaters.”

“Today, Mr. Wise serves as senior adviser in the office of the Deputy Attorney General, alongside another January 6th participant, Ed Martin, the U.S. Pardon Attorney and head of the DOJ Weaponization Working Group,” Raskin wrote.

Congressman Raskin also blasted the recruitment and vetting processes being used by the Trump administration.

“For its part, DHS seems to be courting pardoned January 6th insurrectionists. It uses white nationalist ‘dog whistles’ in its recruitment campaign for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that appear aimed at stirring members of extremist militias, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters, which participated in the insurrection,” he stated. “The recruitment campaign began with a $50,000 sign-on bonus, removal of the college degree requirement, and a relaxed vetting process.”

“Who is hiding behind these masks?” Raskin demanded to know. “How many of them were among the violent rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th and were convicted of their offenses? The American people deserve to know how many of these violent insurrectionists have been given guns and badges by this Administration.”

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AN 1 26

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made news on Sunday after an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, who pulled frank answers from her that viewers found shocking or, at the very least, hypocritical.

At one point, Tapper called out Noem for obfuscating after he asked about the investigation into last week's fatal shooting by an ICE agent.

"I don't actually even know what you're talking about when I ask questions as if that's an assertion," Tapper said. It's a question: How can you make a conclusion before an investigation, and there really isn't an answer other than you saw the video."

Tapper then played a clip of the Jan. 6 attackon Congress and asked Noem about her claim that President Donald Trump is "enforcing all the laws equally."

"Faced with the hypocrisy, the Trump administration doesn't shy away from looking journalists in the eye and telling the American people don't believe their eyes. This is all out fascism," said political and legal analyst Sara Spector.

"It’s [okay] for Trump supporters to beat cops is what @kristinoem basically acknowledged with her BS blather non- answer," said former GOP congresswoman, Barbara Comstock.

Media producer Susan Borden, commented in all capital letters that this was a different standard.

"That's the crux of it. One of the defining traits of Trumpism. Based on Trump Admin's pattern of actions, they don't believe all are equal under the law OR in the civil rights guaranteed by our Constitution. President [Joe] Biden and VP [Kamala] Harris warned about this clearly," she added.

"Noem is a liar and her agency is filled with liars," said MS NOWcolumnist Philip Bump.

"I give Jake Tapper a lot of s——. ... But if members of Operation Scum and Villainy want to go on TV, this is how you interview them. Simple really. Facts. Truth. They are allergic to it. Kudos," said filmmaker and musician Cam Miller.

The Bulwark posted a clipof Tapper asking Noem whether it was the ICE agent who shot Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis mom who died on Wednesday, who calls the woman a "f—— b——." All Noem could say was that it "could be."

They also posted a clipof Noem claiming, "Everything that I've said has been proven to be factual."

Tapper replied, "The first thing you said was 'Our ICE officers were out in an enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow…They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.' That's not what happened. We all saw what happened."

"Sometimes credibility requires acknowledging when you have made inaccurate statements," said healthcare lawyer Tim Geverd.

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June 10, 2025

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to take a step toward circumventing federal laws that bar the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement in a letter she sent to the Department of Defense Sunday as the National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles amid mass protests over immigration raids.

In a letter obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle, Noem wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the Pentagon should direct military forces "to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them."

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement without the authorization of Congress.

Noem called on the DOD to "support to our law enforcement officers and agents across Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Federal Protective Services (FPS), as they defend against invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens."

Noem did not specify the so-called "identified foreign terrorist organizations" that she claimed are involved in the protests that have erupted in Los Angeles in recent days in response to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in which 118 immigrants were arrested last week.

President Donald Trump has referred to the protests against his mass deportation operation as "riots," and has claimed those attending the demonstrations are "insurrectionists," but the protests were reported to be "largely peaceful" before Trump ordered more than 2,000 members of the California National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday.

On Monday, 700 Marines were also deployed.

Syracuse University law professor William Banks told the Chronicle that Noem's request for members of the military to arrest protesters whom she labeled "lawbreakers" could be a step toward "the invocation of the Insurrection Act."

The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 when Los Angeles residents erupted in fury over the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers who had been filmed savagely beating Rodney King, a black man who they had pulled over after a high-speed chase.

The 1792 law authorizes the president to deploy military forces domestically to suppress rebellions or unrest, when local or state law enforcement is unable to control the situation.

But Stephen Dycus, a professor emeritus at Vermont Law and Graduate School and an expert in national security law, emphasized that local authorities did not appear to lose control of the protests over the weekend.

Noem's requests for military arrests, along with Trump's federalization of the National Guard and deployment of the Marines, "can be seen as using the military, or at a minimum using that threat, to instill fear in the American people and discourage the kinds of protests that are going on in Los Angeles," Dycus told the Chronicle. "So this could be viewed as a preparation for invoking the Insurrection Act, or it could be viewed as part of a larger effort to frighten people who otherwise would exercise their First Amendment guarantee of free speech and protest."

Banks called Noem's push for military detentions of Los Angeles residents "a grave escalation."

The secretary indicated in her letter to Hegseth that she would send a formal request in the coming days. She also called for "the transportation of munitions" from Fort Benning and Wyoming, but did not say what the weapons would be used for.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-11) said Trump's use of the military to suppress protests—which began when ICE agents searched the garment district of Los Angeles for undocumented workers—proves his mass deportation campaign "has nothing to do with deporting criminals and everything to do with creating a militarized terror police state."

"This isn't what happens in a democracy," Wiener told the Chronicle, "this is what happens in a dictatorship."

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1 26 cowgirl camo podium minn good shoot lies

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AN 12 25

After President Donald Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House, the administration is now looking at 17 other sites it hopes to bulldoze to the ground. According to The Washington Post and The Daily Beast, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem invoked a national emergency to justify the move.

Just two days before Christmas, the General Services Administration (GSA) told the city of Washington, D.C., "it was planning an emergency demolition of 17 historic buildings because they constitute a present risk to life and property,” the Post said.

Noem says the buildings constitute “a present risk to life and property” because some of them sit on the DHS’ West Campus complex. The area is a vast achoridge with tall mature trees and a small pond.

The vacant buildings being torn down would give the government a “tactical advantage” in any possible “active shooter scenarios.” ALICE'sActive Shooter Response Training clocks that the average mass shooting ends in just five minutes. Far fewer mass shootings happen in or around law enforcement agencies compared to schools. Still, the Dec. 19 memo from Noem fantasized about a "malicious insider" or "disgruntled DHS employee or contractor" who could enter the complex and use the empty buildings to carry out a sniper-style shooting.

The building Noem wants to see gone is St. Elizabeths, which was a first government psychiatric hospital. It was built in 1855. It became a national landmark in 1990.

President Trump stated during the campaign that he supported reopening state-run mental health institutions. In fact, Trump's "crime" executive order goes so far as to direct federal agencies to encourage states to use "civil commitments" to put the severely mentally ill into a long-term institutional setting.

As NPR reported, "In the mid-to-late 20th century, America closed most of the country's mental hospitals."

GSA spokesperson Marianne Copenhaver told The Post via email that Homeland Security alerted the agency about “a present security risk to life and property” at St. Elizabeths “that may require us to demolish buildings.”

“Accordingly, we are following all applicable laws and regulations to address those issues,” she said.

"If these buildings are considered such a security threat, DHS should first reevaluate the location of its perimeter security fence, as suggested in early consultation meetings," wrote Elizabeth Merritt, the deputy general counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, in a statement to the Daily Mail.

"If the space within these vacant buildings is accessible, that’s because DHS and GSA have failed to effectively secure them," Merritt and Miller said.

Among the buildings are four Allison buildings, the East lodge, the greenhouses, the creamery staff house and residence, and the Linden and Holly wards.

The Allison group of buildings was established as a home for disabled veterans. The Linden and Holly wards housed white female epileptics, a condition that, in many, can now be treated with medication. The East Lodge segregated female African-American patients, the Daily Mail said, citing St. Elizabeths, A History, a 2013 document by the GSA.

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AN 12 25

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a pro-Donald Trump think tank run by his former chief of staff, helped secure a $1 billion Department of Homeland Security contract tied to new planes for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Noemhas already spent $200 million on a pair of luxury Gulfstream G700 private jets for her team during a government shutdown.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the fast-tracked contract is closely linked to AFPI’s top donor. That donor, William Walters, runs the company that received a separate $140 million Noem-approved contract to buy six Boeing 737 planes for use in deportations, as the Post reported last week.

Under the larger deal, AFPI is set to oversee “Project Homecoming,” which will deport people the administration deems unlawfully present to their home countries or to third countries.

"The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls 'self-deportation,'" the report explained.

"The larger contract involves a DHS program called Project Homecoming that offers cash bonuses, free flights and a 'concierge service' at airports for departing migrants," the report said. "The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls “self-deportation.”

DHS claimed that the nonpartisan federal officials ensure the legitimacy of contracting decisions. Indeed, they do, but not in this case. The Post obtained emails exposing that it was the political appointees who chose the Meadows outfit for the $1 billion contract.

The main contract went to an Arlington-based firm, Salus Worldwide Solutions, incorporated in 2023, which advertises expertise in coordinating international travel, disaster relief, and security facilities. It has never previously held a federal contract, but documents show Walters, its CEO, is a major donor to AFPI.

DHS promoted its self-deportation program with various reels, including a vintage messagetrying to make it sound like self-deportation could earn them money.

Read the full report here.

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AN 12 25

Federal law enforcement agencies are detaining US citizens who do not carry proof of their citizenship in what civil rights advocates describe as a flagrant violation of constitutional rights—and a top Trump administration official is claiming the government has the authority to do so.

A Somali-born Minnesota man was alarmed by the practice last Tuesday when immigration agents tackled him, handcuffed him, and arrested him, refusing to accept his REAL ID as proof of his legal residence in a video that was widely circulated on social media.

The man, who identified only as Mubashir, was placed into a chokehold and forced to his knees in the snow on his way to get food in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which has a large Somali population.

As the Sahan Journal describes:

Mubashir said he told officers multiple times that he is a US citizen and asked if he could show them his ID. Officers ignored him, dragged him in the snow, and pushed him into a car as witnesses yelled and blew whistles, according to the video of his arrest.The arrest occurred as federal agents walked into nearby businesses in the Somali-heavy neighborhood, questioning people and asking them to show their passports. Mubashir said he was in the car with officers for about 20 minutes, asking them repeatedly if he could show them his ID. They refused, he said.

According to the report, officers asked if they could photograph Mubashir to check whether he’s a US citizen—likely to run his information through a facial recognition application that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acknowledged it uses during immigration stops, including on US citizens without their consent.

Mubashir declined to have his photo taken, asking: “How would a picture prove I’m a US citizen?”

He was later taken to a federal building that houses an immigration court and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices. Only after having his fingerprint taken was Mubashir allowed to present his ID and given permission to leave.

Officers refused to drop him back off at Cedar-Riverside, instead telling him to walk home more than seven miles in the midst of a snowstorm, which had led authorities to issue a weather advisory.

“I deserve to be here like anyone else—I’m a US citizen,” Mubashir said. “I can’t even step outside without being tackled—no question—because I’m Somali.”

“I apologize that this happened to you in my city, with people wearing vests that say ‘police.’ That’s embarrassing,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said to Mubashir during a press conference on Wednesday.

According to legal experts, there is no requirement under US law that American citizens must be prepared to prove their citizenship at a moment’s notice.

In comments to KQED, a public radio station in San Francisco, earlier this month, Richard Boswell, a law professor at the University of California Law School, called it “most troubling” that US citizens have felt the need to carry their ID to avoid harassment.

“There is no reason why government officers can or should be questioning people about their citizenship without any reason to suspect that they are noncitizens who are here unlawfully,” he explained.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), noncitizens must carry proof of their legal status, such as a green card or a foreign passport with stamps indicating a lawful visa.

About two dozen states require residents to identify themselves if stopped by law enforcement. But none require citizens to carry a physical ID at all times, except in specific cases, such as operating a motorized vehicle.

And, as Bree Bernwanger, a senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, explained, “there is no legal requirement that US citizens carry papers or have proof of their citizenship on them.” Unless police have reasonable suspicion that a person is in the US unlawfully, she said, “there shouldn’t be a reason to have to carry your papers, because immigration agents aren’t supposed to stop people or detain them.”

But as backlash rolled in from the video of Mubashir’s arrest, the man leading Trump’s mass deportation crusade, US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, seemed to falsely suggest via social media that citizens are required to carry proof of their citizenship.

“One must carry immigration documents as per the INA. A REAL ID is not an immigration document,” he wrote in response to a post about Mubashir’s arrest, which noted his citizenship.

Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, responded that “in no way does the INA require citizens to carry immigration documents” and that Bovino is “just letting his jackboot thugs presumptively detain whomever they like.”

Immigration lawyer Jared McClain later noted on social media that, in response to a class-action suit arguing against indiscriminate workplace raids, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) argued that an Alabama construction worker, who was kept in handcuffs even after presenting multiple REAL IDs to agents, had still not done enough to prove his citizenship, according to the federal officers.

“This is the official policy—not a one-off,” McClain said.

Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the filing was “official confirmation that ICE HSI believes that it can, in fact, detain US citizens for immigration checks, and keep them handcuffed while they have their biometrics run.”

“That is a chilling assertion,” he said.

ProPublicafound in October that at least 170 Americans have been detained by immigration agents, sometimes for days, with some having been “dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot.”

But months after the report was published, top administration officials—including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—continue to emphatically deny that any US citizens have been detained during the second Trump administration.

At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Thursday, Noem abruptly left before Democrats could grill her on reports that citizens had been arrested, claiming she had to speak at a different committee hearing. Reports later found that the hearing had already been cancelled, leading to accusations that Noem misled Congress.

In response to Bovino’s assertion that REAL IDs are not immigration documents, Nicole Foy, a reporter at ProPublica, toldthe Border Patrol commander: “We’ve been trying to request an interview with you for months now about the enforcement operations you’re leading and the detention of US citizens.”

“Why does a US citizen need to carry immigration documents?” she asked. At press time, Bovino had not publicly responded to Foy’s question.

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mma

Trump's border czar dominates Fox airtime, leaving homeland security secretary trailing far behind

Axios revealed tension between Tom Homan and Kristi Noem over Fox appearances

Written by Harrison Ray

Research contributions from Isabella Sherk

Published 12/11/25

Media Matters found that Homan has made more appearances on Fox than any other administration official this year, far outpacing his counterpart. And those hits, which Axios says “have led Noem's supporters to cast him as a self-promoter without portfolio,” have reportedly become a flashpoint in their rivalry.

Since Trump's inauguration, Homan has made nearly three times as many Fox appearances as Noem. Throughout the year, he has consistently topped the list as the most Fox-friendly administration official, appearing at least 140 times, with 115 hits on Fox News and an additional 25 on Fox Business. Meanwhile, Noem has appeared only 48 times on Fox News, with no appearances on Fox Business.

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RWW

12/10/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

Gregg Phillips, who claimed that millions of “noncitizens” voted illegally in the 2016 election, will head FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery.

Mike Benz was brought aboard to find evidence for his claims that the agency is secretly a spy operation.

The more Donald Trump and his party pretend they don’t have an electoral problem, the more Republicans lose winnable elections.

Barred from leaving Romania, Andrew Tate courted powerful figures on the American right, from Tucker Carlson to Barron Trump. Then an extraordinary order let him go.

President Donald Trump slammed The New York Times and unnamed “some others” for reporting unfavorably about the 79-year-old’s health.

The court-appointed public defender in North Texas was once leader of the Proud Boys, has posted racist threats online, and sports a white nationalist tattoo. Now he wants to represent you.

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an 12 9 25

Former assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Glenn Kirschnerargues in a new video that officials in President Donald Trump's administration are on shaky ground regarding potential perjury charges.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is the chief judge in the District of Columbia, on Tuesday set an evidentiary hearing to determine which (if any) Trump officials intentionally defied his order to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants against in violation of constitutional due process rights. Boasberg ordered two Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to testify in a case examining whether Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem should face criminal charges for allegedly violating a March 2025 order halting the removal of the migrants.

At the center of the escalating court fight is a fundamental test of presidential power and judicial authority and whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defied a federal judge’s order to stop the removals.

Defiance may be emblematic of Trump officials, said Kirschner. At his U.S. Appeals Court nomination hearing, Trump DOJ official Emil Bove denied having any knowledge of telling federal prosecutors to defy court orders, claiming to senators “I don’t recall” when asked if he told colleagues that they might have to consider telling the courts “f—— you" regarding judicial decisions.

But according to Kirschner, “I don’t recall” is not a perjury proof answer.

“This has always stuck in my craw in the Trump era,” said Kirschner. “If I’m put on the stand, either in Congress — and it doesn’t even have to be under oath in Congress or in a grand jury or in a trial — and I am asked the following question ‘Mr. Kirschner, what is your middle name’ and my answer is ‘uh, I don’t recall,’ but my middle name is relevant, it is material, it is of consequence to the issue being litigated, I’ve just committed the crime of perjury, or in Congress, the 1001 violation named after the Federal Criminal Statute 18 U.S. Code § 1001.”

“So, no. ‘I do not recall’ is not a perjury-proof answer if you dorecall, and I am quite sure Emil Bove recalls what he said in that room full of lawyers.”

Kirschner's guest, Adam Klasfeld, from “All Rise News” added that DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni, who claims Bove urged officials to ignore judges orders, possesses a trove of documents proving the incident exists, regardless of how hard Bove attempts to doge the issue.

“Why didn’t he just deny it [during his hearing]?” Klasfeld asked. “Was there tape? Was there a piece of evidence? And we found with a flood of evidence from Reuveni notes, his emails form the time, documented his conversation with about Bove’s legal advice. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if all that comes up on the stand.”

Watch the video below:

'Skeptical' construction contractors push back on Trump’s DHS over safety concerns

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ALL SAME DAY 12 3

Trump’s 'autopilot' Cabinet meeting shows he’s 'in bigger trouble than he thinks' - Alternet.org

CNN uses Trump’s own words with supercut of 'sleepy Joe' insults to mock Cabinet nap

'F-A-T, for fat people': Here are 5 wild moments from Trump’s freewheeling Cabinet meeting

Trump repeatedly struggles to stay awake in Cabinet meeting video
'Bowing and scraping': Kristi Noem mocked after suggesting Trump controls weather
Trump lashes out at Fox News reporter as 'fake news' after Cabinet meeting

AN 12 25

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made an eyebrow-raising comment about President Donald Trump during a recent meeting of the Trump administration's Cabinet.

While in the middle of her remarks at the meeting, Noem observed that no hurricanes had made landfall in the U.S. during the 2025 hurricane season, which typically lasts from June through November. Her comment was met with laughter from the assembled Cabinet members.

"Sir, you made it through the hurricane season without a hurricane — you kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that," Noem said.

The Homeland Security secretary's praise of Trump was immediately met with ridicule from various elected officials, journalists and commentators. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), took a sarcastic tone while also being disgusted at Noem's display.

"Thank you, Oh Great One, for keeping the hurricanes away," Huffman tweeted. "The bowing and scraping hits new lows every day with these sycophants."

"God this is so embarrassing," Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) wrote on her official X account.

AttorNey and progressive influencer Aaron Parnas tweeted: "This is an SNL skit right?"

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) also weighed in on both of his X accounts. On his personal account, the presumptive 2028 Democratic presidential candidate wrote: "ICYMI [in case you missed it] Trump controls the weather." The "Gavin Newsom Press Office" account — which the California Democrat typically uses to mock the administration — posted a doctored image of Trump's famous gaffe in which he used a sharpie to expand the scope of Hurricane Dorian in 2019 to include Alabama. The new image included text Newsom inserted that read "NO hurricanes allowed!"

"It was his magical sharpie, wasn't it Kristi?" Newsom's press office tweeted.

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee also piled on, posting an image of North Korean news anchor Ri Chun Hee with the text: "Glorious Supreme Leader has kept the hurricanes away. His power over the weather is unmatched."

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AN 12 25

As 2025 draws to a close, the departure of the beleaguered acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, caps a tumultuous year for FEMA. In January, President Donald Trump took office and vowed to abolish the department. Though the administration subsequently slow-walked that proposal, its government-wide staffing cuts have led to a nearly 10 percent reduction in FEMA’s workforce since January. Now it faces a long-awaited report issued by a review council, commissioned by the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, just as a new interim FEMA chief prepares to take the reins in December.

Although some expected the review council to recommend further cuts or try to fulfill the president’s suggestion of disbanding FEMA entirely, a leaked draft of the report, obtained by the New York Times, recommends preserving the agency. “There’s been a need for emergency management reform for a while,” said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, a professor at the Columbia Climate School and the director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness. “But the wrecking balls came in before there was a blueprint for what to do.”

The Trump administration’s first pick to lead FEMA, Cameron Hamilton, was fired after telling Congress that the agency should not be eliminated. Richardson was tapped to replace him, despite a lack of emergency management experience; he reportedly told staff members he had been unaware the United States had a hurricane season, although he later claimed to be joking.

“There’s been a lot of mistrust with expertise in this administration,” said Schlegelmilch, when asked why Richardson was chosen as FEMA administrator.

Richardson’s first test in the national spotlight came in early July, when devastating floods struck Central Texas, killing 135 people. A month earlier, Noem had instituted a new rule requiring her personal sign-off on any FEMA expenditures over $100,000. That meant that, in order to get aid to the region, FEMA officials needed Richardson to get Noem’s approval. But according to reporting from the Washington Post, Richardson made a habit of not checking his phone outside of traditional working hours. This made it a challenge to contact him when the floods hit over the July 4 holiday weekend. As a result, it took over three days for Noem to sign off on expenses for swiftwater rescue teams. It was also later reported that nearly two-thirds of calls to FEMA’s emergency assistance line went unanswered during the floods, because a critical call center was severely understaffed.

A final recommendation on suggested FEMA reforms will arrive by the end of the year, but a leaked draft report supports preserving the agency and restoring it to a cabinet-level agency that reports directly to the president, rather than to the Department of Homeland Security, where it’s been housed since 2003. This has been a longtime goal pursued by emergency management experts, according to Schlegelmilch, because it would give the department more autonomy, reduce red tape, and hopefully improve the speed and efficacy of disaster response in general. A bipartisan bill called the FEMA Act of 2025, which would elevate the department to a cabinet-level agency, was introduced in Congress in July, but it’s stalled in committee.

How the administration will receive the final report from the task force is uncertain, but FEMA’s new interim director, Karen Evans, may not bring much stability to the agency. Although Evans has some emergency management experience, it is largely in cybersecurity rather than disaster response, and the Trump administration’s disinterest in appointing a permanent director may bode poorly for the agency’s long-term future.

“This is the third acting FEMA administrator within a year,” said Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “What the Trump administration is doing is side-stepping the Senate confirmation process for a FEMA administrator, someone we just desperately need in place, given how turbulent it’s been over the past year.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/politics/trump-fema-david-richardson-karen-evans/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

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AN 11 25

Kristi Noem hands out 'fake' checks to TSA agents

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SHE GETS OWN FELON PUPPET NO KINGS

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pp 11 25

Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign.

by Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski

November 14, 2025,

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On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.” [BUFFALO?]

Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the “national emergency” at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.

The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.

No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.

The Strategy Group’s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem’s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.

Government contracting experts said the depth of the ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggested major potential violations of ethics rules.

“It’s corrupt, is the word,” said Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that the Strategy Group’s role should prompt investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee.

“Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,” Tiefer added.

Federal regulations forbid conflicts of interest in contracting and require that the process be conducted “with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none.”

“It’s worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias,” said Scott Amey, a contracting expert and general counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight.

The revelations come as the amount of money at Noem’s disposal has skyrocketed. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill granted DHS more than $150 billion, and Noem has given herself an unusual degree of control over how that money is spent. This summer, she began requiring that she personally approve any payment over $100,000.

Asked about the Strategy Group’s work for DHS, McLaughlin, the agency spokesperson, said in an interview, “We don’t have visibility into why they were chosen.”

“I don’t know who they’re a subcontractor with, but I don’t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself,” she said. “My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them.” Her husband, Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho, didn’t respond to questions.

“My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them,” said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin, who is married to Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho. Tricia McLaughlin via Instagram

In a written statement, DHS said, “DHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.” They added that the Strategy Group does not have a direct contract with the agency, saying “DHS cannot and does not determine, control, or weigh in on who contractors hire.”

Contracting experts said that agencies can and do sometimes require that subcontractors be approved by officials. It’s not clear how much the Strategy Group has been paid.

This is not the first time that the Strategy Group has gotten public money through a Noem contract. As governor of South Dakota in 2023, her administration set off a scandal by hiring the Ohio-based company to do a different ad campaign, paying it $8.5 million in state funds. While the state said the contract was done by the book, a former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem quietly intervened to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal. ProPublica granted some people anonymity to discuss the deals because of their sensitivity.

The firm also paid up to $25,000 to one of Noem’s closest advisers in South Dakota, previously unreported records show. (The adviser, 28-year-old Madison Sheahan, now serves at DHS as the second-in-command of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sheahan didn’t respond to questions about why she was paid.)

The DHS ad that the company filmed at Mount Rushmore has aired during “Fox & Friends” in recent days. Executives from the Strategy Group traveled to the shoot and hired subcontractors to fill out the film crew, according to records and a person involved in the campaign. The ad’s aesthetic sits somewhere between a political campaign ad and a Jeep commercial as Noem tells would-be immigrants to “come here the right way.”

“From the cowboys who tamed the West to the titans who built our cities,” Noem says, as images of Trump Tower in Chicago and Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt last year flash on the screen, “America has always rewarded vision and grit.” Noem continues: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you.”

Watch the DHS Ad Filmed at Mount Rushmore

Obtained by ProPublica

The ad is the latest in a campaign that Noem debuted in February, just a few weeks after she took charge of DHS. “Any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers,” the agency wrote, explaining why it was skipping the competitive bidding process normally required for government contracts. The initial ads featured Noem thanking Trump for securing the border.

The contracts total $220 million so far, leading the DHS ad budget to triple in the most recent fiscal year, according to Bloomberg. The lion’s share of ad contracts is typically used to buy TV airtime or spots on social media. Advertising firms make money by taking an often-hefty commission. Federal records show the contracts have gone to two firms. One is a Republican ad company in Louisiana called People Who Think, which has been awarded $77 million.

But the majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.

Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain. McElwain has long had his own advertising company (separate from the Delaware one), but there’s little evidence that firm could handle a nine-figure federal contract on its own: It reported just five employees when it received COVID-19 relief money a few years ago.

How, where and to whom Safe America Media doled out the $143 million is unknown. Any subcontractors hired to do work on the DHS ads are not disclosed in federal contracting databases.

The office funding the ad contracts is listed as the DHS Office of Public Affairs, which is run by McLaughlin, contract records show. McLaughlin married Yoho, the Strategy Group CEO, earlier this year.

In its statement, DHS said the agency does its contracting “by the book” and the process is run by career officials. “It is very sad that Pro Publica would seek to defame these public servants,” DHS added.

Asked about why the agency chose Safe America Media, DHS said, “The results speak for themselves: the most secure border in American history and over 2 million illegal aliens exiting the United States.” McElwain and People Who Think didn’t respond to questions.

Yoho was still in college when he first served as campaign manager for a U.S. congressman. Now, at 38 years old, he’s a national player in the cutthroat industry of political advertising. Federal election records show tens of millions in payments to his firm during the 2024 election cycle, coming from dozens of Republican congressional candidates. And Noem has proved a particularly lucrative client.

Lewandowski brought Yoho into Noem’s inner circle back in South Dakota, according to two people familiar with the matter, putting the young consultant in charge of the ad side of her 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign. Noem had a more than $5 million advertising budget for the race, records show. After she won in a landslide, Yoho, who has called Noem a friend, came to South Dakota to attend her inauguration ceremony. He sat off to the side of the stage, next to Lewandowski. (Lewandowski didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Yoho shared a photo of himself with Noem and her husband, Bryon, at Noem’s 2023 inauguration in South Dakota. Benjamin Yoho via X

By then, Yoho’s next big project with Noem was already in the works. In late 2022, Noem was quietly preparing to launch another sprawling ad campaign — only this time, the money would come from state coffers. The stated goal was to encourage workers to move to South Dakota. The upcoming contract opportunity wasn’t public yet, but Yoho was already involved in planning the campaign, according to records first reported by Sioux Falls Live.

Then on Jan. 12, 2023, Yoho’s company registered to do business in South Dakota under the name Go West Media. The next day, the contract opportunity went live.

Seven companies submitted proposals for the project. Then the pressure from above set in, according to a former Noem administration official involved in the process.

The former official said a top Noem aide told them the governor would be angry if Yoho’s company didn’t win the contract. “He was very direct: ‘She wants to do it,’” they said. Contemporaneous text messages reviewed by ProPublica corroborate that senior Noem administration officials pushed for Yoho to get the contract. Eventually, he did. (In its statement, DHS denied that Noem influenced the process.)

Noem starred in Yoho’s ads herself,dressing up as a dentist,a plumber anda state trooper as she touted her state’s growing economy. Exactly how much Yoho and the Strategy Group made off the $8.5 million deal is unclear. Some of the money was used to purchase spots on Fox News, including one during a Republican presidential debate. Some of the money appears to have gone back to South Dakota — into the bank account of another of Noem’s top advisers.

Noem in costume in ads she starred in that were produced by the Strategy Group, funded with public money in South Dakota. South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development via YouTube

Sheahan, now the second-in-command at ICE, was paid up to $25,000 by Go West in 2023 for “consulting,” according to a financial disclosure document Sheahan later filed. At the time, Sheahan was serving as both the operations director for Noem as governor and the political director for Noem’s campaign work, according to a copy of her 2023 resume obtained by ProPublica. Her responsibilities included coordinating “daily logistics and operations” for Noem and her team, the resume said. She also managed the “relationship with high level donors” to American Resolve, Noem’s network of outside political groups.

As his firm received millions from the South Dakota state government, Yoho separately continued to work for Noem in other capacities. He worked under Lewandowski on the publicity campaign for Noem’s 2024 memoir, according to a person familiar with the matter. (The book became famous for including an anecdote about Noem shooting her dog.)

The Strategy Group also received a stream of payments for social media consulting and media production work over the last few years from Noem’s American Resolve PAC. Federal election records show the PAC made its last payment to Yoho’s company this February, a couple weeks after Noem took her post as the head of DHS.

Corrections

{Do you have any information we should know about Kristi Noem or DHS contracts? Justin Elliott can be reached by email atjustin@propublica.organd by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240. Josh Kaplan can be reached by email atjoshua.kaplan@propublica.organd by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383.*}:

Jeff Ernsthausen contributed research.

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an 10 25

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem is ignoring a request from one state official to give trick-or-treating families a break on Halloween.

The Daily Beast reported Thursday that during a Fox News interview, the DHS secretary ignored a plea from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) for the DHS to pause aggressive immigration enforcement actions in Chicago on Friday, when kids in the Windy City will be walking neighborhood streets in celebration of Halloween.

"Illinois families deserve to spend Halloween weekend without fear," Pritzker wrote in a Wednesday letter to Noem. "No child should be forced to inhale tear gas or other chemical agents while trick or treating in their own neighborhood."

However, Noem told Fox News' Sandra Smith that despite Halloween festivities, ICE would still be "out on the streets in full force, and increase activities to make sure kids are safe."

"We will be out there to make sure that they can be safe, enjoy the holidays, spend some time with their families and their neighbors and communities," she continued. "And then they don’t have to be the victim of a crime because of these illegal aliens that are in our country victimizing them."

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Pritzker was likely referring to an incident on October 25, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents fired tear gas canisters into a crowd of children headed to a Halloween event. Earlier this month, ICE agents deployed tear gas in Chicago's Brighton neighborhood, which affected 13 local police officers on the scene.

In response to the tear-gassing incidents, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis forced U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino to wear a body camera and give daily reports to the court. She also voiced concerns about ICE agents not identifying themselves to members of the public when asked.

Click here to read the Beast's report in its entirety (subscription required).

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an 1025fired woman head coast guard 3 hrs took her house?

Trump officials move to military base housing designated for top uniformed officers - Alternet.org

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an 10 25

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl discussed the push and tug between affluent Donald Trump supporters in the aftermath of Trump’s November election win, with certain personalities grinding against others at the very onset.

Vanity Fair published an excerpt of Karl’s new book “Retribution,” which lays out early opposition to certain appointments by billionaire World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon and America First Policy Institute CEO Brooke Rollins — who Vanity Fair writer Bess Levin described as a member of Trump’s “brick-s—— scary new cabinet.”

Karl said McMahon and Rollins quickly despised Trump’s pick of former campaign worker Susie Wiles for White House Chief of Staff and “rushed over to Mar‑a‑Lago in a last‑ditch effort to derail the pick.”

“Various Trump aides, most of whom had worked for Wiles during the campaign, managed to impede the two women on their way to see Trump. They even orchestrated a phone call with Vice President–elect JD Vance to delay the two aspiring chiefs of staff on their way to Trump’s office. By the time McMahon and Rollins got in to see Trump, it was too late. He had already asked Wiles to be chief of staff,” Karl wrote. “They would have to settle instead for secretary of education and secretary of agriculture, respectively.”

Trump’s billionaire friend Howard Lutnick, meanwhile, campaigned early to topple the appointment of former Republican lawmaker and MTV reality star Sean Duffy for the role of transportation secretary. Claiming “the man has no relevant experience” doesn’t get far with Trump, according to Karl, so Lutnick “tried to appeal to the president‑elect’s ego instead, tasking his team with searching through Duffy’s hundreds of television appearances to find any criticism of Trump.”

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Duffy, according to Karl, was a consistent supporter. Lutnick had to scroll all the way back to the early days of the 2016 Republican presidential primary “to find anything Duffy had said that was remotely negative about Donald Trump.”

Lutnick eventually found a September 2015 interview in which the then‑congressman had said he didn’t believe Trump was a real conservative and didn’t think he would win the party’s nomination. Of course, even then, Duffy had praised Trump for “boldly speaking and saying things that the conservative wing wished that their leaders would say.”

“As weak as Lutnick’s effort to dig up dirt turned out to be, that one stray comment from almost ten years earlier nearly cost Duffy the job,” Karl wrote. “Trump, reconsidering the pick, called Duffy and his wife, Rachel, and they were able to convince the president‑elect that Sean had long since changed his views on Trump’s conservative bona fides.

Trump’s advisor Steve Bannon launched his own attack against the appointment of Kristi Noem as secretary of the sprawling Department of Homeland Security.

“‘We still got the global war on terror,’ an exasperated Steve Bannon told me two days after Trump made the announcement. ‘She runs the whole thing? She runs the f—— Secret Service? It’s all of it. It’s the global war on terror. It’s all that’” Karl reports. “‘What are you talking about? She’s never been in law enforcement!’”

But Bannon didn’t put the blame on Trump for making what he considered a terrible choice. He blamed Corey Lewandowski for convincing the president‑elect to do it.

“’This motherf—— asked for somebody who’s obviously unqualified — and it’s dangerous,’” Karl reports Bannon telling him. “‘This is dangerous. What are you doing?’”

Read the full Vanity Fair excerpt at this link.

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Anger as Kristi Noem gets 2 luxury private jets as shutdown threatens food aid for millions - Alternet.org

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no lnx

Kristi Noem's latest 'absurd' claim fuels ridicule

(REUTERS)

Jordan Green

October 16, 2025

A dramatic claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to have arrested “the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa,” therefore putting the Trump administration in position to “eliminate” the leftwing “network,” was dismissed by both the activist the arrested woman was said to have dated and a leading expert on such leftwing groups.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not now, nor have I ever been, the ‘founder’ of ‘Antifa’ — in Portland [Oregon], the United States, or anywhere else,” said Luis Enrique Marquez, the activist, in a statement on a website promoting a book.

“It’s an absurd claim, no matter how they try to frame it,” Stanislav Vysotsky, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Fraser Valley in British Columbia, told Raw Story.

Nonetheless, Noem’s trumpeting of the arrest of Katherine Vogel, 39, showed the administration’s determination to make headlines as it seeks to paint “antifa” activists as a danger to the American public, and Portland as the supposed base of such groups.

‘Root them out’

Seated alongside President Donald Trump during a White House roundtable last week, Noem said: “One of the individuals we arrested in Portland was the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa.

“We are hoping that as we go after her, interview her and prosecute her, we will get more and more information about the network and how we can root them out and eliminate them from the existence of American society.”

On Sept. 30, Vogel was the subject of a targeted arrest carried out by Federal Protective Services and U.S. Border Patrol agents, after she was allegedly observed with a group of people spilling red paint on the sidewalk outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

A federal criminal complaint alleges that “while Vogel was being escorted into the facility for processing, she actively resisted by flailing her body” and struck one of the agents on the jaw with a closed fist.

She told an investigator she did not recall striking the agent.

Vogel was a contractor with the U.S. General Services Administration. As a result of her arrest “she was found unsuitable” and will no longer work for the agency, a spokesperson told Raw Story.

Noem’s description of Vogel as a potential linchpin for a nationwide network supposedly posing a terrorist threat appears to have been sourced to Andy Ngo, a right-wing media figure who Trump said at the roundtable was “a very serious person.”

Ngo was previously represented in a lawsuit for assault against Rose City Antifa, a Portland group, by Harmeet Dhillon, now assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice. Rose City Antifa was dismissed as a defendant. Ngo and Dhillon frequently share each other’s posts on X.

A week before Noem’s White House remarks, Ngo posted that Vogel was “a veteran Rose City Antifa member” and “the previous girlfriend of violent Rose City Antifa member Luis Enrique Marquez.”

Vogel, who was released from custody on Oct. 1, could not be reached for comment.

Marquez, the author of the book Antifascist: A Memoir of the Portland Uprising, refuted Ngo’s claim. The statement on his website said: “I have never been a member of Rose City Antifa or any other Antifa group.”

Marquez also said his relationship with Vogel ended in 2020, adding, “Any insinuation of an ongoing connection between us is false and disingenuous.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request to clarify Noem’s reference to Vogel as “the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa.”

Vysotsky, who has extensively interviewed antifascist activists, said that notion was difficult to square with reality, given that the movement dates back to the early 20th century.

“If we’re talking about the girlfriend of the founder of antifa, then we’re talking about someone who would have to be 120 years old or 130 years old,” Vysotsky told Raw Story.

While antifascism emerged in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, in response to the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, Vysotsky said the modern antifascist movement in North America can generally be dated to the mid- to late-1980s.

Rose City Antifa, the Portland-based group referenced by Ngo, was founded in 2007. Vysotsky said that to the best of his knowledge, Marquez was not a founder.

“He came on the scene in 2016 or 2017,” Vysotsky said. “He happens to be someone who is prominent and outspoken on social media. It’s an absurd claim, no matter how they try to frame it.”

A DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said Vogel’s activist connections were the subject of “an ongoing investigation,” adding: “We will release more information when we can.”

‘A militarist, anarchist enterprise’

In a Sept. 26 X post, DHS described Rose City Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization.” The post followed an executive order issued by Trump days earlier, which described “Antifa” as “a militarist, anarchist enterprise.”

But Vysotsky said Noem’s vow to “root out” and “eliminate” an “antifa” network was likely to go nowhere because there is no formal membership organization or international network.

“It’s an orientation, because it’s a set of beliefs by people opposed to fascism,” Vysotsky said.

“What they mean when they say ‘fascism’ is a movement based on a belief in an inherent inequality between people that is enforced by violence. What antifa stands for is equality between people, and what drives antifascism is a desire to create a more just and equal world.”

The idea that the Trump administration will be able to use Vogel’s arrest to identify a leadership cadre and, as Noem put it, “eliminate” an “antifa” network “from the existence of American society” is “an almost absurd claim,” Vysotsky said.

“Antifa activism, as it exists, is highly decentralized,” Vysotsky said, adding that antifascist activity ranges from individuals engaged in intelligence gathering and educational work “to small, local affinity groups that are organized in a direct, democratic manner.

“There’s no leadership,” he said.

The Sept. 26 DHS post accused Rose City Antifa of doxing ICE agents.

On Sept. 19 a website called Rose City Counter-Info did post two profiles that showed the names and images — and in one case, information about the employment history of a spouse — of two individuals purported to be ICE agents active in the Portland area. The DHS post included a photo of a flyer soliciting information about ICE agents that appears to include Rose City Antifa's email address, although it is partially redacted.

A statement published on Rose City Antifa's behalf denies that the group has doxed ICE agents or had anything to do with the flyer. The statement references a Bluesky post two months earlier that acknowledges the flyers but indicates Rose City Antifa was not responsible for putting them out.

The DHS X post referencing Rose City Antifa came a day after Trump issued a national security memorandum, NSPM-7, which argued that domestic terrorists organized under the banner of “anti-fascism” are engaged in “sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation.”

The memo claims campaigns “escalate to organized doxing, where the private or identifying information of their targets (such as home addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information) is exposed to the public with the explicit intent of encouraging others to harass, intimidate, or violently assault them).”

The memo specifically references activists targeting ICE agents.

“For the Trump administration to argue that antifa activists are terrorists, they’re going to have to greatly expand what acts constitute terrorism,” Vysotsky said.

They’re already doing that, he argued, by “talking about doxing as a form of terrorism.”

‘Exceptionally broad’

Vysotsky said rhetoric from the Trump administration linking antifascism to terrorism appears to be calculated to distract attention from ICE activities and violence by far-right actors.

“This serves as a distraction to focus Trump supporters away from the negative images of families being separated,” Vysotsky said. “It’s also a way to distract away from political violence, which has overwhelmingly been right-wing political violence.”

Antifascists, with journalists and observers, confront white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va in 2017. Picture: Anthony Crider

Vysotsky and Marquez said they saw the campaign against “antifa” as signaling a crackdown on all who oppose Trump’s policies — not just the far left.

“It’s exceptionally broad, because when they talk about antifa, they’re creating this image that ranges from the bogeyman of black-clad protesters to mainstream politicians like Adam Schiff [the Democratic senator from California] to the Ford Foundation, which is a major philanthropic organization,” Vysotsky said.

NSPM-7 charges that an “‘anti-fascist’ lie has become a rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights and fundamental American liberties.”

Core tenets of antifascism, the memorandum claims, “include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

Marquez said that “by targeting innocent people and fabricating threats that do not exist,” the Trump administration is “attempting to build a mythical enemy in order to expand control over our lives.”

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Trump's cronies are gaslighting America with a new bald-faced lie

Thom Hartmann

October 16, 2025

Airport managers need to wake up fast. With only a handful of exceptions, people running airports across America are risking serious fines and being barred from government work for up to five years by broadcasting political messaging on behalf of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

Federal law — the Hatch Act — makes it a crime, punishable by fines and loss of current and future employment, to use government facilities or taxpayer money for partisan political purposes. Yet Noem, who has earned her national reputation as a puppy-killer and by cosplaying “tough cop” with her alleged boyfriend (they’re both married to other people), has pushed out a video to airports across the country blaming Democrats for the current shutdown.

This isn’t just a violation of federal law; it’s also a bald-faced lie.

Republicans today control the House, the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court. If Senate Majority Leader John Thune wanted to end the shutdown, he could do so this afternoon.

All it would take is the same maneuver Republicans have used repeatedly: a Senate rules change allowing passage of their Continuing Resolution to keep the government open, using only 50 votes plus the Vice President.

We’ve seen it before. Betsy DeVos only became Secretary of Education because Mike Pence broke a 50–50 tie in the Senate. Jeff Sessions squeaked through 52–47 as Attorney General. Rex Tillerson and Tom Price were confirmed with slim margins. And when it came to the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell killed the filibuster to ram through Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Democrats, by contrast, failed when they tried to change the rules to pass the For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights acts. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin sided with Republicans to preserve the filibuster, betraying the public interest.

So let’s be clear: this shutdown is not a matter of Senate procedure. Republicans have the power to end it today. They’re choosing not to because they want to strip health care from millions while protecting their $4 trillion tax cut for billionaires.

The 1939 Hatch Act, upheld by the Supreme Court in CSC v. Letter Carriers, outlaws the practice of federal officials converting government facilities into campaign machines. Its penalties are real: removal from service, debarment, suspensions, reprimands, and fines.

Some airport managers understand this, which is why several are refusing to air Noem’s message.

As of today, at least seven airports have declined to run the video at TSA checkpoints, citing policies and laws that prohibit political messaging in publicly funded facilities. Portland International Airport management informed the local ABC News affiliate:

“We believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits using public assets for political purposes and messaging.”}:

The Washington Post reports that Buffalo, Charlotte, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, and Portland have all also said no, with at least two explicitly pointing to the Hatch Act as the reason.

By distributing this video, Noem has implicated not just herself but also airport managers nationwide, most of whom are now breaking federal law by broadcasting it. They face personal liability, including fines and disbarment from government work.

That they’ve gone along with Noem reflects how normalized lawbreaking has become in today’s Republican politics led by a 34-times-convicted felon and alleged rapist.

The lie about the shutdown itself compounds the crime. Citizens in a democracy must be able to trust their government to tell the truth about who is responsible for policy decisions and why they’re done. When those in power use public money to gaslight the public, accountability collapses. That is exactly why the Hatch Act exists.

There is precedent for enforcement of the Act even at the highest levels. The Office of Special Counsel recommended Kellyanne Conway be fired for repeated Hatch Act violations. Trump ignored it. He also ignored the law when his administration used the White House for the Republican National Convention and when he and Elon Musk went out front of it to hustle Teslas.

Republicans have apparently learned that if they break the law and face no consequences, the law effectively ceases to exist.

If Democrats are serious about defending both the rule of law and what’s left of America’s democracy, they must insist on prosecutions. That means removal from office for Noem, claims against the propagandists who produced and distributed the video, and charges against airport managers who continue broadcasting it. Anything less signals that the Hatch Act — and the rest of American law that could restrain Trump and his lickspittles — is a dead letter.

This is not a partisan point. Imagine if a Democratic administration produced a video blaming Republicans for a shutdown, then forced airports to broadcast it. Republicans would be demanding prosecutions, and rightly so. The law must apply equally or it means nothing at all.

Noem needs to stop lying. She needs to stop breaking the law. And Democrats need to stop pretending this is “politics as usual.” It is not. These are crimes designed to shift blame for a shutdown that is entirely the responsibility of the Republican Party, which could end it tomorrow with 51 votes in the Senate.

If there is no accountability now, America will slide further toward a future where propaganda is pumped through every government-owned screen and speaker. That is what has happened in Russia and Hungary, where public spaces are saturated with partisan messaging and independent voices silenced.

The Hatch Act was written to prevent that fate here. It must be enforced — with indictments, prosecutions, and disbarment — before it’s too late.

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nyt

no lnx

How Right-Wing Influencers Are Shaping the Guard Fight in Portland

President Trump and his administration are amplifying the voices of pro-White House podcasters and streamers eager to ratify the president’s description of Oregon’s largest city as a “hellscape.”

A group of people stand on the roof of a building next to an American flag. Some of them have cameras and other equipment.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, tours the roof of an ICE detention center in Portland on Tuesday.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York Times

By Anna Griffin and Aaron West

Reporting from Portland, Ore.

Oct. 10, 2025

In the fight over deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Ore., Democratic leaders in the city and state have pleaded with President Trump and the courts to trust law enforcement records, both local and federal, that describe the demonstrations as small and comparatively calm.

But in the bifurcated media world of 2025, one side’s comparative calm is the other’s “hellscape” — as the White House described Portland on Wednesday — and the narrative that the Trump administration has wanted has been supplied by a coterie of right-wing influencers elevated by Mr. Trump himself.

On Thursday, the repercussions of those dueling versions of reality became clear as judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit questioned a district court’s finding that the protests in Portland were likely too minor to justify the National Guard deployment. The appeals court judges instead cited federal reports of demonstrators spitting on federal officers and shining flashlights in their eyes, behavior that has been captured, amplified and sometimes even prompted by pro-Trump personalities eager to counter local police.

“The Portland Police Chief did an interview today attacking independent journalists for exposing the violent terrorists that he allows to run the city,” Benny Johnson, a popular pro-Trump podcaster, wrote Tuesday on social media after accompanying Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Oregon. “He’s humiliated and knows Portland is under siege.”

Image

A group of people stand outside in the dark. Some of them are wearing masks, costumes or scarves.

Protesters gather outside of a federal ICE facility in Portland on Monday.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York Times

To some extent, the right’s assertions of chaos in Oregon have been self-fulfilling. The administration’s close ties to a small but well-followed group of influencers and conspiracy theorists has amplified their voices, and they in turn have encouraged administration efforts to crack down on demonstrators. The portrayals of a city on fire have angered protesters.

And sometimes, left-wing activists have risen to the bait, leading to scuffles and injuries conservative streamers then promote on the internet. One right-wing commentator, Katie Daviscourt, said she received a black eye when a demonstrator hit her with a flag pole.

“Certainly over the last 10 days, the energy level has gone up, the amount of conflicting points of view have increased greatly,” Chief Bob Day of the Portland Police Bureau said at a news media briefing Tuesday. “And this has created an environment that’s equally, if not more, challenging for us.”

Pro-Trump provocateurs have gotten more open about their efforts as the stakes in the battle over how to police protests grow. Ms. Noem has threatened to quadruple the number of federal law enforcement agents in Portland if she is not satisfied with the city’s crowd-control efforts. Troops from the Oregon and California National Guards are awaiting deployment. Another group of guardsmen from Texas could be summoned at the president’s request.

Meantime, influencers are seeking to raise the tension. Matt Tardio, a right-wing streamer who was broadcasting to an online audience of 10,000 or so from the ICE building in Portland on Wednesday night, conceded that other streamers were trying to stir up trouble so they could capture it on video.

“They were handing out flags and trying to get antifa folks to burn them, and then claimed that they were going to do physical harm to them if they burned the American flag,” he said. All the while, a videographer was capturing the action.

Mr. Tardio, 41, said he was not sure which side the people involved were supporting.

“In the beginning it looked like people on the right are the ones instigating, but in the following evenings it looked like people on the left,” he said. “People are absorbing information on social media quicker than reality.” Nobody can keep up, he added.

Image

A person in a white hat and black jacket stands in front of a group of people at night. Some are holding up cameras.

“They were handing out flags and trying to get antifa folks to burn them,” the right-wing streamer Matt Tardio, center, said of fellow influencers.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York Times

Political messages don’t seem to be the point for some on either side, said Sgt. Daniel DiMatteo while patrolling near the protest Wednesday night.

“It’s a lot more of the, ‘I’m going to get in your face and say something controversial to try to get a response out of you,’” he said.

Trump Administration: Live Updates

Updated

Oct. 12, 2025, 4:51 p.m. ETOct. 12, 2025

Vance says Trump has not ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the National Guard.}:

Trump is headed to Israel and Egypt.}:

Trump announced Dan Scavino, a longtime aide, as the head of personnel.}:

There are, to be sure, streamers and podcasters on the left who are commenting on the standoff, but conservative provocateurs hold more influence because of their connections to the administration. Ms. Noem did not have any news briefings or public appearances during her trip to Portland this week. Instead, she brought her own media entourage, which chronicled her every move through the prism of their support.

“BREAKING,” Bo Loudon, a 19-year-old influencer and friend of Mr. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, wrote on social media. Ms. Noem “just stared down violently Antifa rioters on the roof of a Portland ICE facility,” he wrote. chicken suit?

The video attached showed Ms. Noem on the roof of the building looking down at a small clutch of protesters far away, one of them in a chicken suit.

The man in the chicken suit, Jack Dickinson, 26, who had been coming to the ICE building to protest federal immigration policies for months, said he was struck by the disconnect. Mr. Dickinson said he watched one of the pro-Trump influencers, Nick Sortor, film outside the ICE building, then heard the narration.

Image

A man in a yellow chicken suit with an American flag draped around him leans against a fence.

Jack Dickinson’s chicken suit has made him stand out amid the small group of protesters that have been staking out the ICE facility in Portland.Credit...Jordan Gale for The New York Times

“He was talking about this looking like a third-world country,” Mr. Dickinson said as he surveyed a riverfront neighborhood of apartment buildings, coffee shops and an Italian restaurant popular for holiday meals and graduation parties. “It’s just clearly not.”

The influencers with Ms. Noem included major conservative celebrities such as Mr. Johnson, whose YouTube posts regularly draw hundreds of thousands of views, and younger conservative journalists such as David Medina, who lives in Oregon, and Mr. Sortor, who has been producing a steady stream of content this week based on his Oct. 2 arrest at the ICE demonstrations.

Mr. Sortor was initially charged with second-degree disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor in Oregon, after he took a burning American flag from a left-wing demonstrator and a fight ensued. The response from Washington, D.C., was intense and immediate. Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded an investigation into the Portland Police Bureau, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Mr. Sortor had been “ambushed by antifa.”

For his efforts, Mr. Sortor found himself at the White House on Wednesday, as the president praised the actions of right-wing activists and pledged to dismantle antifa, a loose-knit group of anarchists whose presence in Portland has long angered Mr. Trump.

Mr. Sortor had been “assaulted in Portland by a flag-burning mob,” the president declared.

Mr. Sortor responded, “The Portland politicians literally are willing to sacrifice their own citizens just to appease these antifa terrorists.”

Image

A man in a blue suit jacket holds up a damaged American flag as three others look on.

Nick Sortor, a right-wing media personality, turned his arrest in Portland after a scuffle with protesters into an invitation to the White House on Wednesday.Credit...Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times

Nathan Vasquez, the district attorney of Multnomah County, which includes parts of Portland, dropped the charges against Mr. Sortor but planned to take two left-wing demonstrators he scuffled with to trial. Mr. Vasquez said police did have probable cause to arrest Mr. Sortor.

The influencer was engaged in “what I think most people would consider antagonistic behavior,” Mr. Vasquez said. “The hard part is that obnoxious behavior doesn’t amount to you getting to punch him in the face.”

After Ms. Noem’s visit to Portland, Mr. BENNY Johnson appeared live on Newsmax from inside the cordoned-off ICE building. He described the building as being in downtown Portland and said that the windows were blacked out and covered with tarps because “Democrats keep shooting sniper rounds into ICE facilities.”

Police have not reported any incidents of sniper fire, and the ICE building sits about two miles from downtown Portland.

Along with a video of Ms. Noem praying before a fast-food meal with federal workers, Mr. Johnson posted on social media his own photo of her on the roof of the ICE building.

“She stood at the edge and stared down Antifa and a dude in a chicken suit,” Mr. Johnson wrote. “Straight savage.”

A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 11, 2025, Section A, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: Comparative Calm or ‘Hellscape’? In Portland, Depends on the Narrator.. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

See more on: U.S. Politics, Donald Trump, Kristi Noem

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an 10 25

A new memo from the Department of Homeland Security authorizes Federal Protective Service officers to leave federal property and, if necessary, enter private homes to “eliminate” threats, including what it describes as an “identified sniper” located blocks away from a federal facility, journalist Marisa Kabas reported Friday in her newsletter The Handbasket.

The internal memo, titled “Federal Protective Service [FPS] Policy and Off-Property Jurisdiction,” was written by DHS Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara NTBCW MAZELLA and circulated to all FPS personnel on Wednesday by Benjamine Huffman, the DHS Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Management, per the report.

Addressing concerns about the legal limits of FPS jurisdiction, Mazzara wrote that such limits “are misplaced,” and that “the limits to FPS’s authority off federal property are the edges of the Constitution on one side and necessity on the other.

Mazzara stated that FPS officers are permitted to respond to incidents even far from federal buildings if a “reasonable nexus” to the protection of federal property exists.

He wrote: “FPS could even enter a private residence containing an identified sniper blocks away from a federal facility in order to eliminate that exigent threat. There is simply no legal barrier to FPS taking action off federal property where a reasonable nexus to protecting that property exists.”

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The phrase “identified sniper” refers to an individual who has been clearly recognized by FPS as posing a lethal, long-range threat — likely armed and positioned to target a federal building or officers.

The memo frames this as a justification for the use of force and warrantless entry in urgent situations.

Mazzara also wrote that FPS may set up barriers, fences, and other physical controls in areas near, but not limited to, federal buildings.

“This is not limited to the sidewalk or streets immediately adjacent to federal buildings as we do not live in a world of sticks and stones, but Mausers and Winchesters,” he said, referencing rifle brands.

One FPS employee, who was not named, told The Handbasket: “It’s quite clear that agents are being told they can go wherever. All of it was quite alarming and an unusual email to receive both in content and tone.”

The guidance comes as National Guard troops have been deployed to cities like Chicago, where DHS agents have recently been involved in arrests of immigrants, journalists and clergy. U.S. Northern Command confirmed Wednesday that these deployments are intended to protect DHS personnel and property.

In an accompanying email, Huffman wrote that the guidance “reaffirms that FPS officers and, by extension, any DHS personnel performing protective functions at ICE or CBP facilities may operate beyond federal boundaries when a clear nexus exists to the protection of federal property. Meanwhile, although the memo presents its scenarios as responses to threats, internal reports from DHS itself suggest a different picture.

The New York Times reported that FPS assessments of recent protests in cities like Portland described them as “low energy,” offering no indication of heightened threats that would warrant expanded enforcement powers.

Another FPS employee told The Handbasket: “I guess they got jealous of ICE being able to do anything they want.”

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

From Andy Ngo to Nick Sortor and Brandi Kruse: Who were present at Trump's antifa roundtable | Hindustan Times

10 25

Trump and key officials from his administration were joined by a group of conservative influencers for a roundtable discussion on Antifa on Tuesday at the White House. Among those who joined the 79-year-old were Andy Ngo, Brandi Kruse, Nick Sortor, Cam Higby, Jonathan Choe, and many more.

Brandi Kruse and Andy Ngo listens at the White House on Wednesday.(AP)

At the roundtable, Trump accused Antifa - short for 'Anti-Fascist' of laying siege to federal buildings and attacking ICE agents, National Guards, and other officials charged with enforcing federal law. Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, was also present at the meeting. She said Antifa's agenda was to "destroy the American people."

Andy Ngo, Nick Sortor, Brandi Kruse and the other conservative activists also spoke about their experiences with the group after Trump and his officials were done speaking at the discussion.

Here's a full list of conservative influencers present at the roundtable: Nick Sortor, Cam Higby, Jonathan Choe, Andy Ngo, Katie Daviscourt, James Klug, Savanah Hernandez, Nick Shirley, Brandi Kruse and Julio Rojas.

Andy Ngo Recalls Alleged Antifa Ambush

Andy Ngo, a conservative influencer, has often gone viral for his confrontations with Antifa members. He recalled an incident when members of the Antifa group allegedly assaulted him in 2019. "I was ambushed in a mob beating... The punches came from everywhere — on my head and my face, and I was bleeding out of my eyes and ears," he said.

Trump also joined in, seemingly supporting Andy Ngo's narrative. "Andy Ngo has been repeatedly beaten by antifa thugs," Trump said, adding, "Andy is a very serious person too. Been watching him for a long time."

Nick Sortor Talks About Portland Arrest

Nick Sortor, another conservative influencer, recently claimed he was arrested in Portlandfor allegedly trying to cover the law-and-order situation in the city amid Trump's push to deploy the National Guard. "Frankly, the cities and police departments are COOPERATING with Antifa, such as Portland!" he claimed.

Trump, meanwhile, called for the prosecution of those involved in the arrest of the Sortor, including one individual Sortor claimed he saw was burning the US flag.

Also read: Trump vs Antifa: What is anti-fascist movement and who founded it? All FAQs answered

Brandi Kruse Details Change Of Perception On Trump

Brandi Kruse, a Seattle-based conservative influencer, called Antifa a "paid anarchist group," despite Reuters and ACLED describing it as a decentralized organization that is not unified. She claimed she had Trump Derangement Syndrome, but she "recovered" from it.

"Some of us have been covering Antifa for 15 years and have never had anyone in a position of authority even acknowledge their existence," she said, praising Trump.

“I even think I got a little more attractive after I got rid of my Trump derangement syndrome,” she added, noting that since she stopped reporting negatively on Trump, she has been “happier, healthier, [and] more successful”

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AN 10 25

During Wednesday’s White House roundtable on “Antifa,” Trump Cabinet secretaries compared it to international drug cartels and vowed to dismantle it “brick by brick,” while the President described Antifa as “treasonous, probably.”

Antifa, which the President has labeled a “domestic terrorist organization,” is widely seen as a movement of people opposed to fascism and racism. It is not believed to be a formal organization. BBC News describes it as “a loosely organized, leftist movement that opposes far-right, racist and fascist groups,” and which “lacks a distinct leader, membership list or structure. In 2020, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that Antifa was better defined as an ideology than as a formal organization.”

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told roundtable attendees, “One of the individuals we arrested recently in Portland was the girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa.”

Secretary Noem said they are “hoping that as we go after her, interview her and prosecute her, we will get more and more information about the network and how we can root them out, and eliminate them from the existence of American society.”

READ MORE: ‘Full-Blown Authoritarianism’: Governor Fires Back After Trump Says He Belongs ‘in Jail’

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She also said that “this network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TdA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them.”

“They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we’ve dealt with for many, many years. And today is the day that we have a president that won’t tolerate it, and will stand up and fight for the American people.”

Similarly, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that “fighting crime is more than just getting the bad guy off the streets. It’s breaking down the organization, brick by brick. Just like we did with cartels. We are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa, destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We’re going to take them apart.”

“Their hatred for President Trump, and for law and order agendas, fuels their violence,” Bondi said. “We saw what’s happening in Portland and Chicago, and you saw what happened in Dallas. No longer. It is not activism, it’s anarchy. We can’t, and we will not, let masked terrorists burn our buildings, attack our law enforcement, and intimidate our communities.”

She declared that the Trump administration is “deploying the full might of the federal law enforcement to crack down on Antifa and other domestic terrorist organizations.”

READ MORE: ‘The Ground Has Shifted’: Experts Warn After Trump’s ‘Gnat’ Speech to U.S. Navy

President Trump said, “we’re going after Antifa criminals and all who fund and support their campaigns are in serious trouble, and we have a lot of records already, a lot of surprises, a lot of bad surprises — people that you would never think.”

He also asked the group to identify the “funders” of Antifa: “These are people that do not have good intention for the country, and that’s treasonous, probably.”

Critics blasted the event.

“After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly ‘carrying drugs,’ the US Attorney General says ‘Just like we did with cartels, we’re going to take the same approach…with Antifa,'” wrote Zeteo News’ Prem Thakker.

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council observed, “Cartels have actual leadership structures, central funding, command and control, and more. ‘Antifa’ is mostly a philosophy. That the Attorney General doesn’t know the difference is quite the thing to admit!”

Bill Kristol, the director of Defending Democracy Together, wrote: “Which is more alarming? That the Homeland Security secretary might actually believe that ‘Antifa’ is as dangerous as Hezbollah or Hamas? Or that she’s willing to engage in this level of lying and demagoguery? Neither is good!”

Olga Lautman, a Russian intelligence expert and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, pointed to Bondi’s remark about cartels and asked: “Are they planning on sending missiles to American cities to carry out extrajudicial killings.”

SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah issued this warning: “Please understand that This is Trump regime explaining how they will use the government to prosecute Democrats. Page 1 of the fascist playbook is imprison political opponents so that the fascist has one party rule.”

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not allowed in copshop to pee in illinois?

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an 10 25

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to take a step toward circumventing federal laws that bar the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement in a letter she sent to the Department of Defense Sunday as the National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles amid mass protests over immigration raids.

In a letter obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle, Noem wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the Pentagon should direct military forces "to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them."

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement without the authorization of Congress.

Noem called on the DOD to "support to our law enforcement officers and agents across Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Federal Protective Services (FPS), as they defend against invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens."

Noem did not specify the so-called "identified foreign terrorist organizations" that she claimed are involved in the protests that have erupted in Los Angeles in recent days in response to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in which 118 immigrants were arrested last week.

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President Donald Trump has referred to the protests against his mass deportation operation as "riots," and has claimed those attending the demonstrations are "insurrectionists," but the protests were reported to be "largely peaceful" before Trump ordered more than 2,000 members of the California National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday.

On Monday, 700 Marines were also deployed.

Syracuse University law professor William Banks told the Chronicle that Noem's request for members of the military to arrest protesters whom she labeled "lawbreakers" could be a step toward "the invocation of the Insurrection Act."

The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 when Los Angeles residents erupted in fury over the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers who had been filmed savagely beating Rodney King, a black man who they had pulled over after a high-speed chase.

The 1792 law authorizes the president to deploy military forces domestically to suppress rebellions or unrest, when local or state law enforcement is unable to control the situation.

But Stephen Dycus, a professor emeritus at Vermont Law and Graduate School and an expert in national security law, emphasized that local authorities did not appear to lose control of the protests over the weekend.

Noem's requests for military arrests, along with Trump's federalization of the National Guard and deployment of the Marines, "can be seen as using the military, or at a minimum using that threat, to instill fear in the American people and discourage the kinds of protests that are going on in Los Angeles," Dycus told the Chronicle. "So this could be viewed as a preparation for invoking the Insurrection Act, or it could be viewed as part of a larger effort to frighten people who otherwise would exercise their First Amendment guarantee of free speech and protest."

Banks called Noem's push for military detentions of Los Angeles residents "a grave escalation."

The secretary indicated in her letter to Hegseth that she would send a formal request in the coming days. She also called for "the transportation of munitions" from Fort Benning and Wyoming, but did not say what the weapons would be used for.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-11) said Trump's use of the military to suppress protests—which began when ICE agents searched the garment district of Los Angeles for undocumented workers—proves his mass deportation campaign "has nothing to do with deporting criminals and everything to do with creating a militarized terror police state."

"This isn't what happens in a democracy," Wiener told the Chronicle, "this is what happens in a dictatorship."

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PP

Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in which she’ll help oversee the nation’s election infrastructure.

Honey is a protege of Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Honey had played a key role in Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes effort to change Georgia’s election rules to allow Republican officials to contest a potential Trump loss in that year’s presidential race. Honey also promoted election conspiracy theories, including one Trump cited in a speech to his followers before they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Though states do the on-the-ground work of running elections, DHS supports them with tasks beyond their capacities, such as protecting IT infrastructure and voter databases from foreign intrusions. The agency, with bipartisan support, took on this role in the aftermath of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Experts on voting and state election officials warned that Honey’s appointment as DHS’ deputy assistant secretary of election integrity could erode trust between state and federal officials, prompting states not to share information with the agency.

“We are witnessing a dangerous trend: the elevation of known bad-faith actors like Heather Honey,” said Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in a statement, citing Honey’s “well-documented history of spreading election lies that have been debunked in court.”

Fontes called her involvement with DHS “deeply troubling” and said “when the agency gives a platform to individuals who have actively worked to erode public trust, it becomes harder to view DHS as a reliable partner in election security.”

A DHS spokesperson did not answer questions from ProPublica on Honey’s appointment or the exact nature of her responsibilities. Honey didn’t respond to calls or emails. The White House also didn’t respond to a request for comment. Her name is listed on the organization’s leadership structure online, and her appointment was first reported by the website Democracy Docket.

In the first Trump administration, the federal government set up programs designed to shield U.S. elections from foreign interference, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of DHS. But Trump soured on this and other initiatives after the director of CISA publicly rebutted his claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Since the start of the second Trump presidency, the administration has gutted those programs, cutting hundreds of employees at CISA. Its director, Chris Krebs, is now under federal investigation, DHS has said; Krebs told CNN that the investigation appeared to be an act of political retribution. The Justice Department has also rolled back a program aimed at combatting foreign influence campaigns. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a memorandum that the Justice Department’s program was disbanded to “free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”

David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonprofit focused on building trust in American elections, said the cuts had dismantled “nearly all” of DHS’ capacity to protect election infrastructure. He said state elections officials feared that Honey’s appointment, combined with the program cuts, signaled the Trump administration’s intent to eliminate bulwarks of fair U.S. elections.

“The hiring of an election conspiracy theorist with no election knowledge or expertise is the culmination of this reversal,” Becker said. “DHS now appears poised to become a primary amplifier of false election conspiracies pushed by our enemies.”

Two sources familiar with Honey’s hiring at DHS said she began working for the agency last week. An organizational chart dated Aug. 18 on the department’s website identifies her as a leader in the agency’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans. Her position wasn’t on a version of the website archived in July, and officials in former administrations said that there’s been no such job previously.

It’s not clear yet what Honey will oversee, but former DHS officials said that deputy assistant secretaries are typically the agency’s top experts in their subject areas. They’re often involved in drafting executive orders and crafting policies. They also serve as liaisons to the White House and the National Security Council.

Since Honey started, Trump has announced “a movement to get rid of” mail-in ballots and voting machines via executive order, though a top aide subsequently said the administration would pursue those goals through legislative action. DHS has also threatened to cut off about $28 million in grants to help states prepare for terrorism and disasters if they don’t change voting rules to conform to the administration’s priorities, NPR has reported.

Honey’s duties likely would include helping to organize the government’s policy responses if foreign actors make intrusions into the nation’s election systems, former officials said. To do this, and to assess the security of election infrastructure, someone in her position would typically have access to classified information, including the government’s election-related intelligence.

Experts expressed concern about Honey’s portfolio, given her history of spreading misinformation.

“Heather Honey’s past misleading claims about vote counts in Pennsylvania, among other things, have helped fuel false conspiracy theories about stolen elections,” said Larry Norden, an election expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, a nonpartisan law and policy group.

Before becoming swept up in the “Stop the Steal” movement, Honey had no experience in the federal government or as an election administrator, working as a Pennsylvania-based private investigator.

Amid Rise of RFK Jr., Officials Waver on Drinking Water Fluoridation — Even in the State Where It Started](https://www.propublica.org/article/fluoride-drinking-water-rfk-jr-michigan-cdc-hhs)

After the 2020 election, she became a contractor for a Republican-backed audit seeking proof of fraud in ballots cast in Maricopa County, Arizona. According to emails between employees working on the review, which ended up reaffirming Biden’s win, Honey helped draft the final report.

Since then, Honey has led at least three organizations devoted to transforming election systems in ways championed by conservatives, such as tightening eligibility requirements for people to be on voter rolls. Members of Honey’s Pennsylvania Fair Elections, a state chapter of Mitchell’s nationwide Election Integrity Network, have challenged the eligibility of thousands of residents to be on voter rolls.

Honey has also been involved in numerous other efforts to transform elections around the country, including a successful push to get many states with Republican leadership to pull out of a bipartisan interstate partnership to share data to make voting more secure.

Do you have information you can share about Heather Honey or elections work being done in the federal government, especially at the Department of Homeland Security? Contact reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Signal at 678-243-0784. If you’re concerned about confidentiality, check out our advice on the most secure ways to share tips.

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GGL 10 25

Democracy Docket

Cleta Mitchell Thinks Trump Will Use Emergency Powers to Take Control of Elections

Cleta Mitchell Thinks Trump Will Use Emergency Powers to Take Control of Elections ... Cleta Mitchell thinks President Donald Trump may declare a...

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1 month ago

Democracy Docket

Plaintiffs Want Cleta Mitchell to Testify on Law to Suppress Student Voting

Voting rights groups in North Carolina are asking a federal court to compel election-denying lawyer Cleta Mitchell to testify in their...

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2 weeks ago

Carolina Journal

Critics ask court to compel election integrity activist Mitchell to testify at NC trial

Left-of-center groups challenging a provision of North Carolina election law are asking a federal judge to help them ensure election...

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2 weeks ago

MSNBC News

Researcher who distorted voter data gets election integrity job in Trump’s second term

For those who followed Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, Cleta Mitchell's name probably rings a bell.

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1 month ago

CBS News

Can Trump use emergency powers to influence federal elections?

Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who played a role in President Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election, said Mr. Trump could declare a...

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1 month ago

NPR

Despite Trump's win, 'election integrity' activists still seek sweeping voting changes

Republican voters say they trust the 2024 election was administered well, yet pro-Trump conservatives are pushing some sweeping reforms to...

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Jan 13, 2025

ProPublica

She Pushed to Overturn Trump’s Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She’ll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.

Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. State election officials and voting experts...

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1 month ago

The Guardian

She was a firebrand Democrat. Now, Cleta Mitchell is a rising star of Republican election denialism | Donald Trump

Mitchell is now one of the most influential Republicans working to shape election law and policy ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

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Jul 2, 2024

EXPOSEDbyCMD

Cleta Mitchell’s New Dark Money Elections Group Raised $3.9 Million in Its First Full Year of Operations

The pro-Trump outlet also published a column EIN's Kerri Toloczko misinforming readers that noncitizen voting is a crisis that needs to be...

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AN 10 25

Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, is considering a run for governor of New Hampshire, Politico reported Thursday.

The report comes as the White House weighs backing a primary challenge against current Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R).

“Governor is the only job in politics I would ever consider giving up what I am currently doing for,” Lewandowski told Politico.

According to the report, he did not indicate whether the potential run had been discussed with the White House.

The possible candidacy comes amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and Ayotte over redistricting.

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The White House is reportedly frustrated with Ayotte’s resistance to redrawing congressional maps that would strengthen Republican control of the U.S. House ahead of the midterms.

The report noted that Lewandowski’s role at DHS has drawn internal scrutiny. Initially appointed as a special governmental employee, a position limited to 130 days of unpaid work per year, questions have emerged about how his time is being counted.

Despite the temporary designation, he has wielded significant influence, with current and former administration officials saying he has veto power over DHS contracts and grants exceeding $100,000.

He is listed on the agency's website as a chief adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and is regularly seen traveling with her.

Speculation about Lewandowski’s future at DHS intensified this week amid reports he might be leaving the department.

Lewandowski addressed the rumors in a post on the social platform X Wednesday night, writing, “I thought it only fitting today to share the words of the famous Mark Twain … ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.’ Lots of Fake News out there… don’t believe the MSM.”

He previously floated a 2020 Senate bid against Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, which failed to gain traction within the state’s GOP establishment.

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AN 10 25

A Boston federal judge's "blistering" 161-page ruling on what he called the president's attackson the Constitution contains a stunning warning for the president's enemies, Axios reports.

Judge William G. Young's ruling maintains international students' rights to free speech despite the administration's efforts to deport them after a professors union and student groups sued the Trump administration over its efforts to detain and deport immigrants who expressed pro-Palestinianviews.

Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained for six weeks over a pro-Palestinian op-ed she co-wrote in the university newspaper.

Young blasted the Homeland Security and State departments for being used to crack down on free speech, saying if they can be manipulated to do that, so can the IRS, Social Security Administration and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.

They, he wrote, can be "unconstitutionally weaponized" against Trump's enemies, even though "political persecutionis anathema to our Constitution and everything for which America stands."

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Young, who called this the biggest case the Boston federal court ever faced, called the State and Homeland Security departments' moves "unconstitutional attacks on political speech," saying Trump's support for this strategy violates his duties as president to defend the Constitution.

Trump's executive orders, Young wrote, singled out pro-Palestinian speech "for a campaign of speech-chilling retribution" under the guise of combating antisemitism and hate speech.

The judge also weighed in on federal immigration agents sporting face masks, likening them to "to KKK members and 'cowardly desperados,'" noting that even the military doesn't shield soldiers with masks, Axios reports.

He called the federal employees who raised concerns about insufficient evidence to deport these students "true patriots" who were "weaponized by their highest superiors to reach foregone conclusions for most ignoble ends."

Also included in the judge's ruling was a random postcard he received from an anonymous sender that said, "Trump has pardons and tanks. What do you have?"

"Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty," the judge replied. "Together, we ... you and me — have our magnificent Constitution."

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an 10 25

Senior U.S. District Judge William Young — a Ronald Reagan appointee — included a photocopy of a postcard sent to him by an anonymous critic complaining of judicial power in U.S. government.

Young, a U.S. District Judge in Boston, ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration’s policy of targeting foreign students and faculty for pro-Palestinian activism violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections. He included with his decision a scornful scolding of the administration’s attempt to terrify dissent on college campuses — as well as a rebuke to what looks like a pro-Trump voter boasting that: “Trump has pardons and tanks ... What do you have?”

“Dear Mr. or Ms, Anonymous,” Young replied in writing. “Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People of the United States — you and me — have our magnificent Constitution.”

“Here’s how that works in a specific case,” added Young, who then submitted a court opinion concluding that “Secretaries Noem and Rubio and their several agents and subordinates acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech.”

“They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful Pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right,” Young said, adding that “the effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.”

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“I gasped when I saw the front page of this decision,” posted American Immigration Council Senior Fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick on X.

Politico Senior Legal Affairs Reporter Kyle Chaney called it “the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era,” on X.

Read a PBS article on the news at this link.

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an pp 9 25

For months, the complaints have rolled in from parts of the country hit by natural disasters: The Federal Emergency Management Agency was moving far too slowly in sending aid to communities ravaged by floods and hurricanes, including in central Texas and North Carolina. Many officials were blaming Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, whose agency oversees FEMA.

“I can’t get phone calls back,” Ted Budd, the Republican senator from North Carolina, told a newspaper this month, describing his attempts to reach Noem’s office. “I can’t get them to initiate the money. It’s just a quagmire.” The delays were caused in part by a new policy announced by DHS that requires Noem’s personal sign-off on expenses over $100,000, several news outlets reported.

But records obtained by ProPublica show how one locality found a way to get FEMA aid more quickly: It asked one of Noem’s political donors for help.

The records show that Noem quickly expedited more than $11 million of federal money to rebuild a historic pier in Naples, Florida, after she was contacted by a major financial supporter last month. The pier is a tourist attraction in the wealthy Gulf Coast enclave and was badly damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Frustrated city officials had been laboring for months, without success, to get disaster assistance. But just two weeks after the donor stepped in, they were celebrating their sudden change of fortune. “We are now at warp speed with FEMA,” one city official wrote in an email. A FEMA representative wrote: “Per leadership instruction, pushing project immediately.”

Along with fast-tracking the money, Noem flew to Naples on a government plane to tour the pier herself. She then stayed for the weekend and got dinner with the donor, local cardiologist Sinan Gursoy, at the French restaurant Bleu Provence, according to records and an interview with the Naples mayor. This account is based on text messages and emails ProPublica obtained through public records requests.

Noem’s actions in Naples suggest the injection of political favoritism into an agency tasked with saving lives and rebuilding communities wiped out by disaster. It also heightens concerns about the discretion Noem has given herself by personally handling all six-figure expenses at the agency, consolidating her power over who wins and loses in the pursuit of federal relief dollars, experts said.

Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said that politics has long been a factor in federal disaster relief — one study found that swing states are more likely to get federal help, for example. But “I’ve not heard of anything this egregious — a donor calling up and saying I need help and getting it,” he said, “while others may be getting denied assistance or otherwise waiting in line for help that may or may not come.”

In a statement, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “This has nothing to do with politics: Secretary Noem also visited Ruidoso, NM” — where floods killed three people in July — “at the request of a Democrat governor and has been integral in supporting and speeding up their recovery efforts.”

“Your criticizing the Secretary’s visit to the Pier is bizarre as she works to fix this issue for more than 1 million visitors that used to visit the pier,” McLaughlin added. She did not answer questions about the donor’s role in expediting the funding or Noem’s relationship with him. Reached by phone, Gursoy said “get lost” and hung up. He did not respond to detailed follow up questions.

Noem has been criticized for creating a bottleneck at FEMA. When the floods hit Texas this summer — ultimately killing over 100 people — it took days to deploy critical search-and-rescue teams because Noem hadn’t signed off on them, according to CNN. Budd, the Republican senator, said this month: “Pretty much everything Helene-related is over $100,000. So they’re stacking up on her desk waiting for her signature.”

Noem has denied there were delays in the Texas flood response and has defended her expense policy, saying it has saved billions of dollars. “Every day I get up and I think, the American people are paying for this, should they?” she recently said. “And are these dollars doing what the law says they should be doing? I’m going to make sure that they go there.”

Once a sleepy fishing town, Naples is now home to CEOs and billionaires (a property listed for $295 million recently made headlines as the most expensive home in the U.S.). The city is known as an important stop for Republican politicians raising money, and Noem has held multiple fundraisers in the area. State credit card records suggest she visited Naples at least 10 times during her last four years as South Dakota governor.

Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, also appears to own a home in Naples near the city’s pier, according to property tax records. Lewandowski is an unpaid staffer at DHS serving as Noem’s de facto chief of staff. (Media reports have alleged the two are romantically involved, which they have both denied.) Lewandowski told ProPublica that he was not involved in the pier decision and that he was not in Naples during Noem’s visit.

For the first seven months of the Trump administration, the pier reconstruction was in bureaucratic purgatory. The city had long been struggling to secure the regulatory approvals it needed to start building, and emails suggest Trump’s wave of federal layoffs had made the process even slower. “These agencies are undergoing significant reorganizations and staff reductions,” a city official told a frustrated constituent in early August. That “sometimes means starting over with new reviewers — something we’ve faced more than once.”

McLaughlin said “both past FEMA and the City bear responsibility” for the delays. She listed “several failures” since the process started in 2023, including “FEMA staff changing up” and indecision by the city government.

By this summer, Naples officials were getting desperate. In June, one tried to enlist Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to press FEMA to move ahead. “We were told yesterday that Secretary Noem would have to ‘personally’ approve the Pier project before FEMA funding would be obligated,” the city official wrote to the senator’s staff. The Naples mayor, Teresa Heitmann, also personally wrote to FEMA. Heitmann said she was “perplexed” by the delays and begged the agency for guidance.

Heitmann had long been paying expensive Washington consultants to help her city navigate the process. But she was “feeling increasingly helpless,” she later said, until she had the idea that would finally put her project on the fast track. On July 18, the mayor emailed a Google search to herself: “Who is the head of Homeland security?” She was going to go straight to Noem.

Heitmann determined that her best bet for getting Noem’s attention was Gursoy. A Naples cardiologist, Gursoy has no obvious experience working with the federal government; much of his online footprint centers on his enthusiasm for pinball. But Gursoy gave Noem at least $25,000 to support her campaign for governor in 2022. That was enough to put him near the top of Noem’s disclosed donor list. (In South Dakota, campaign contributions remain relatively small.)

On planning documents for the 2024 Republican National Convention obtained by ProPublica, the Florida doctor is listed as an attendee affiliated with the delegation from South Dakota, a state he has no apparent connection to besides his support for Noem. Heitmann told ProPublica that Gursoy introduced her to Noem at a political event at a private home in Naples while Noem was governor.

“Hello it’s Teresa,” the mayor texted Gursoy in early August. “I really need your help.” She explained the tangle of bureaucracy she’d been contending with. “FEMA is holding us up,” Heitmann wrote. “Kristi Noem could put some fire under the FEMA employees slacking.”

Gursoy responded: “Okay. I will get on it.”

The next week, on Aug. 11, the doctor gave Heitmann an update. “Kristi was off for a few days for the first time in a long time, so I left her alone,” he said. “I just txted her now.” Within 24 hours, he had exciting news. He told the mayor to expect a call from Noem’s “FEMA fixer” shortly.

The identity of the “fixer” is not clear, but by Aug. 27, Naples officials were seeing a “flurry of activity” from Noem’s agency. That day, a FEMA staffer told the city that “FEMA is intending to expedite the funding” for the pier. “Secretary Noem took immediate action when I reached out to ask for help,” the mayor soon posted on Facebook.

Two days later, Noem flew to Naples. Her schedule listed a 30-minute walk-through at the pier with the mayor, followed by a nail salon appointment and dinner at Bleu Provence, which serves wagyu short ribs and seared foie gras. Noem then stayed through the weekend at the four-star Naples Bay Resort & Marina. Heitmann told ProPublica she wasn’t at the French dinner but Gursoy was. “I didn’t ask her to come, but she showed up,” the mayor told the local news. “I was very impressed.”

Before she left town, Noem posted about the Naples pier on Instagram. She was finally getting the project back on track, she said. “Americans deserve better than years of red tape and failed disaster responses,” Noem wrote. “Under @POTUS Trump, this incompetency ends.”

DHS did not answer questions about whether the government paid for Noem’s weekend in Naples.

Do you have any information we should know about Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski or DHS? Josh Kaplan can be reached by email at joshua.kaplan@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383. Justin Elliott can be reached by email at justin@propublica.org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 774-826-6240.

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an 9 25

'Screaming at everybody': Trump official making life miserable at DHS

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an 8 25

Corey Lewandowski — former Trump campaign manager turned senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — is reportedly playing gatekeeper for contracts over $100,000, creating a vortex of delays.

Politico reported Wednesday, citing insiders from the administration and FEMA, that rather than ushering contracts straight to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s desk, they are funneled through Lewandowski. He is said to hold veto power over these substantial agreements.

One FEMA official described this bottleneck as "insane" in their comment to Politico, pointing to a new DHS protocol that requires manual reviews of even routine contracts — slowing operations to a crawl.

READ MORE: Trump's reckoning may be right around the corner — here's why

“Corey is part of the problem,” said one administration official. “It doesn’t matter how quickly we get it there; it doesn’t just go straight to her desk.”

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According to the report, the extra layer of scrutiny stems from Noem’s initiative aiming to stem wasteful spending.

Critics argue, however, that it's instead bogging down the agency — risking delayed deployment of billions in immigration enforcement funds and frustrating office workflows. Even relatively modest contracts can take weeks to get approved, per the report.

One insider told the outlet: "We’ll see if that frustrates members of Congress who voted for the Big Beautiful Bill.”

READ MORE: 'It’s a real gut punch': Rural voters 'stunned' by Trump’s damage

Though officially a “special governmental employee” limited to 130 unpaid days per year, Lewandowski’s involvement appears far more substantial. Sources note frequent appearances with Noem at events and on travel, describing him as her de facto chief of staff. Some officials question whether his days at DHS are being properly documented.

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an 8 25

"We're taking father/son bonding to a whole new level."

That's how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday told social media users that it is lifting age limits for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) applicants—evidence, critics said, of the Trump administration's desperation to fill the ranks of federal agencies tasked with carrying out its cruel and illegal anti-immigrant policies.

In a move reminiscent of how the U.S. military attempted to stem flagging enlistment during the George W. Bush administration's so-called War on Terror by lowering recruitment standards to welcome felons, gang members, white supremacists, and high school dropouts, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday that "we are ENDING the age cap for ICE law enforcement."

Approved applicants will be joining an agency rife with human rights and legal abuses as it scrambles to satisfy alleged ICE arrest quotas and President Donald Trump's desire to carry out the biggest mass deportation campaign in the nation's history—a campaign of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and expulsion of innocent people, family separation, concentration camps, terrorization of American communities, alleged torture and sexual crimes, and many other outrages.

Noem told Fox & Friends Wednesday that in addition to lifting the 40-year-old age cap, ICE applicants can now be as young as 18.

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"What could possibly go wrong?" independent journalist Tina Vasquez quipped on Bluesky.

Author Patrick S. Tomlinson wrote on X that "ICE opening up recruiting to teenagers because they can't find enough adults willing to be their racist storm troopers is some real dystopian s---."

Wednesday's announcement is the latest Trump administration effort to lure 10,000 new recruits, including by offering $50,000 sign-up bonuses and student loan repayment assistance—policies that can be paid for thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's historic funding for ICE.

Some critics pointed to a similar move to increase recruitment at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where lower hiring standards resulted in increased reports of sexual misconduct and corruption among Border Patrol recruits.

"If they start waiving requirements there like they did for Border Patrol, you're going to have an exponential increase in officers that are shown the door after three years because there's some issue," former senior ICE official Jason Houser told The Associated Press last week.

Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate campaign, offered some friendly advice for those considering working for ICE: "Instead of joining the Gestapo, perhaps find a unionized workplace that's not involved in kidnapping instead."

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SEN ALEX PADILLA FLOOR HANDCUFF AT PRESS CONF NOEM

NOEM SAID PURPOSE OF NG USMC WAS LIBERATE FROM SOCIALIST GOV LIED THAT HE DID NOT ID HIMSELF, LOGO ON POLO

TRUMP FLA SHERIFF PROTEST MET W/ VIOLENCE 6 25

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an 8 25

Feds still withholding millions in funds for North Carolina as Hurricane Erin bears down

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an 8 25

What could possibly go wrong?' Outrage as Trump admin recruits teens to join 'the Gestapo'

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an 7 25

Salon's Amanda Marcotte has often stressed that many MAGA try to curry favor with President Donald Trump not only by aggressively promoting his policies, but also, by altering their appearances and trying to look a certain way. "Mar-a-Lago face," according to Marcotte, includes heavy, caked-on makeup, a lot of bronzer, a fake tan, full lips, and in some cases, plastic surgery. MAGA women often express their devotion to Trump with both their physical appearances and their combative defenses of his policies.

More analysis of the role far-right women are playing in Trump's second presidency is coming from journalist Virginia Heffernan, who co-hosts the podcast "What Rough Beast" with colleague Stephen Metcalf.

In an article published by The New Republic on August 4, Heffernan zeros in on four MAGA women in particular and their roles in pushing Trump's policies: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

READ MORE:One state has always been a magnet for big-time sleazeballs — as the Epstein saga proves

"Good news for the Women's Marchers of 2017: The future did turn out to be female," Heffernan argues. "Less good news: The females now in power are far-right and bloodthirsty. Having appointed more women to Cabinet-level positions than any other Republican president, Donald Trump now has a quartet of harpies fronting the (Trump) Administration's most vicious bloodsports. Like middle-aged Manson girls, Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard, Linda McMahon, and Kristi Noem take orders from a supremely nasty felon. But they have vile streaks all their own. The vileness blends their private and public actions in a filthy smoothie."

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Heffernan stresses that Bondi, Gabbard, McMahon and Noem repeatedly show the extremes they're willing to embrace in service of Trump.

"On the main stage," the journalist/podcaster observes, "Attorney General Pam Bondi has proven a singularly dutiful and hollow-eyed Trump soldier. For Manson Family obsessives, she’s probably closest to Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme…. Gabbard, the newly minted gun fetishist who now speaks in Q drops, is concocting sham treason charges against Obama…. McMahon has been willfully destroying American education, imperiling the country’s future in plain sight."

Heffernan continues, "And DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who believes habeas corpus means Trump can do whatever the hell he wants to immigrants, continues to vamp as the national avatar of constitutionally dubious raids, renditions, and detentions — in a $50,000 Rolex. As for their knack for striking Instagram poses — in concentration camps, on horseback and beaches, thumbs-upping with Trump, sometimes brandishing big guns — these women have been training their whole lives for MAGA shock theater. Bondi cut her teeth in blonded-and-bronzed Fox appearances; Gabbard on social media and in a flamboyant cult in which adherents evidently ate the leader's toenails; McMahon as a heel in what Roland Barthes called pro-wrestling's 'spectacle of suffering'; and Kristi Noem in a teen beauty pageant."

READ MORE: 'It was all lies': Outrage as Trump walks back major pro-family campaign promise

Like Marcotte, Heffernan points out that MAGA women are careful to look a certain way.

The original Manson girls wore prairie dresses, shifts, and bare faces. Bondi, Gabbard, and Noem go for the trademark Trump-girl glam. But their cheugy hair and smeary MAGA makeup would just be a reprise of the (Hope)Hicks/(Kimberly) Guilfoyle lewk from Season 1, if their images weren't now explicitly pressed into the service of so much disturbing political iconography…. Gabbard's Instagram shows her thirstily clad in ammo — carrying the kind of assault rifle she used to oppose — at the Tactical Games, where 'fitness meets firearms'…. MAGA makeup aside…. all of these women are wolfish."

Heffernan adds, "When did Republican women, aged 44 to 76, become so savage? So proudly deviant?"

READ MORE: Don't 'have any other choice': Outrage grows in the Midwest as political crisis spirals

*Virginia Heffernan's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.

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7 25 noem poland?

Jul 29, 2025

Long before Project 2025 – there was a different playbook for turning a democracy into an autocracy. Let's talk about Viktor Orbán and Hungary.A Story You Should Know - YouTube

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an 7 25

Revealed: Even Texas officials are mocking Kristi Noem as 'Homeland Barbie'

Some Texas officials in the county recently devastated by fatal flooding were found to have been laughing at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem behind her back.

The Daily Beast reported Monday on newly revealed texts that San Antonio, Texas ABC affiliate KSAT obtained between Kerrville, Texas city manager Dalton Rice and a staffer. The texts showed the two mocking Noem after she held a press conference in Kerr County as bodies were being pulled from the Guadalupe River.

"Just saw you met Homeland Barbi, how is she?!?!?!" The staffer texted Rice.

READ MORE:Mary Trump warns her uncle 'isn't the problem anymore'

"Beahahaha basically Homeland Barbie," he responded.

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The Kerrville officials in question have not yet responded to KSAT's requests for comment, though "Homeland Barbie" and "ICE Barbie" have become go-to nicknames for the Homeland Security secretary since Noem's confirmation earlier this year. Even SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly remarked during an April episode of her show that Noem's costumed "photo-ops" were a distraction from her agency's mission.

“Why does she have to keep doing this? She’s doing a great job, her actual performance as DHS secretary, in my view, anyway, has been amazing,” Kelly said. “Just stop trying to glamorize the mission and put yourself in the middle of it as you cosplay ICE agent, which you’re not. I can’t stand these photo-ops.”

138 people across Texas were killed in the early July floods that wreaked havoc long the banks of the Guadalupe River, including 108 in Kerr County, according to KSAT. Noem's leadership atop the Department of Homeland Security was criticized for a cost-cutting policy that prevented Federal Emergency Management Agency officials from responding in a timely fashion to evacuate residents in the path of danger.

READ MORE:'Kicked a hornet's nest': Backlash follows red state Republicans' repeal of voter-approved laws

Click here to read the Beast's full article (subscription required), and click here to read KSAT's report in its entirety.

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ggl 7 25

Noem urges Poles to elect Trump ally as CPAC ... - NPR

NPR

https://www.npr.org › 2025/05/28 › noem-cpac-poland

noem cpac poland from www.npr.org

May 28, 2025 — The Conservative Political Action Conference held its first meeting in Poland on Tuesday, just days before a presidential election between a ...

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Travels to Poland (324)

Homeland Security (.gov)

https://www.dhs.gov › medialibrary › assets

noem cpac poland from www.dhs.gov

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Jasionka, Poland, May 27, 2025.

FULL: DHS Sec. Kristi Noem speaks at first-ever CPAC in ...

YouTube · LiveNOW from FOX

172K+ views · 2 months ago

22:20

Secretary Christy Noom speaking at the first ever CPAC out in Poland. This is just days before a big presidential election is going to be taking place.

Kristi Noem Calls for Strong Leadership at CPAC Poland

cpac.org

https://www.cpac.org › post › kristi-noem-calls-for-stro...

noem cpac poland from www.cpac.org

Jun 3, 2025 — Just one week ago, Poland stood at a critical juncture as voters prepared for a decisive second round of presidential elections on June 1, ...

Noem blasts 'weak' European leaders, stumps for ...

ABC News

https://abcnews.go.com › Politics › story

noem cpac poland from abcnews.go.com

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday pushed for Karol Nawrocki to be president of Poland while speaking at the Conservative Political Action ...

LIVE: Kristi Noem speaks at CPAC 2025 in Poland

YouTube · Associated Press

11.1K+ views · 2 months ago

24:35

Watch live as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual gathering of ...

"Noem urges Poles to elect Trump ally as CPAC holds its ...

Election Law Blog

https://electionlawblog.org › ...

May 31, 2025 — The current US Secretary of Homeland Security (with a cameo by John Eastman) expressly campaigning in Poland for a particular candidate in tomorrow's Polish ...

Kristi Noem slams 'absolute train wreck' Warsaw mayor at ...

YouTube · New York Post

26.4K+ views · 2 months ago

2:10

Kristi Noem slammed the Warsaw Mayor as an "absolute train wreck of a leader" while at the CPAC gathering in Poland. Noem spoke at the ...

After Noem's CPAC speech, Nawrocki wins Polish presidency

The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com · Jun 2, 2025

1:00

Speaking in Poland on May 27, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stumped for conservative nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.

Kristi Noem At CPAC LIVE | 'If I Had Vodka...': Trump Aide's ...

YouTube · Times Of India

1.7K+ views · 2 months ago

5:57:00

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivered a passionate speech as Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held its first ...

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AN 7 25

Outrage continues to grow against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem over her response to the deadly floods that ravaged Texas last week.

According to a Friday report from The New York Times,more than two-thirds of phone calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from flood victims went unanswered after Noem allowed hundreds of contractors to be laid off on July 5, just a day after the nightmare storm.

According to The Times, this dramatically hampered the ability of the agency to respond to calls from survivors in the following days:

*On July 5, as floodwaters were starting to recede, FEMA received 3,027 calls from disaster survivors and answered 3,018, or roughly 99.7 percent, the documents show. Contractors with four call center companies answered the vast majority of the calls.

*That evening, however, Noem did not renew the contracts with the four companies, and hundreds of contractors were fired, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.

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The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show.*

Calling is one of the primary ways that flood victims apply for aid from the disaster relief agency. But Noem would wait until July 10—five days later—to renew the contracts of the people who took those phone calls.

"Responding to less than half of the inquiries is pretty horrific," Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, told The Times.

"Put yourself in the shoes of a survivor: You've lost everything, you're trying to find out what's insured and what's not, and you’re navigating multiple aid programs," he added. "One of the most important services in disaster recovery is being able to call someone and walk through these processes and paperwork."

The lapse is a direct result of a policy introduced by Noem last month, which required any payments made by FEMA above $100,000 to be directly approved by her before taking effect. Noem, who has said she wants to eliminate FEMA entirely, described it as a way of limiting "waste, fraud, and abuse."

Under this policy, Noem allowed other critical parts of the flood response to wait for days as well. Earlier this week, multiple officials within FEMA told CNNthat she waited more than 72 hours to authorize the deployment of search and rescue teams and aerial imaging.

Following The Times'piece, DHS put out a statement claiming that "NO ONE was left without assistance, and every call was responded to urgently."

"When a natural disaster strikes, phone calls surge, and wait times can subsequently increase," DHS said. "Despite this expected influx, FEMA's disaster call center responded to every caller swiftly and efficiently, ensuring no one was left without assistance. No call center operators were laid off or fired."

This is undercut, however, by internal emails also obtained by The Times, which showed FEMA officials becoming frustrated and blaming the DHS Secretary for the lack of contracts. One official wrote in a July 8 email to colleagues: "We still do not have a decision, waiver, or signature from the DHS Secretary."

Democratic lawmakers were already calling for investigations into Noem's response to the floods before Friday. They also sought to look into how the Trump administration's mass firings of FEMA employees, as well as employees of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) may have hampered the response.

Following The Times' revelations, outrage has reached a greater fever pitch.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called it "unforgivable and unforgettable" and an "inexcusable lapse in top leadership."

"Sec. Noem shows that dismantling FEMA impacts real people in real time," he said. "It hurts countless survivors & increases recovery costs."

In response to the news, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) simply wrote that "Kristi Noem must resign now."

Others pointed out that Noem has often sought to justify abolishing FEMA by characterizing it as slow and ineffectual. They suggested her dithering response was deliberate.

"She broke it on purpose," said Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) in an interview on MSNBC. "So that when it fails this summer, she can say, 'Oh, see, we told you—FEMA doesn't work.'"

"It's not really incompetence because they know what they are doing," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). "They are intentionally breaking government—even the parts that help us when we are deep in crisis."

NOW READ:Don't believe Trump's new disinfo campaign about Social Security

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AN 7 25

'You dress as a cowgirl?' Kristi Noem bashed at homestate fundraiser

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AN BADASH 7 25

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is under fire after posting a hostile and defensive social media statement late Wednesday afternoon, lashing out at damning CNN reporting that exposed FEMA’s delayed response to the deadly Texas floods. Intended as a rebuttal, the DHS post instead confirmed several of CNN’s alarming findings. At least 120 people are confirmed dead, and over 160 remain missing.

Central to FEMA’s late response: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has instituted a new rule that contracts and grants over $100,000 require her personal signature. Under Noem, DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) as of last month was $1 billion over budget, leading some, including members of Congress, to question the legality of her actions.

CNN reported that “even as Texas rescue crews raced to save lives, FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending [in] additional assets. Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began, multiple sources told CNN.”

READ MORE: Trump Dodges, Denies and Deflects Questions as Ukraine Weapons Scandal Grows

Sending in critical search and rescue teams days after the flooding began was not the only damaging finding.

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CNN also reported that “the additional red tape required at FEMA added another hurdle to getting critical federal resources deployed when hours counted,” noting that “Texas did request aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search and rescue operations, a source told CNN, but that was delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract.”

Also, “FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.”

In its social media statement (below), DHS posted the CNN headline and wrote: “This is a FAKE NEWS LIE from CNN.” The headline read: “FEMA’s response to Texas flood slowed by Noem’s cost controls.”

“This reporting is an unapparelled display of activist journalism and distracts from the robust, coordinated federal response led by Secretary Noem that has saved over 900+ lives,” the DHS statement reads.

“President Trump approved a Major Disaster Declaration, hours after Governor Greg Abbott’s request. By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people.”

The flooding started Friday. Tuesday is four days later.

CNN also reported facts that DHS’s statement called “fake news,” but then confirmed in its own statement.

“By Monday night, only 86 FEMA staffers had been deployed, according to internal FEMA data seen by CNN — a fraction of the typical response for a disaster of this scale,” the news network reported. “By Tuesday night, the federal response expanded to 311 staffers deployed, the data showed.”

DHS wrote: “By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people.”

CNN also reported: “Multiple FEMA officials told CNN that they were taken aback by the agency’s relatively limited response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.”

RELATED: ‘Secretary Chaos’: Hegseth Running ‘Absolute Clown Show’ Critics Say, Amid Calls to Resign

Noem’s “office has delegated little authority to acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson, who, as of Wednesday morning, has yet to visit Texas since the flooding began, multiple FEMA officials told CNN.”

A DHS spokesperson in a statement to CNN and other news outlets wrote: “DHS and its components have taken an all-hands-on-desk approach to respond to recovery efforts in Kerrville.”

Critics pushed back against DHS’s statement, at times mocking the department’s remarks.

CNN’s Aaron Blake, whose byline is not on the report, on social media wrote: “This statement doesn’t actually dispute the reporting. In fact, it says, ‘By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers …’ Tuesday is, quite notably, after the 72-hour window.”

“Again,” offered Jason Kinney, a public affairs consultant and political communications expert, “this is what happens when your Administration lives in an alternative reality where improv lying is standard operating procedure. No one believes you, even when it’s really important stuff.”

“NONE of this below responds to the problems & delays CNN reported in its detailed, sourced article,” wrote Robert Elisberg, a political commentator. “CNN did not say FEMA did nothing. But that they didn’t do some important things they usually do. DHS has long lost credibility, & sadly their note below doesn’t improve on that.”

Mediaite reported: “DHS’s over‑the‑top rebuttal underscores the power of CNN’s reporting. The statement reinforces — not refutes — the 72‑hour timeline. That leaves us with a rhetorical shell game: furious denials wrapped in the very narrative they aim to quash.”

Former Bloomberg Opinion economics writer Noah Smith wrote of the DHS post: “This is just absolute cringe.”

Read the DHS post below or at this link.

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AN 7 25

TX FLOODS

'ICE Barbie': Trump DHS secretary slammed for social media stunt during Texas tragedy

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NOTE NOEM DUFFY BLAME BIDEN

As TX deaths rise, officials blast faulty forecast by DOGE-gutted National Weather Service

Brett Wilkins Common Dreams

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cosplay alligator alca w desantis

an 7 25

During a press conference at a new immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem used her remarks to share a strange and graphic story about a cannibal who was being deported.

The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that while visiting the facility — dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" — alongside President Donald Trump, Noem defended the new detention facility as necessary in order to remove criminals from the United States. As a way of illustrating the character of the people the Trump administration says it's focused on deporting, the DHS secretary recounted one deportation flight in which a man allegedly engaged in cannibalism — on himself.

"We are going after murderers and rapists and traffickers and drug dealers and getting them off the streets and getting them out of this country because [former President] Joe Biden let the worst of the worst to come in here," Noem said. "The other day, I was talking to some marshals that had been partnering with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. They said that they had detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home and while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself. And they had to get him off and get him medical attention."

READ MORE:GOP 'going to suffer': Senate Republicans slammed after Trump bill narrowly passes

"These are the kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America that we're trying to target and get out of our country, because they are so deranged they don't belong here," she added.

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Noem's claim about the alleged cannibal on the deportation flight has yet to be verified, but some of the more recent immigration arrests cast doubt on the administration's narrative that they're exclusively targeting "the worst of the worst." One 64 year-old Iranian woman who was recently arrested while gardening at her home in New Orleans, Louisiana by plainclothes agents had been in the U.S. for 47 years and had no criminal record.

Last month in Culver City, California, federal agents arrested local vendor Ambrocio Lozano, who was known for selling ice cream out of a cart for roughly two decades to the local community. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove said Lozano was "snatched, kidnapped, by folks masked in unmarked cars with no warrants."

The "Alligator Alcatraz" facility in South Florida is expected to hold up to 5,000 people at one time, on an abandoned airfield in the middle of swampland surrounded by alligators and dangerous snakes. Trump quipped that immigrants running from alligators shouldn't "run in a straight line."

READ MORE:'That's not true and you know that': CNN host shuts down MAGA guest in front of viewers

Watch the video of Noem's comments below, or byclicking this link.

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an 6 25

Noem-led dept 'spending like drunken sailors' as report says Trump agency is $1 billion over budget

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BUSTED: Trump official who misled the public is now in charge of LA Border Patrol - Alternet.org

bovino

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NOEM SAYS REASON IS SOCIALIST LIBERATION

AN 6 25

Before her protective squad forcibly removed, detained, and handcuffed a sitting U.S. Senator asking a question at her Los Angeles press conference, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem delivered remarks that legal and political experts warn are explosive.

“We are not going away,” Secretary Noem vowed, regarding herself and her Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, other DHS operatives, and the U.S. Military, all of whom she promised would “continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city.”

“We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country here,” she declared, referring to Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Experts are once again sounding the alarm.

READ MORE: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

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“I think the governor and mayor of Los Angeles are right,” declared U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) on MSNBC on Thursday night. “I think they’re testing out their ability to essentially commandeer National Guards throughout the country, and use them for their own purposes.”

“One thing that got lost in the horrendous treatment of Alex Padilla today,” Schiff continued, “was what Kristi Noem said at that press conference in saying that it was necessary to have these troops there to ‘liberate’ the city from the socialists. That’s the kind of rhetoric the administration is using.”

He went on to say that “the fact that they would abuse the military that way and justify it that way is unconscionable.”

Other critics weighed in as well.

Quoting Secretary Noem’s remarks, Harvard University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, a top constitutional law scholar, wrote: “Using military force to displace a democratically elected state government is called a coup.”

Former prosecutor and former Hill staffer Stephen Rodio remarked, “Trump’s regime is going to liberate us from the people that we elected to represent us.”

“Be clear on what she’s saying here,” wrote podcaster Joe Walsh, a former GOP Tea Party Congressman and now a Democrat and political commentator. “She’s saying that Trump is going to use the U.S. military to overthrow both the duly elected Mayor of Los Angeles & the Governor of California. I understand she’s not very bright, but, in essence, she’s saying the federal government has declared war on California.”

READ MORE: Democrats Demand Noem Testify After Handcuffing of US Senator Padilla

“Quiet Part Out Loud?” asked U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “Sounds a lot like she’s saying they’re there to liberate the city from its elected government."

Lincoln Project senior advisor Stuart Stevens also quoted Noem’s remarks, then wrote: “That’s a statement of intent of a coup, to ‘liberate’ a state from legally elected officials. Then armed men tackle and shackle one of those leaders. Nothing about we are here to arrest violent offenders and support law enforcement.”

“The declared purpose is to undo the choice of voters. Nothing like this has ever happened in modern America except the insurrection of Jan. 6th, which Noem supported, including her support for pardoning those who assaulted law enforcement.”

“Greeted as liberators, you say?” wrote Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Ward, appearing to echo former Bush 43 Vice President Dick Cheney’s fated 2003 Iraq War claim.

“Do the decent thing and resign, Noem,” urged former U.S, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH). “The world is watching.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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AN 6 25

On Thursday, June 12, many Democrats — and quite a few Never Trump conservatives as well — were horrified when Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) was physically removed from a briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Although Padilla was not threatening in any way, he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Padilla, however, was released and is not facing any charges.

After the incident, Padilla commented that if MAGA Republicans are willing to treat a U.S. senator that way, imagine the fear that farm workers are feeling as the Trump Administration carries out aggressive deportation raids.

The incident with Padilla comes during a time of considerable tension in the United States, from the ongoing protests in Downtown Los Angeles to the military/birthday parade President Donald Trump is planning in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 14. Countless "No Kings" demonstrations in opposition to the parade and Trump's policies will be held in cities all over the United States.

READ MORE:'I have to go through hell': Trump complains about 'No Kings' protests during his parade

During aFriday, une 13 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," presidential historian Jon Meacham pointed to the treatment of Padilla as a prime example of why so many Americans are feeling a sense of "menace' during Trump's second presidency.

[VID]

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Meacham told MSNBC's Willie Geist, his colleague Katty Kay and Never Trump conservative David French (who was also featured as a guest), "It is a real tactile sense of menace in the country…. The last time it was this bad — not to shake everybody's Friday morning even more than it's already shaken given what's going on — was the pre-Civil War period. You had an extraordinary amount of political violence. And we know how the 1850s turned out. And so, there are signs of a deeper condition within the country — which is a fraying, I believe, of a kind of consensus not about policy, but about politics not as total war, but as a mediation of differences."

The historian addressed fears of growing political unrest in the U.S.

Meacham told the panel, "That's what a democracy, that's what a constitutional system should be. And the prevalence of violence is politically useful for, in this case, the (Trump) Administration, and very dangerous."

READ MORE:'Scams, corruption and cover-ups': Republicans just declared 'open season for wealthy tax cheats'

*Watch the full video below or at this link.

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OMG 6 25

"Sen. Alex Padilla is forcibly removed from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's news conference in Los Angeles," NBC News, June 12, 2025

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-alex-padilla-forcibly-removed-dhs-sec-kristi-noems-press-conferenc-rcna212688

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AN 6 25

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to take a step toward circumventing federal laws that bar the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement in a letter she sent to the Department of Defense Sunday as the National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles amid mass protests over immigration raids.

In a letter obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle, Noem wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the Pentagon should direct military forces "to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them."

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from taking part in domestic law enforcement without the authorization of Congress.

Noem called on the DOD to "support to our law enforcement officers and agents across Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Federal Protective Services (FPS), as they defend against invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens."

Noem did not specify the so-called "identified foreign terrorist organizations" that she claimed are involved in the protests that have erupted in Los Angeles in recent days in response to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in which 118 immigrants were arrested last week.

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President Donald Trump has referred to the protests against his mass deportation operation as "riots," and has claimed those attending the demonstrations are "insurrectionists," but the protests were reported to be "largely peaceful" before Trump ordered more than 2,000 members of the California National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday.

On Monday, 700 Marines were also deployed.

Syracuse University law professor William Banks told the Chronicle that Noem's request for members of the military to arrest protesters whom she labeled "lawbreakers" could be a step toward "the invocation of the Insurrection Act."

The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 when Los Angeles residents erupted in fury over the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers who had been filmed savagely beating Rodney King, a black man who they had pulled over after a high-speed chase.

The 1792 law authorizes the president to deploy military forces domestically to suppress rebellions or unrest, when local or state law enforcement is unable to control the situation.

But Stephen Dycus, a professor emeritus at Vermont Law and Graduate School and an expert in national security law, emphasized that local authorities did not appear to lose control of the protests over the weekend.

Noem's requests for military arrests, along with Trump's federalization of the National Guard and deployment of the Marines, "can be seen as using the military, or at a minimum using that threat, to instill fear in the American people and discourage the kinds of protests that are going on in Los Angeles," Dycus told the Chronicle. "So this could be viewed as a preparation for invoking the Insurrection Act, or it could be viewed as part of a larger effort to frighten people who otherwise would exercise their First Amendment guarantee of free speech and protest."

Banks called Noem's push for military detentions of Los Angeles residents "a grave escalation."

The secretary indicated in her letter to Hegseth that she would send a formal request in the coming days. She also called for "the transportation of munitions" from Fort Benning and Wyoming, but did not say what the weapons would be used for.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-11) said Trump's use of the military to suppress protests—which began when ICE agents searched the garment district of Los Angeles for undocumented workers—proves his mass deportation campaign "has nothing to do with deporting criminals and everything to do with creating a militarized terror police state."

"This isn't what happens in a democracy," Wiener told the Chronicle, "this is what happens in a dictatorship."

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AN 6 25

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is being called out by critics after dramatically shifting her stance on the president's use of the National Guard. The controversy stems from Noem's recent endorsement of President Donald Trump's decision to deploy troops in Los Angeles in response to protests against immigration arrests — a move that stands in stark contrast statements she made previously about such actions.

On Sunday, Noem appeared on CBS's "Face The Nation" to defend Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles. She claimed the action was necessary due to "bad decisions" by California Governor Gavin Newsom and emphasized that the decision was made for "the safety of this community."

Noem said, "And that's one of the reasons why these National Guard soldiers are being federalized: So they can use their special skill set to keep peace."

However, Noem's current position directly contradicts her previous statements on the federalization of National Guard troops.

Just last year, when Joe Biden was president, Noem vehemently opposed such actions, stating they were an assault on states' rights. During a February 2024 interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, which Noem herself shared on social media, she declared, "We will defend our rights because the last several years, we've seen Democrats take away our freedom of religion, our freedom of assembly, our freedom of speech. We can't let them take away our states' rights too, especially our right to protect ourselves."

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This apparent flip-flop has not gone unnoticed. Critics, including Governor Newsom, have been quick to point out the inconsistency in Noem's positions.

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sanc cities

..raw 6 25

...

So one recent morning, fresh from that uncommon night of deep sleep, I cracked open the local paper on my computer screen and was hit with this eye-opening slammer:

Trump, and his puppy-killing, dead-inside Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem have put us "on the list" for "deliberately and shamefully" obstructing immigration enforcement.

How do you spell N-A-Z-I?

I can report to you that as a Madison resident I feel safe in saying we wear our humanity as a badge of honor, and will be toasting our success at making this list just as soon as we can.

And while the story was yet another account of the state of things in this roiling country, it also gave away the whole gruesome Republican game.

From the story:

“The administration on Thursday published a list of more than 500 "sanctuary jurisdictions" that includes the state's liberal bastions of Madison and Dane County, as well as the city of Milwaukee and Shawano County.

The department said it "demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws."

One of these things is not like the other. So enter Jim Davel, an administrator for Shawano County, who couldn’t wait to point that out. Davel told the Associated Press that the inclusion of his heavily Republican community on this list “must be a clerical error.”

He breathlessly continued:

“We have no idea how we got on this list whatsoever right at this point. I think it was just a big mix-up, probably some paperwork or something.”

Relax, sport.

After digging around a bit in some low places, I’m only too happy to expose you for being even more rotten than you want to be, and remind you that that list is reserved for decent folks, not cowards like you.

Turns out, that in 2021, in the wake of Joe Biden’s 7 million-plus win over the America-attacking Trump, the County Board in Shawano that Davel is so proudly a part of declared by bending over and breaking wind it was something called a “Second Amendment sanctuary county.” Thanks to this insidious declaration, the county sheriffs office could no longer enforce any laws which “unconstitutionally impeded on their fundamental Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”

Because rather than accepting the results of an election that at least pointed us in the general direction of greatness in 2020, Republicans in places like Shawano went reaching for their guns in 2021.

It sure looks a lot to me like Republicans figure guns, not people, are what truly make America great, and why it’s a damn wonder any sane person can get a decent night’s sleep around here …

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.)

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OMFG

AN 6 25

During his first presidency, Donald Trump spent a lot of time fighting with conservative appointees who resisted parts of his agenda — from John Bolton (national security adviser) to Jeff Sessions (U.S. attorney general) to Rex Tillerson (secretary of state) to Gen. John F. Kelly (White House chief of staff). Trump's third White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, even ended up endorsing presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

But Trump's second presidency is much different. This time, he made a point of surrounding himself with hardcore MAGA loyalists—who, the Washington Post's Philip Bump argues in his June 2 column, are making a concerted effort to bully and intimidate opponents and create a climate of fear.

Trump, Bump warns, has a "range of dishonest actors" at his disposal. And they range from White House adviser Stephen Miller to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to immigration czar Tom Homan.

READ MORE: 'Beyond the pale': Scarborough rips 'childish' Joni Ernst for 'mocking her constituents'

"What President Donald Trump wants is to put big deportation numbers on the scoreboard," Bump explains. "Recent reporting suggests that senior administration officials, including adviser Stephen Miller, are leaning on DHS to remove more people, faster. Trump’s 2024 campaign promised to focus on removing the massive population of criminal undocumented immigrants in the U.S. But, in part because his claims about the scale of the problem have consistently been hyperbolic, the (Trump) Administration is instead resorting to deporting just about anyone it can conceivably fit into the system."

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Bump notes that the intimidation tactics of Trump and his allies range from the arrests of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) and Judge Hannah Dugan to DHS agents accusing Rep. Jerry Nadler's (D-New York) staff of "harboring rioters" and even handcuffing a Nadler staffer.

"In San Diego," Bump observes, "heavily armed immigration officers conducted a raid at a restaurant. When observers attempted to halt the arrests, the federal agents allegedly used a stun grenade against the crowd. That incident was perhaps the most extreme of a number of tense, aggressive encounters between immigration officials and the public over the past four months…. It also seems clear that some agents understand they won’t be held accountable for their actions."

Bump adds, "Detaining a staffer in member of Congress' office in search of 'rioters' from a nonexistent riot doesn't comport with a liberal democracy."

READ MORE:'Mass delusion fueled by charisma': Expert explains why Trump's followers still believe in him

Nadler told the New York Times, "The Trump Administration is really using totalitarian or even authoritarian practices. We have to fight them. We don't want to be a fascist country."

Bump laments, "This is the reality. Immigrants are cast as dangerous when they aren't. Governmental power is abused without accountability. All of it at Trump’s whim — very much to Nadler's 'authoritarian' point."

READ MORE:'Disappointed': Musk says Trump's bill 'undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing'

*Philip Bump's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required)

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AN 5 25

Salon Senior writer Amanda Marcotte says President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement adores a “bimbo."

“In the world of MAGA, stupidity is a badge of honor for both sexes, but the heads of women need to be thoroughly empty,” Marcotte writes. “Book learning, in MAGA-land, is for lesbians and cat ladies. Intelligence gets in the way of the true duties of MAGA womanhood: keeping up your highly artificial appearance and, crucially, defending the man you serve with your whole heart and soul.”

As example, Marcotte said look to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem proudly proclaiming ignorance of the meaning behind habeas corpus. “‘Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to,’ Noem said through her unnervingly Botox-inflated lips.”

READ MORE:Republicans have 'no idea' what's coming: Dems delighted as they await budget backlash

Was Noem, who got a college degree through online courses, has taken the “role of the proud MAGA bimbo, in the grand tradition of figures like Sarah Palin," Marcotte writes. "The MAGA bimbo isn't just ignorant. She's contemptuous of people who actually know what they're talking about, especially if those facts-laden human beings are fellow women.”

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Where the 20th-century version of the "bimbo" is a dim and mostly good-hearted woman, the MAGA movement makes the bimbo a nasty figure, “as cruel as she is dumb.” The modern right-wing man wants an attack dog, “someone who will charge in to fight your battles, unconstrained by intellectual concerns.”

“Ignorance is bliss,” said Marcotte, “at least for bigots.”

The origins of this bimbo devolution lies in reality TV like ‘The Apprentice,’ and ‘Real Housewives’, “where petty and cruel behavior is rewarded over human decency.”

READ MORE: 'Evil and depraved': Kristi Noem buried over 'embarrassing' social media post

Noem shapes herself around the stereotype of the wine-throwing real housewife, pairing “expensive clothes and plastic surgery with displays of breathtaking sadism, all performed as if she is literally too stupid to know better.”

“That's how we get pictures of Noem in full makeup with a $60,000 Rolex parading around in front of half-naked men in a torture prison, like she's a real-life "Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S." Or wearing various uniforms with full makeup and a blowout to conduct raids, earning the nickname 'ICE Barbie.'"

“The bimbo can only act on impulse, never information. In this MAGA narrative, it's liberals who are the meanies for asking more of a woman viewed as mentally incapable of handling it,” Marcotte wrote.

Read the full Salon analysis here.

REF

Does Kristi Noem know what habeas corpus is? One thing we know for certain: She would very much like Americans to believe she does not. On Tuesday, the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a Senate hearing to insist the legal term means the opposite of its actual definition. "Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to," Noem said through her unnervingly Botox-inflated lips. She was interrupted by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who explained to a smug-looking Noem that, no, habeas corpus "requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people" and is the reason it's illegal for Donald Trump to round up immigrants and imprison them in foreign gulags without offering a legal reason why.

In the world of MAGA, stupidity is a badge of honor for both sexes, but the heads of women need to be thoroughly empty.

Was Noem legitimately confused? Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic thinks so, writing that Noem's "ignorance appears to be utterly genuine." After all, "habeas corpus" is a Latin term used by lawyers but not much by laypeople, especially those, like Noem, who got a college degree through online courses at age 40. But I'm not so sure that Noem, who has been neck-deep in this debate about basic human rights for months, is as dumb as she seemed in that moment. Those who keep watching will notice that Noem doesn't act embarrassed when she's corrected, like normal people do when they get something so terribly wrong. Instead, she insists that "the President of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not." In this lie, Noem admitted that Trump is trying to suspend habeas corpus, not uphold it. It suggests that she knows full well what the actual legal battle is about.

There was much mockery of Noem for being so dumb in mainstream and left-leaning media, but notably, neither Noem nor her allies have shown any shame or defensiveness about her alleged mistake. Whether Noem comes by her confusion honestly or she was just play-acting, she's there to play the role of the proud MAGA bimbo, in the grand tradition of figures like Sarah Palin. The MAGA bimbo isn't just ignorant. She's contemptuous of people who actually know what they're talking about, especially if those facts-laden human beings are fellow women.

*Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

In the world of MAGA, stupidity is a badge of honor for both sexes, but the heads of women need to be thoroughly empty. Book learning, in MAGA-land, is for lesbians and cat ladies. Intelligence gets in the way of the true duties of MAGA womanhood: keeping up your highly artificial appearance and, crucially, defending the man you serve with your whole heart and soul. Especially if said man, in this case Donald Trump, is himself dumber than a box of rocks. It's so much easier to be a yes-woman for such a man if you turn your own brain off completely.

For decades in pop culture, the figure of the bimbo has boosted the egos of men who need women to be dumb to feel smart. Being dim means she's not threatening, which makes the bimbo sexy. The allegiance of the bimbo is assured. She has to be loyal to her man because she cannot survive without him. But the bimbo was always more fantasy than reality. Marilyn Monroe could get laughs with her dumb bunny act. Yet, offscreen, she was an avid reader with strongly held leftist political views, who chose divorce when her husbands tried to limit her professional ambitions.

The 20th-century version of the "bimbo" was dim, but almost always good-hearted, exhibiting a childlike generosity to others. The innovation of the MAGA movement, however, is to make the bimbo a nasty figure, as cruel as she is dumb. In the past, what men wanted from a bimbo was someone with dog-like loyalty. For the right-wing man of our time, the craving is more for an attack dog, someone who will charge in to fight your battles, unconstrained by intellectual concerns about whether doing so makes sense.

Palin set the standard in 2008, when she was plucked out of obscurity as the governor of Alaska to serve as the presidential running mate to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. We can be more assured that Palin came by her empty-headedness naturally. During her infamous interview with Katie Couric, Palin seemed uneasy about her inability to answer basic questions about the news or civics. Soon, however, her shame turned to defiance, as crowds of base GOP voters — the kind of people we now understand to be MAGA — cheered lustily for Palin. Her fatuousness became a source of strength with that crowd because it fueled what they really loved: her ability to demonize anyone she didn't consider a "real" American. Even as she turned on McCain, Palin morphed into the fantasy attack dog the voters wanted. Ignorance is bliss, at least for bigots.

Related

From "Mar-a-Lago face" to uncanny AI art: MAGA loves ugly in submission to Trump

The mean-spirited bimbo isn't just a right-wing political project. It draws on another 21st-century innovation: the rise of shrill reality TV like "The Apprentice." There is, of course, plenty of good-natured reality TV like "Great British Bake-Off" or "Queer Eye." But MAGA's aesthetic is closer to the "Real Housewives"-style shows, where petty and cruel behavior is rewarded over human decency. It's in reality TV where the bimbo morphed from the sweet-but-stupid image portrayed by Monroe to the vindictive trophy wife who takes out her pointless grievances by throwing glasses of wine. Noem drove this home Thursday night by tweeting "Suck it" in response to a small court victory in her campaign toillegally detain and imprison immigrants.

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The vision of the wine-throwing real housewife is the stereotype that Noem has shaped herself around, pairing her expensive clothes and plastic surgery with displays of breathtaking sadism, all performed as if she is literally too stupid to know better. That's how we get pictures of Noem in full makeup with a $60,000 Rolex parading around in front of half-naked men in a torture prison, like she's a real-life "Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S." Or wearing various uniforms with full makeup and a blowout to conduct raids, earning the nickname "ICE Barbie."

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Is she smart enough to know better? Is it all an act? Is she really this brainless?

It's hard to say, but in a sense, it doesn't matter. During her Senate hearing, Noem was perfectly clear on one issue: Trump has an absolute right to rule like a dictator, and lock up whoever he wants without regard for laws, evidence and especially human rights. Being — or at least acting — too dumb to understand what she's saying helps her. It works like a shield, deflecting serious questions about her sociopathic behavior into a discussion about her IQ. After all, no one expects higher moral reasoning from someone too stupid to learn what "habeas corpus" means before testifying publicly about it. Her intelligence, as portrayed, falls below the threshold of moral accountability. The bimbo can only act on impulse, never information. In this MAGA narrative, it's liberals who are the meanies for asking more of a woman viewed as mentally incapable of handling it.

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an 5 25

On Friday, May 23, President Donald Trump's campaign against Harvard University suffered a setback when U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a restraining order blocking — at least temporarily — the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from revoking Harvard's access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, a federal government database that manages foreign students.

In a letter sent to Havard on May 22, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote, "I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked."

Noem declared, "Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country."

READ MORE: 'Opposite of apartheid': Here are 5 bombshell moments from Trump’s meeting with SA president

Judge Burroughs' decision is receiving a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

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Attorney Greg Lukianoff tweeted, "I really want to stress that the government's demand that Harvard turn over five years of footage of protests — not limited to those that got out of control or involved illegal behavior — is one of the more chilling things I've seen in my career. The TRO was the right call. Clearly any such footage would include not just the targeted non-citizens, but a great number of Americans as well. Did you table on behalf of animal rights? Participate in a prayer service for the unborn? Gather at a candlelight vigil, hand out pocket constitutions, protest a speaker? If you care about free speech, no matter what you think of Harvard, we need to care about this."

The conservative group Republicans Against Trump posted, "BREAKING: A federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s order banning current and future international students from attending Harvard. Judge Allison D. Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order, finding it would cause 'immediate and irreparable injury' to the university. Winning!"

X user Thomas Taistra wrote, "Great! I never perceived Harvard as a particularly liberal school, especially compared to my other alma mater, New York University. At Harvard, I felt that there were always voices on all sides of any issues, as it should be. However, Trump's moronic and self-destructive actions against one of America's and ultimately the world’s greatest universities have acted as a great unifying force for the entire Harvard community. Regardless of their liberal or conservative leanings or stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all those voices find Trump's illegal takeover attempt unacceptable."

READ MORE:'Crazy to run against me': Republican who voted against megabill defies Trump's threats

Taistra continued, "I am also very pleased to discover that Harvard is not the university of Heidelberg in the 1930s, merely trying to survive. It is actively fighting against this openly fascistic Trump regime. On a final note: I personally loved my time at Harvard, but I would always have admitted that it is one of the most pretentious institutions I had ever seen. That was always a point of conflict for me. However, if you are the one showing up to fight against the barbarians on the gate, I can live with your pretentiousness much better. Fight Fiercely, Harvard!"

The Protecting Kamala Harris account tweeted, "BREAKING: U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs has blocked the Trump Administration from revoking Harvard University's certification to enroll foreign students. RETWEET to thank Judge Burroughs for standing up for our democracy!"

The Boston Globe's Tal Kopan noted, "As the Trump administration escalates its attacks on Harvard by barring it from enrolling foreign students, a reminder of the notable conservatives on its legal team."

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got habeas wrong

OVERSIGHT GRILL 5 25 BLEW BUDGET FOR YEAR?

'Ask Qatar to buy her one': Noem ripped for allegedly seeking $50M for new private jet

AN 5 25

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem appeared before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday, where she was grilled by various Democratic members of the body.

Rolling Stone reported that Noem was confronted over multiple scandals that took place under her leadership at the helm of DHS, including her withholding of money appropriated by Congress, the ongoing detention of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador in defiance of multiple court orders and her refusal to acknowledge that a doctored photo was used to justify Abrego Garcia's deportation, among others.

Here are five of the most explosive moments from the hearing:

READ MORE:'Rip the plane apart': Trump's hopes of flying in Qatar's royal jet just hit a major snag

1. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) confronting Noem over federal funding

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During her questioning of Noem, Ramirez largely stuck to yes-or-no questions — particularly when asking Noem if she knew that Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the "power of the purse" to determine how money is spent. After Noem admitted that she was aware of the clause, Ramirez asked her if she swore an oath to "support and defend" the Constitution, to which Noem responded affirmatively. Then, Ramirez took the DHS secretary to task for her withholding of DHS funding duly appropriated by Congress.

"I find that laughable. You don't behave like someone who takes that oath seriously," Ramirez said. "We don't live in a dictatorship or a monarchy. Trump's will is not the guiding doctrine of this nation. And our country is not a playground for his or your twisted authoritarian fantasies. We are a democracy, We defend the Constitution and we affirm the rule of law. We respect the co-equal branches of government and we uphold our rights – even when we disagree.

You, however, have been leading this work for 116 days. And in that time, you have profiled and dehumanized our neighbors, you have betrayed our Constitutional commitment to due process, you have deported United States citizens, you've undermined the courts, ,you've broken the law, you've engaged in corruption, and you've weaponized the immigration system to violate civil rights," she added. "Your department is out of control."

READ MORE:'Stop the session': Republican wakes up colleague after he falls asleep before key vote

2. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) telling Noem to "be quiet"

Noem was repeatedly hammered

over her handling of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case during Goldman's time for questioning. The New York Democrat quickly grew impatient with the Noem after she refused to give direct answers and talked over him while he questioned her.

"Will you give Mr. Abrego Garcia the due process that the Supreme Court and Judge [J. Harvie] Wilkinson has required you to give him?" Goldman asked.

"Abrego Garcia is an El Salvador resident who is in home country," Noem insisted. "He has been received and treated appropriately—"

"How can you say he's been treated appropriately if the Supreme Court has ruled nine-nothing – nine nothing — that he hasn't been treated appropriately?" Goldman interjected. "Why is your opinion better, have more authority than the Supreme Court?"

READ MORE:(Opinion) The single stupidest statement about Trump ever made

Noem pushed back: "If you don't trust our law enforcement—"

"That is you making that determination," Goldman thundered. "The court has considered all that. The judges considered all that, Madam Secretary. And if you would be quiet, because I'm reclaiming my time, you are not following this court order."

3. Rep. Bennie Thompson's (D-Miss.) quip about Noem's "photo ops"

Thompson, who is the ranking member of the committee, also questioned Noem about her handling of Congressionally appropriated funds. But he began his remarks by making a dig at Noem's ostentatious public displays for social media.

READ MORE:Trump slammed for 'attack against anyone who has ever loved someone with cancer

"Whatever got you here, Secretary Noem, I'm glad you found time among your many photo-ops and costume changes to testify about why Trump is seeking more taxpayer dollars and what you plan to do with that money if you get it," Thompson said.

4. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) slamming Noem's "costumes"

Eric Swalwell had several confrontations with Noem in his time for questioning. In one viral moment, the California Democrat distinguished himself from the Homeland Security secretary by pointing out that during his time in public service, he always upheld the rule of law.

"I’m a former prosecutor. I have put people away for life sentences who are gang members," he said. "I don’t need to wear costumes to show how tough I am. What makes me different from you is when I put those people away, I did it with the weight of the law behind me."

READ MORE:Trump biographer reveals 'head-smacking' detail about Trump and Melania's marriage

5. Swalwell repeatedly asking Noem to acknowledge an altered photo

Swalwell also went back and forth with Noem about a doctored photo that President Donald Trump held up that purportedly showed Kilmar Abrego Garcia's knuckles with "MS-13." The photo was found to be faked after being compared with the photo of Abrego Garcia meeting with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in El Salvador, where the supposed gang affiliation on his knuckles was absent.

"Madam Secretary, I want you to have credibility, and I want you to be taken seriously," Swalwell said. "Is this doctored or is this not doctored?"

"One thing that's important to remember is that every time a case is built—" Noem said, before Swalwell cut her off.

READ MORE:A federal judge just turned up the pressure on the Supreme Court

"—Madam Secretary, I have a seven year-old, a six year-old and a three year-old," Swalwell said. "I have a b------t detector. I'm just asking you, is this doctored or not doctored?"

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an 5 25

'Not fit to hold the office': Dem demands 'despicable' Kristi Noem's resignation

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Charlie Kirk: “These are members of Congress that stormed into a federal ICE facility despite warnings. They should absolutely be charged for this.”}:

05/12/25

May 12, 2025, edition ofThe Charlie Kirk Show, streamed on Rumble

CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): This is a very easy one for my friend, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. Very easy. They went after American patriots for peacefully walking into the United States Capitol building, nonviolently, while being invited, while doors were opened, and they stayed within the lanes, the little rope lines. These are members of Congress that stormed into a federal ICE facility despite warnings. They should absolutely be charged for this, without a doubt. No one is above the law, is what we've always been saying. No one is above the law.

...

KIRK: And that's exactly what should happen. You see, the Democrats have a big problem with Immigration Customs and Enforcement. But if you assault ICE, you get consequences. If you storm an ICE facility, there will be consequences. Rob Menendez complained that they had put their hands on a member of Congress. Oh, I must have missed the memo that he was an untouchable. He thinks they should be invulnerable, that he is royalty. And by the way, his dad is literally a traitor. Bob Menendez sold our country out to Egypt for gold bars while on the Senate foreign intelligence committee, selling out American secrets for cash. And did — he also had multiple instances of near misses with the law. This guy was a disgusting person.

...

KIRK: Throw the book at them. Kash and Pam, you got all the details you need — charge these members of Congress. The facts are there. They stormed the facility. They assaulted our ICE officers. They think they are above the law. They tried to put President Trump in jail for 700 years for something he did not do. They are begging you to indict them and do it. Don't make a big show of it. Indite them. Charge them. The only way that we end the lawfare chapter in this country is reciprocity. They came after us, they assaulted ICE officers, and we will go after them.

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AN 525

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is scheduled to fly to the Illinois State Capitol on Wednesday for a press conference decrying the state's approach to immigration. Now, the Prairie State's Democratic chief executive is trolling Noem ahead of her visit.

Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson tweeted Tuesday that Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office issued an announcement ahead of Noem's arrival. The statement asked "all pet owners in the region to make sure all of your beloved animals are under watchful protection while the Secretary is in the region."

That statement is almost certainly a reference to Noem's autobiography in which she recalled taking her family dog, Cricket, into a gravel pit and shooting it to death because it wasn't good at hunting prey. After experiencing severe backlash over the passage, she later defended killing Cricket by pointing out that she also killed three horses in that same gravel pit.

READ MORE:'Non-stop smear campaign': Veterans unleash on Trump's sweeping VA cuts

Noem's office has stated that her press conference in Springfield, Illinois will "highlight how sanctuary policies in Illinois have unleashed violence on American citizens — including rape, sexual assault, murder, shoplifting, and more — while shielding illegal aliens responsible from facing consequence."

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However, Pritzker spokesperson Alex Gough told the*Tribune* that Illinois is "fully compliant with federal law" regarding immigration, and that one state law House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) criticized was "was bipartisan and signed into law by a Republican [former Governor Bruce Rauner]."

"Despite the rhetoric of Republicans in Congress, this public safety law ensures law enforcement can focus on doing their jobs well while empowering all members of the public, regardless of immigration status, to feel comfortable calling police officers and emergency services if they are in need of help," Gough said.

Pritzker — who is rumored to run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination – has said he plans to "voluntarily appear" before Comer's committee alongside Govs. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) on June 12. Comer and committee Republicans plan to question the governors about their respective states' approach to enforcing federal immigration law.

READ MORE:'Massive deception': Trump voters 'feel betrayed' after ICE detains son

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AN 4 25

The most important constraints on the Trump regime during its heinous first hundred days have been (1) federal courts, (2) stock and bond markets, (3) China and its response to Trump’s tariff madness, (4) some state and local governments (in ways I’ll get to in a moment), and (5) we the people (as I’ll also describe).

Trump has temporarily backed down from the tariffs that shook stock and bond markets. He has also backed away from a trade war with China.

Increasingly, though, the Trump regime has ignored federal court orders (see: Abrego Garcia), but has not yet overtly thumbed its nose at the Supreme Court.

What about state and local governments? What about we the people?

Yesterday, Trump signed an executive order targeting local jurisdictions that are not cooperating with its aggressive crackdown on immigration.

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The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to publish a list of “sanctuary cities” — places that limit or refuse to cooperate with federal efforts to arrest undocumented immigrants — and pursue “all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures” against them.

The Trump regime has already sued the city of Rochester, N.Y., accusing its officials of illegally impeding immigration enforcement.

It could sue individuals who obstruct immigration agents. The Justice Department is already prosecuting a Milwaukee judge on charges of obstructing immigration agents.

You may find yourself in the midst of this, particularly if you do as I suggested Sunday — help ensure that undocumented residents of your community know their rights (getting them red cards in their own languages), and seek to prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE — especially with regard to access to schools, hospitals, courts, and other necessary facilities.

Are you willing to be arrested for obstructing the regime’s pursuit of undocumented immigrants?

This is not just a humanitarian issue. All the residents of our communities — regardless of legal status — need to feel safe when seeking medical attention, when reporting a crime, and when getting their children to and from school and meeting with teachers and counselors.

If they do not feel safe and do not seek these services, our communities can suffer the consequences. Diseases can spread. Crimes can go unreported. Children may not get the education they need.

Besides, legally and constitutionally we live in a system in which cities, counties, and states possess their own powers and authorities. We do not live in a dictatorship in which a ruler can dictate how people live in their localities, and whether they can have access to doctors, hospitals, police, or judges — at least not yet.

Which is why some courts are protecting sanctuary cities.

Last Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump regime from enforcing part of a previous executive order directing federal agencies to withhold funds from cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

Judge William H. Orrick of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California found that freezing federal funds for jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement threatens local governance — causing budget uncertainty, deprivation of constitutional rights, and undermining trust between the cities and counties and the communities they serve.

When it comes to Trump’s latest executive order, Judge Orrick and other federal judges are likely to rule similarly.

This means that in coming months three of the bulwarks against Trump’s tyranny that I mentioned at the start — the federal courts, state and local governments, and many of us as individual citizens — are likely to be attacked by the Trump regime for much the same reason: for protecting vulnerable people in our communities.

Be warned and be ready.

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an 4 25

The global human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday called on supporters of the United States' core constitutional rights to write to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, demanding that the Trump administration stop its campaign to strip foreign students of their right to be in the country for exercising their First Amendment freedoms.

As Common Dreamsreported Tuesday, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accosted former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil, forced him into an unmarked vehicle, and took him to a detention center in Louisiana thousands of miles from his pregnant wife in March, the administration's attacks on international students have only intensified.

Seven identified students have had their visas revoked, while the administration is pushing to revoke the residency status of at least two students who protested the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza.

The White House is using a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to claim that certain students including Khalil pose a threat to U.S. foreign policy and should be deported.

"At least 1,300 additional students are known to have had their visas revoked," reads a letter template provided to supporters by Amnesty. "However, many of these students never received notice of the revocation, nor did they participate in any protest or expressive activity on campus. Some students may have been targeted due to having committed minor crimes such as traffic violations. According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of students, many were targeted because of their country of origin, particularly those from African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Asian backgrounds."

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Supporters who send the letter can urge Noem to "restore the visas and immigration status of these students and visitors, release all students from immigration detention, refrain from deporting any of them, and end the targeting of students based on their immigration statuses and for exercising their human rights."

"According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of students, many were targeted because of their country of origin, particularly those from African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Asian backgrounds."

As Common Dreamsreported, President Donald Trump's attacks on foreign students' First Amendment rights and his threats to universities' funding if they don't comply with his policies aimed at rooting out criticism of U.S. policy in Israel and Palestine, which both Republican and Democratic politicians have claimed is synonymous with antisemitism, have pushed schools to notify hundreds of students that their visas were revoked.

Trump's attacks on international students have shocked several federal judges, and one judge in Georgia on Friday ordered ICE to restore the legal status of students whose visas were revoked due to DHS' termination of their records in the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

DHS admitted in a court filing last week that it does not have the authority to change students' visa status via SEVIS.

"These repressive tactics and the summary revocation of people's immigration status," said Amnesty, "whether due to their speech and protest activities or their country of origin, demonstrate an utter lack of respect for their human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, due process, and to be free from discrimination."

NOW READ:Wall Street seems to have decided that Trump is mentally unstable

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an 4 25

Conservative political writer Myra Adams spotlighted the Trump administration's top women officials in an article published in The Hill Friday, referring to them as "mean MAGA girls" for mirroring what she called former President Donald Trump's "bullying leadership style."

The list included Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and rightwing influencer Laura Loomer.

"After nearly 100 days, Trump’s loyal Mean Girls are just warming up their 'don’t mess with us,' in-your-face bravado, so effective and pleasing to their man," Adams, who served on the creative team of two Republican presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, wrote in her article.

ALSO READ:'I will not be bullied': Whistleblower accuses DOJ of sending 'armed deputies' to her home

"These fine-looking ladies are always camera-ready for their frequent Fox News and social media appearances."

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She said that these officials are "bullying into submission two of the three co-equal branches of government, resulting in the most powerful executive branch since President Franklin D. Roosevelt."

The author saidBondi turned the Department of Justice into Trump's "weapon of mass retribution."

"Bondi is rebranding DOJ as the president’s law firm, fighting for his all-encompassing MAGA agenda. Even Trump’s former private criminal defense attorneys are Bondi’s top deputies!," she added.

Adams said Bondi "mirrors Trump’s 'fight fight fight' persona, denigrating judges and persecuting the president’s 'enemies.'

ALSO READ:'What is she taking about?' Ex-RNC chair rips press sec’s defense of Trump’s

"That long-growing list includes former officials, the media, and institutions, organizations and businesses that don’t toe the line," Adams noted.

RegardingLeavitt, who is the youngest White House press secretary at 27, Adams said she displays a "prideful Mean Girl confidence well beyond her years."

"Leavitt disseminates whatever the White House 'Department of Propaganda' has prepared, likely from the all-powerful Stephen Miller," she added.

Adams noted that Leavitt heavily favors Trump-friendly new media.

ALSO READ:'Neofascist revolutionary project': How MAGA is ramping up its propaganda 'machine

"These foot soldiers in designer heels might be called the 'MAGA Mean Girls,'" Adams wrote.

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an 4 25

The Trump administration this week reportedly classified thousands of immigrants living in the United States as dead in a Social Security database in an effort to force them out of the country, a scheme that was met with furious uproar from advocates and lawmakers.

By entering the names and Social Security numbers of roughly 6,000 immigrants into Social Security's "death master file," the administration has revoked their ability to legally work in the U.S. and receive benefits in a bid to get them to "self-deport," several news outlets reported Thursday.

"This is an outrageous abuse of power," Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a statement. "It will not only create extreme hardship, but kill people. Imagine, in one Trump administration keystroke, losing your income, your health insurance, access to your bank account, your credit cards, your home, and more."

"If they get away with this, it would be no surprise if they then move on to marking their perceived enemies as dead—citizens and non-citizens alike," Altman added. "This is a total misuse of the dedicated revenue that workers contribute to Social Security, with every paycheck. Though Trump claimed he wouldn't cut benefits, he essentially is by diverting dedicated monies from their intended purpose of paying Social Security benefits to the immoral purpose of maliciously ruining lives."

"The Trump administration's weaponization of Social Security is shocking and unconscionable, and we expect House Republicans will remain silent."

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The Washington Postreported that the classification of thousands of immigrants as "dead" came at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who—in tandem with other administration officials—is trampling basic rights as she moves to carry out Trump's mass deportation agenda.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called the Trump administration's scheme "utterly unprecedented" and warned that it "has the potential to cause immense problems for people."

"And it's also one with a HUGE potential for error," he wrote on social media. "If the data isn't perfect, people here legally might be effectively declared dead."

According to the Post, "among the people being targeted are immigrants who have bona fide Social Security numbers but have lost their legal status in the U.S., such as those who entered under one of the Biden administration's temporary work programs that have since ended."

"The immigrants' names were placed in the database following two memorandums of agreement signed Monday by Noem and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner," the Post reported. "The memos authorize Social Security to place the immigrants in the death file for national security reasons and under the Social Security Act."

The New York Timesreported that the "initial names" added to Social Security's death file "are convicted criminals and 'suspected terrorists,'" according to internal administration documents, "but officials said the effort could broaden to include others in the country without authorization."

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that undocumented immigrants paid roughly $26 billion in Social Security taxes in 2022.

Dudek, who has presided over a large-scale assault on the Social Security Administration (SSA) since Trump installed him to lead the agency in February, wrote in an email to staff that the "financial lives" of the immigrants added to the death file would be "terminated," according to the Times. SSA is also reportedly sharing sensitive personal information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Dudek recently faced calls to resign after internal emails revealed that SSA terminated contracts with the state of Maine in what one Democratic lawmaker called "direct retaliation for statements made by Maine Governor Janet Mills that upset President Donald Trump."

The acting SSA leader's plans for the agency, including mass staffing cuts and field office closures that advocates say amount to benefit cuts, have drawn widespread outrage. The Timesreported earlier this week that "thousands of worried and frustrated recipients have thronged local field offices, asking why the phone lines are jammed, whether their local offices will be closed by Elon Musk's team of software engineers and technology executives, and whether they will lose their benefits."

"Waves of buyouts and early retirements have hobbled the staff at many local offices," the newspaper added, "and recipients say it has become harder to use the agency's website and phone systems, or even be seen in person."

Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Richard Neal (D-Mass.) issued a joint statement Thursday condemning the Trump administration's latest weaponization of SSA as "digital murder" that "will make life exponentially harder for these victims, who could be effectively forced out of this country if their Social Security numbers are terminated."

"If they cancel the Social Security number of one person, where do they stop?" the lawmakers asked. "The Trump administration's weaponization of Social Security is shocking and unconscionable, and we expect House Republicans will remain silent. If you care about Social Security, you need to raise your voice because, despite what he says, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the biggest threat to people and their earned benefits."

NOW READ:Is this the moment American democracy finally broke?

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'No one wants you there': Megyn Kelly slams Kristi Noem for ICE agent 'cosplay' - Alternet.org 4 25

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trms on cosplay 4 8 25

cory lew boyfriend self ID COS badge on raid and ---

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Kristi Noem slammed for pointing assault rifle at law enforcement officer

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A federal judge ruled today that the Trump administration, including U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, violated his court order to unfreeze Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) relief to at least 19 states. The judge says the administration appears to be making a “covert” effort to punish states who oppose Trump’s oppressive immigration practices.

The New Republic reports U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued an injunction in March on behalf of 23 states suing the White House after the administration moved to pause FEMA aid to states. The Obama era judge ruled the hold-up “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.”

The federal reluctance applies only to states with Democratic attorneys general, and McConnell found the Trump administration ignored his March court order, with at least 19 states submitting “undisputed evidence” they were not receiving FEMA funds appropriated by Congress. Hawaii reported that FEMA had yet to respond to its $6 million request and subsequent $500k reimbursement for climate-related wildfires. The state of Oregon, meanwhile, reported that FEMA had yet to respond to a request for $129.4 million in federal funds for wildfires, severe winter storms, flooding, and mudslides.

READ MORE:'Step down': Marjorie Taylor Greene blows up at GOP rep over help for new moms in Congress

“The Court’s intervention is necessary,” states wrote in a filing, because they “have continued to experience significant obstacles to accessing federal funds” while the government “reviews” spending.

Federal foot-dragging is not a “pause or a withholding of grants,” they say, “but an internal control” that appears to be used as a brick wall, with FEMA implementing a “manual review process based, covertly, on the President’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” targeting so-called “sanctuary cities.” McConnell noticed the connection between FEMA’s manual review process and the Invasion EO and ordered FEMA to “immediately cease” the manual review process and comply with his original court March order.

States became suspicious of being targeted as immigrant sanctuaries in January, after the administration released and order describing “the use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and Green New Deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

As of today, states have not sought to hold the Trump administration in contempt.

READ MORE:'This. Will. Not. End. Well.' George Will slams Trump's 'fanciful assumptions' on economy

Click here to read the New Republic's article in full.

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Hometown paper blasts Kristi Noem for 'my-way-or-the-highway style of negotiations

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'She did it at least three times': Kristi Noem slammed over 'childish' insult to Canada

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Corey Lewandowski, the “chaotic presence” who was President Donald Trump’s campaign manager during the 2016 race, hoped to earn a spot at the Department of Homeland Security. But Trump himself vetoed the idea, the Atlantic reported Friday.

Lewandowski hoped to become chief of staff to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, according to two sources. He has still been able to work closely with her as a “supervisor of sorts.”

“Trump remains personally close to Lewandowski, whom he has kept as a friend and ally throughout a range of scandals. But the president is also aware that many of his trusted aides and confidants deeply dislike the 51-year-old,” write the Atlantic’s Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer.

READ MORE:'Rookie mistake': GOP senator says 'fool' could have written Trump defense secretary’s NATO comments

Trump was apparently “concerned by the optics,” they write, of Lewandowski working as chief of staff for someone with whom he had an affair, although Lewandowski and Noem have denied these rumors.

Now, Lewandowski has been working as an adviser to Noem. “The situation has alarmed some in Trump’s circle, who view Lewandowski as a chaotic presence, even by MAGA standards. Lewandowski has a record of feuding with others who are close to the president and creating controversy,” Parker and Scherer write.

'Like Elon Musk and so many other patriots, Mr. Lewandowski volunteers his time as a special government employee (SGE) to help President Trump Make America Great Again,' a DHS spokesperson told Politico.

Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery after accusations related to unwanted sexual advances. In 2022, he paid a $1,000 fine and agreed to eight hours of impulse control counseling and 50 hours of community service.

READ MORE:Scientology’s 'wealthiest' donor: Trump Kennedy Center appointee is longtime ally of controversial sect

At the time, Trump’s spokesperson said he “will no longer be associated with Trump world,” while a spokesperson for Noem — who was then governor of South Dakota — said he “will not be advising the governor in regard to the campaign or official office.”

“He never actually left the team,” a source who worked at her office at the time told the Atlantic. “As well as continuing to advise her, he also continued to travel with her.”

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mma

February 11, 2025, edition of The Benny Show, streamed on YouTube

BENNY JOHNSON (HOST): Ladies and gentlemen, I have good and glorious news for you, and it's the reason why our stream was a minute late this morning. We have broken news of the FEMA top official, chief financial officer Mary Comans, has been fired by President Trump.

The top official at FEMA breaking here first, ladies and gentlemen, directly from our sources at DHS. FEMA is being gutted by Donald Trump.

This is the person in charge of billions of dollars in funding for FEMA who defied — please put it up — who defied President Trump and sent $60 million to criminal aliens in New York for luxury hotels, fired. Here's her photo.

We heard that they would be gutting positions. We didn't know it'd be the number one person at FEMA. How sick is the rot inside of our federal government? Breaking news this morning. This is your front seat to the golden era. Expect a lot more of this. We're working on some very big and very breaking stories. We are a dog with a bone. We are not going to let up on these corrupt, sickening bureaucrats.

More on the chief financial officer of FEMA getting walked out of the building by security, which is what just happened in Washington DC.

//

  1. ### Trump is signaling he wants to shutter or gut FEMA — another Project 2025 scheme

01/29/25

Ben Shapiro on FEMA: “It is a bizarre thing that area-specific crises ought to be thrust on the federal government”

01/27/25

  1. ### Sean Hannity endorses Kristi Noem's call to shut down FEMA

02/10/25

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Trump’s DHS freezes FEMA grant money hours after judge orders funding to be distributed

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Secretaries of state and election officials from across the nation gathered at separate conferences this past week in Washington, where the new administration has been moving quickly to slash the federal workforce and dismantle certain agencies.

*This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

One pressing question at the gatherings of the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors was how the shift in power will affect collaborations with federal agencies that help safeguard elections, including the FBI, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

So far, it’s hard to tell.

Commissioners and staff members from the EAC — a small agency that serves as a clearinghouse for best practices, federal grants, and data, and assesses whether voting machines meet federal standards — were visible at both conferences, and said their work continues.

A representative of the FBI’s cybersecurity division appeared at NASS, where she spoke on a panel about cybersecurity threats. An FBI representative who was expected to join a panel at NASED didn’t show.

The most glaring absence was CISA, whose reserved table at the NASED conference remained empty.

“CISA was telling us that in light of the new administration, they were reevaluating their conference attendance,” said Amy Cohen, executive director for NASED.

CISA was created in 2018, the year after federal officials designated elections as critical infrastructure. Since then, the agency has been an important partner for election officials, providing security assessments, training, and resources aimed at “protect(ing) America’s election infrastructure against new and evolving threats.”

But the agency angered President Donald Trump after it declared the November 2020 election “the most secure in American history,” disputing the false claims by Trump and his allies that fraud cost him victory. Trump responded by firing Chris Krebs, the agency’s first director, before he left office in 2021.

More recently, CISA has drawn the ire of Kristi Noem, Trump’s pick to run the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the cybersecurity agency. During her Senate confirmation hearing in January, she called for shrinking the agency.

Election officials noticed the agency’s absence.

“I note the incongruity with the fact that many of you, maybe all of you, mentioned cybersecurity … and the empty table out front that says CISA on it," Judd Choate, elections director for Colorado, told a panel of congressional staffers, an absence that he said he could “only interpret as: They were told not to attend.”

A CISA spokesperson told Votebeat that because of funding uncertainties — Congress passed a short-term funding bill that expires in March — the agency is “reevaluating all conferences and engagements until a resolution.” The agency did not say whether it had been directed not to send representatives to the conferences, or whether it would continue providing services to election officials.

Kim Wyman, a former senior election security adviser at CISA who was secretary of state for Washington during the 2020 election, said she was “certainly concerned” about the agency’s absence, but she’s trying not to read too much into it.

Wyman said CISA was a useful resource for her as secretary of state when she needed physical and cyber security assessments for local elections offices that would help them determine where improvements could be made.

“Having that direct connection to CISA gave, particularly our local counties, a lot of powerful resources to secure their systems,” she said.

Wyman, now a senior fellow on elections at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said there have been some recent “bright spots” in the federal government’s relationship with election officials, pointing specifically to the continuation of theElections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center andMulti-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, both of which are funded by CISA.

“That for me was a big positive indication that election officials are going to have these tools available,” she said. “But I am concerned that some of the direct services, like [CISA’s] elections security advisers that are in each of the 10 regions, I hope that they continue to be able to perform those duties and stay in those roles.”

Trump hasyet to name a nominee to head CISA. The most recent director, Biden appointee Jen Easterly, departed at the end of the last administration. Last week, the Trump administration placed at least seven CISA employees who work on combating foreign disinformation within the election security arm of the agency on administrative leave, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Cohen, the NASED director, said that cyber and physical security remains a top concern for election officials.

“It is concerning that they are not here,” she said. “I hope it is not indicative of a larger shift, but it’s hard not to take it that way.”

One federal agency, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, did signal plans to work more closely with secretaries of state on elections. Election officials, primarily from Republican states, have lobbied for more access to federal data to help them determine the citizenship status of people on the voter rolls, and in some cases have sued.

CIS maintains the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, or SAVE, which allows states a way to check an individual’s immigration status, based on a unique DHS-issued identification number.

Tammy Meckley, a CIS representative who spoke on a panel at the secretaries of state conference, said the fee her agency charges for using that service is supposed to rise to $3.10 per transaction by 2028.

Meckley said she is open to working with election officials in what she described as “a different political landscape” to find other ways to search that would produce accurate matches “with a high degree of confidence.”

*Interim Editor-in-Chief Carrie Levine contributed.

*Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter atcwalker@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

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CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday delivered a succinct retort to United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem after the Trump Cabinet member said, "you can't trust the government anymore."

As Bash correctly put it, "you are the government."

Bash spoke with Noem on CNN's “State of the Union,” in part about Elon Musk’s work at DOGE, “a program the administration calls the Department of Government Efficiency," as the *New York Times* describes it.

READ MORE: 'Debunked': Fox News host smacks down Mike Johnson over lies about 'important' USAID

As Dash noted in her interview with Noem, the Washington Poston Saturday reported that “a small team that does not have security clearance has access to FEMA’s network, which contains the private and sensitive information of tens of thousands of disaster victims.”

“Have you authorized Elon Musk and his team to have access to Americans’ personal data that is housed inside DHS [Department of Homeland Security]?”

Noem replied she’s “working with [Musk’s team] at the president’s direction” and described Musk’s work as “an audit of the federal government, which is very powerful and needs to have happen.”

As Noem went on to discuss “appropriators in the Senate and the House," Bash brought the conversation back to whether Musk has access to sensitive personal information.

READ MORE: Evangelical leaders turn on Trump over 'damaging and wasteful' foreign aid cuts

“The president has authorized him to have access,” Noem replied.

“And you feel comfortable?” Bash asked.

“Absolutely,” Noem said.

“I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about, and worried about, the government — particularly un-elected people," Dash began to say.

READ MORE:'A surprise to most': Nobel Prize-winning economist warns US of 'unexpected decline' under Trump

“Oh, we can't trust government anymore,” Noem interjected.

“But you are the government,” Bash replied.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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cop cosplay bullet vest

WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Tuesday addressed some of her staff, promising to provide resources and support as the agency fulfills its duties, one of them carrying out President Donald Trump’s plan to deport masses of undocumented people.

Earlier in the day, Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, was in New York City, accompanying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in arrests across the city. In a video posted to social media, Noem — clad in a vest labeled POLICE/ICE — said she was in the city “to get the dirt bags off our streets.”

IFrame Content

The visit to New York followed a weekend of highly publicized immigration enforcement, where ICE officials announced they arrested nearly 1,000 people in the country without legal authorization. However, an arrest does not mean an immigrant has been detained or in deportation proceedings and ICE has not specified details of those arrests.

Before Noem addressed DHS workforce, as she walked up to the lectern, the song “Hot Mama” by country singer Trace Adkins, played in the background, with the chorus “One hot mama, you turn me on, let’s turn it up and turn this room into a sauna.”

It was reminiscent of a March 2024 appearance by Noem with Trump at an Ohio campaign rallyat which he called her “a very special woman who’s hot as a politician” and “beautiful.” Noem at the time was considered a potential running mate for Trump, who later chose J.D. Vance, then a Republican senator from Ohio.

Noem told staff that she aims to provide them the resources to carry out their mission and that her vision for the agency stems from a story from her childhood.

When she was 10, building a fence with her dad, he asked her for a tool that was in the truck. When she ran to the truck to get it for him, he told her, “You should know what I need, before I know what I need.”

“What he was doing was teaching us to think ahead,” she said. “That is what our job is as well here at the Department of Homeland Security. We prepare ahead and think three steps ahead so that people have what they need before they need it.”

Noem, whom the U.S. Senate confirmed on Saturday, will lead one of the federal government’s largest departments, with a staff of roughly 260,000 employees and a budget around $100 billion.

DHS responsibilities include border protection, disaster response, global threats, cyber and airline security and the U.S. Secret Service, among other duties.

In her address, Noem added that she specifically asked Trump to lead DHS because it is the president’s “number one priority.”

Last updated 4:58 p.m., Jan. 28, 2025

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 17 other Republican attorneys general are questioning the temporary protected status for immigrants from 17 distressed countries. They’re asking officials in President Donald Trump’s explicitly anti-immigrant administration to review whether protections are necessary.

In a statement Tuesday, Yost said some have been allowed to stay in the United States even after it was “safe for them to return home.” However, he didn’t name a single such country — and publicly available reports make it hard to guess which places he might mean.

His office was asked if he could name a person with temporary protected status who could safely return to her or his home country. A spokeswoman responded that it wasn’t the attorney general’s job to make such determinations.

An immigrant advocate said the letter was another way to scare vulnerable immigrants into the shadows. It’s akin to last summer’s false claims by now-President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and others that Haitians under temporary protected status in Springfield were stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets, she said. That led to dozens of bomb threats and reports of violence against immigrants.

“It’s about intimidation,” said Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. “It’s about destabilization. These are authoritarian tactics where you make people unsafe in their homes and communities. It’s really sad. J.D. Vance himself brought violence to Springfield.”

Longstanding problems

Yost and the other attorneys general sent a letter to Kristi Noem, Trump’s head of the Department of Homeland Security. Now confirmed, Noem has the power to grant or revoke temporary protected status, or TPS. Her farewell address last week as North Dakota governor was peppered with starkly anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The Trump administration is giving immigration officers an expanded authority to rapidly deport immigrants, including people the Biden administration temporarily allowed into the country under parole authority, according to an internal memo, States Newsroom reported this weekend.

“TPS beneficiaries represent over 1 million immigrants residing in the States who are otherwise without legal status,” the attorneys general’s letter to Noem said. “Converting TPS into a license for long-term residency frustrates congressional aims and only increases the financial and governmental strain on States.”

In addition to Yost, attorneys general from Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming signed the letter to Noem.

The letter makes much of the fact that the word “temporary” is in the name of the designation, and that people from some countries have had temporary protected status for decades.

“Honduras, for instance, first received TPS after a hurricane hit in 1998 and DHS bases its current TPS designation on ‘persist[ing]’ conditions from that same event,” the letter said. “TPS extensions spanning decades have become routine.”

According to statutory language provided by Yost’s office, the Homeland Security secretary can grant TPS if she finds “that there exist extraordinary and temporary conditions in the foreign state that prevent aliens who are nationals of the state from returning to the state in safety.”

Tramonte said the attorneys general are misreading the law.

“It’s called ‘temporary protected status,'” she said. “It’s not called ‘short-term protected status.’ When a crisis happens, whether it’s a natural disaster or a political crisis, it takes years to recover. They’re fixating on the word ‘temporary’ as if that means short-term. But all that means is that Congress said we’re going to give you a break and not deport you because it’s dangerous to send you back.”

Harrowing conditions

In its 2023 report on human rights practices, the U.S. State Department had this to say about Honduras, the country the Republican AGs cite as being designated a TPS country for almost 27 years:

“Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by government agents; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including threats against media members by criminal elements; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic violence, sexual violence, and femicide; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.”

In fact, of the 17 countries designated for TPS, 11 have the State Department’s most severe travel warning — do not travel. Three have the next-highest, reconsider travel. And three have the second-lowest, exercise increased caution.

Reports for the latter countries — Cameroon, Nepal and El Salvador — indicate how dicey it might be to return there, especially if you’re not a tourist from a developed country.

Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2024 says that El Salvador had been stricken by gang violence, and then “a state of emergency (that was) adopted in March 2022 that suspended basic rights remains in force. Authorities have committed widespread human rights violations, including mass arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment in detention, and due process violations.”

The Human Rights Watch report for Cameroon detailed “continued clashes between armed groups and government forces throughout Cameroon’s Anglophone and Far North regions severely impacted civilians, with cases of unlawful killings, abductions, and raids on villages increasing in the second half of the year.”

And the State Department’s 2023 report for Nepal described “significant human rights issues (including) credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; arbitrary detention; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media, including violence or threats of violence against journalists and unjustified arrests of journalists.”

Those are the TPS countries that the State Department deems to be the safest of the 17 to travel to. The letter the attorneys general wrote to Noem criticized former President Joe Biden for extending temporary protected status designations for Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela, in addition to El Salvador.

Ukraine has been devastated by war since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded in 2022. Sudan has been torn by civil war since 2023, spurring the enlistment of child soldiers, sexual violence and other atrocities. And in Venezuela, the socialist government has made the economy so dysfunctional that 90% live in poverty, and it has the highest crime rate in the world.

Safe?

In a statement announcing that he and other Republican attorneys general called for a review of TPS designations, Yost, said some could safely return to their home countries.

“This program has been applied too loosely, allowing noncitizens to live here indefinitely, even after it’s safe for them to return home,” the statement quoted Yost, who last week announced a 2026 run for governor, as saying.

Asked if the Ohio AG could name one, his spokeswoman said that wasn’t his job.

“The Ohio Attorney General isn’t the person with authority to make TPS judgments, regardless,” the spokeswoman, Bethany McCorkle, said in an email. “That’s why the letter doesn’t call for the designation to be immediately lifted from any one nation.

“What the letter does ask is that the Secretary engage in a review of the country conditions and exercise her judgment regarding the status of countries that have been designated as ‘temporar[ily]’ protected for years — sometimes decades — based on the same insular events,” she added. “If conditions are currently unsafe in a certain country based on new/current factors that would reach the high bar set by Congress for TPS, then the Secretary would have discretion to give TPS on that basis.”

The call for an administration led by a vehemently anti-immigrant president to review and possibly deny immigrants’ protected status might be out of step with public opinion. A December poll sponsored by the National Immigration Forum and the Bulfinch group said that 73% of Americans agreed that immigration policies should protect the persecuted and keep families intact.

Tramonte, of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said the real point of the letter is to distract the public from the real cause of many Americans’ suffering.

“This gets them headlines, this gets them accolades from the people they’re trying to stir up,” she said. “They’re trying to distract from their bigger agenda, which is getting corporations bigger tax breaks and helping the wealthy while average people are having to work multiple jobs just to pay the rent.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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