By Josh Dawsey, Tarini Parti and Michelle Hackman

President Trump ousted Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, saying Thursday he would replace her with Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

Noem becomes the first cabinet secretary to be fired by Trump in his second term. Her departure follows a tumultuous tenure that culminated in two high-profile killings of U.S. citizens by federal agents and a pair of congressional hearings that displayed bipartisan frustration with her leadership.

The final straw for Trump was Noem's combative hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The president watched the testimony and was apoplectic about her performance, telling advisers that evening he would remove her from the job, according to people familiar with the matter. He also began calling members of Congress and asking for replacement ideas, the person said.

Noem's decision to allot more than $200 million for an ad campaign, featuring herself urging those living illegally in the U.S. to self-deport, had already rankled the president for months for its self-promotional style.

At the hearing, Noem told senators that the president had signed off on the ad campaign -- an assertion that upset Trump, who told senators and advisers he hadn't signed off on such a campaign.

Noem said the ads had been effective, leading Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy to shoot back that they had been "effective in building [Noem's] name recognition."

Noem also told Kennedy that Trump had approved of her running the ads. "It's hard for me to believe, knowing the president as I do, that you said, 'Mr. President here's some ads I cut, and I'm going to spend $220 million running them,' that he would have agreed to that," Kennedy responded.

DHS's top watchdog is looking into the ad contract, according to people familiar with the investigation. That inspector general is conducting an audit of the contract awarding process at the department.

Corey Lewandowski, a top adviser to Noem who managed Trump's 2016 campaign and has maintained a close relationship with the president, had a contentious conversation with Trump on Tuesday following Noem's testimony, White House officials said.

Across the White House, she had the lost confidence of almost all of Trump's senior aides, who were baffled at her management of the agency and her empowerment of Lewandowski, according to people familiar with the matter.

White House officials heard repeatedly from border czar Tom Homan, DHS officials, lawmakers and lobbyists about her behavior, two of the people said. Homan, these people said, was particularly incensed with Noem and Lewandowski. By the end, she was barely on speaking terms with Homan or other top DHS officials, the people said.

In her testimony at a second hearing Wednesday, before the House Judiciary Committee, Noem admitted that one of the contracts for the ads didn't go through a competitive bidding process, contradicting her Senate testimony the previous day. Noem was grilled in both hearings for part of the funding going to a subcontractor with ties to her outgoing spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.

Noem had made herself the face of Trump's increasingly unpopular mass deportation campaign, and her chaotic leadership style of the sprawling department came under scrutiny over the last year. The Wall Street Journal detailed last month how Noem has attempted to burnish her personal stardom, staging a headline-grabbing immigration crackdown while retaliating against rivals and dissenters. Democrats in Congress are currently withholding DHS funding in exchange for changes to the department's enforcement methods.

Trump had previously publicly defended Noem, despite widespread criticism of her since the killing of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis in January.

Noem had claimed Pretti committed "domestic terrorism." In several heated moments during her congressional hearings, Noem declined to retract her characterization of Pretti or apologize for it.

For months, department officials have been frustrated with Noem and Lewandowski, who is employed as a special government employee but has amassed enough power to play a key role in spending, policy and personnel decisions. Some have also pointed to a pattern of Noem ignoring or playing down national-security concerns, the Journal previously reported.

Noem made herself the face of Trump's increasingly unpopular mass deportation campaign, and her chaotic leadership style of the sprawling department came under scrutiny over the past year. The Journal detailed last month how Noem has attempted to burnish her personal stardom, staging a headline-grabbing immigration crackdown while retaliating against rivals and dissenters. Democrats in Congress are currently withholding DHS funding in exchange for changes to the department's enforcement methods.

Meanwhile, Lewandowski and Noem, who are both married, have publicly denied reports of an affair, but officials have said they do little to hide their relationship inside the department. The pair have lately been using a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country. DHS is leasing the plane but is in the process of acquiring it for approximately $70 million.

During the congressional hearings, Noem said the jet was being refurbished to remove the bedroom, and the jet would save the taxpayers money.

She was also repeatedly questioned on her decision to put any department spending larger than $100,000 under an approval process that has held up contracts across DHS. The department is flush with recently appropriated billions from the president's major legislative package last year, the "one big, beautiful bill." Given Lewandowski's continuing business interests in the private sector, his role in awarding contracts has raised alarm bells inside the White House and DHS, the Journal has previously reported.

Noem inaccurately claimed during her Senate testimony that Lewandowski didn't play a role in the contracting process. She also said the department closely tracked the work of special government employees, who are only permitted to work 130 days a year. Department officials say Lewandowski is always by Noem's side and has exceeded the 130-day limit. Last year, the White House Counsel's Office opened an inquiry into Lewandowski's potential abuse of the special government employee role, the Journal previously reported.

Noem's removal also comes days after the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security alerted Congress that the agency's leaders had " systematically obstructed" its work, including in a federal criminal investigation, the Journal has reported.

Lawmakers were also demanding answers to a separate letter from the inspector general referring to a classified report that found Noem's policy change that allowed passengers to pass through screening checkpoints with their shoes on was creating "significant" security risks.

Write to Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com, Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 05, 2026 15:32 ET (20:32 GMT)

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