A bombshell report from The Wall Street Journal alleged that department of home secretary has been gripped by “constant chaos” under Secretary
Kristi Noem, painting a portrait of a department where headline-grabbing crackdowns, glossy photo-ops and internal power struggles collide behind closed doors.
According to the paper’s sources, Noem has leaned heavily into high-visibility immigration enforcement — complete with agency-branded flak jackets and carefully staged imagery — while sidelining critics and consolidating control.
The Wall Street Journal cited sources within the department who were highly critical of Noem’s reign and painted an unflattering portrait of the Secretary as a politician who sought to “burnish her personal stardom at every turn.”
Noem “staged a headline-grabbing immigration crackdown while sidelining rivals and dissenters,” the newspaper stated, noting the Secretary’s penchant for posing in agency-branded flak jackets and caps and bearing guns as props, “all with an eye to her style, with TV-ready hair and make-up.”
Here is a look at some of the key claims made against the Secretary.
A lost blanket gets a coast guard pilot fired
A lost blanket gets a Coast Guard pilot fired. Among the stranger controversies alleged is one claiming that Noem ordered a Coast Guard pilot to be fired after she was forced to switch from 1 plane to another because of a maintenance issue, which caused a favourite blanket to be left behind amid the confusion.
The pilot was abruptly told he was dismissed over the blunder and ordered to take a commercial flight home, only to then be advised that he was, in fact, reinstated because no one else was available to continue the journey, according to the WSJ.
The DHS spokesperson did not address the incident but claimed instead that the secretary “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence”.
Lewandowski’s dreams of owning a gun and a badge
Another bizarre claim made in the report is that Noem’s top adviser “made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law enforcement badge and a federally issued gun”, despite his not undertaking the necessary training to merit them.
When the administration was preparing to bring in Tom Feeley, a former top ICE official in New York, as its new director, he was asked by Lewandowski if he was willing to issue him with the props, the newspaper writes. Feeley said no and was subsequently overlooked for the role.
ICE lawyer Ken Padilla, in turn, reportedly refused the same request and was placed on administrative leave before being demoted to a role with FEMA.
Lewandowski ultimately got his gun, the WSJ reports, but only after it was allegedly signed off by an ICE director’s autopen—an ironic detail given Trump’s mockery and conspiracy theorising over his predecessor Joe Biden’s use of such a device.
The DHS spokesperson denied the newspaper’s version of events, saying Lewandowski made no such efforts to secure a gun or signed paperwork, and said that he did not speak to Feeley and that Padilla was put on leave for other reasons.
Similar retaliatory tactics were also reported in the case of Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, whom Noem and Lewandowski allegedly attempted to force out by reassigning his chief of staff and pressuring his deputy to resign.
Scott himself is a Senate appointee and thus out of the secretary’s jurisdiction.
Trump ‘uncomfortable’ with Noem and Lewandowski’s relationship
It was long rumoured that the Secretary and her top adviser, both of whom are married, engaged in an extramarital affair. They repeatedly denied the allegations, and the Secretary called them a “disgusting lie.”
The WSJ nevertheless revived them and reported that “the close relationship already made President Trump and his top advisers uncomfortable,” adding that the President rejected the idea of Lewandowski serving as Noem’s chief of staff “due to reports of a romantic relationship between the 2 – which he continued to bring up, officials say.”
The newspaper reported that Noem moved into a govt-owned waterfront house on a military base in Washington, DC, provided for the head of the Coast Guard, after tabloid photos of Lewandowski “showed him going back and forth between his apartment and Noem’s across the street last year.”
A DHS spokesperson told the WSJ that Noem moved into the house for security reasons and said she pays rent at the property, also advising the paper not to “waste time with salacious, baseless gossip.”
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