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Trump picks Kristi Noem to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security
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Trump picks Kristi Noem to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security



CNN

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as its next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to two people familiar with the selection.

Noem will be tapped to take over the agency as two key people on immigration – Stephen Miller and Tom Homan — are slated to play in leadership roles, signaling that Trump is serious about his promise to scale back his immigration commitments. By selecting Noem, Trump ensures that a loyalist will lead an agency he prioritizes and is key to his domestic agenda.

The department saw a tremendous amount of turmoil the last time Trump was in office. DHS then had five different leaders, only two of whom were confirmed by the Senate. The agency has a budget of 60 billion dollars and hundreds of thousands of employees.

Noem, who previously served as representative in South Dakota, will now be tasked with overseeing an expanding agency that oversees everything from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Secret Service.

Noem was once on Trump’s short list for vice president, though her relationship with Trump changed after the negative publicity surrounding the publication of her book: “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward” . In it, she revealed that she once killed her 14-month-old pointer, Cricket, when he wasn’t showing the signs of an ideal hunting dog.

The governor wrote that the dog was “untrainable,” according to excerpts first reported by The Guardian. Noem later argued that those anecdotes were meant to show how capable she is of doing some of life’s most gruesome jobs when necessary.