Trump expected to tap Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce soon that he has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his Department of Homeland Security secretary, sources told ABC News on Tuesday.

When CNN first reported on her possible appointment early Tuesday, some Republicans expressed concern — but it doesn’t look like that has changed the direction of Trump’s pick, the sources said. The role requires Senate approval.

As Trump’s homeland security secretary, Noem is expected to oversee Trump’s border policies, including the major campaign promise of “mass deportations,” alongside Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan and White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller. .

Noem has taken a similarly aggressive stance on immigration over the years.

In 2017, while serving as the state’s at-large representative in the U.S. Congress, she supported Trump’s so-called “Muslim travel ban” and said she shared Trump’s “concerns about our ability to vet refugees – particularly those from terrorist hotbed areas.” “

In 2021, it refused to allow Afghan refugees into South Dakota as U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, although it accepted Syrian refugees in 2019 under the Trump administration. Earlier this year, she spent millions of dollars from the state’s emergency and disaster fund to station the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

After Trump’s election victory, Noem expressed enthusiasm about Trump’s immigration plans and praised the president-elect’s deportation and border plans in several interviews.

In an interview on NewsNation on Friday, when asked about the potential cost of Trump’s promised mass deportations, Noem said: “It’s going to be a major operation, and President Trump has already indicated that he wants to do it first.” We deport the most dangerous first – those criminals, murderers, rapists who endanger the safety of our communities – they will be first on the list.”

On Thursday, Noem said in an interview on Newsmax that Trump’s “No. 1 priority will be this border. We must secure our country and get the murderers, terrorists and rapists out of this country.”, and making America safe again is truly his goal. And I’m just so proud of him for working so hard on it right away.

Noem officially endorsed Trump at a rally in South Dakota last September and has been actively campaigning for him since then, including hosting Trump advocacy events leading up to the crucial Iowa caucuses, soliciting donors at fundraisers and serving as one of Trump’s surrogates ABC News presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Earlier this election cycle, Noem was among several names floated as possible contenders for Trump’s vice presidential running mate. She openly expressed her desire to join a possible second Trump administration, saying she would join Trump “in a heartbeat” and saying, “I will help him as best I can,” even as she stressed that she loves being governor to be from South Dakota.

Earlier this year, she was embroiled in a number of controversies, including scrutiny and a lawsuit over her social media endorsement of a dental paper she received from a practice in Texas.

She was also criticized for writing in her new memoir about how she shot her 14-month-old dog “Cricket” after he displayed an “aggressive personality” and was forced to admit to “mistakes” in her book, including Claims She once met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. According to the publisher, this description has been removed from the book.

Still, Trump defended and praised her amid controversy last year, saying she had been through “tough” days but that he liked her “a lot.”