Federal workers inside the Department of Homeland Security broke into celebration last week when President Donald Trump fired Secretary Kristi Noem, ending what officials describe as a chaotic reign that left the agency in disarray and disaster response capabilities degraded to dangerous levels.
The relief inside DHS was palpable. Staff gathered in offices, shared high fives, and breathed collective sighs of relief after 13 months under Noem’s controversial leadership. One source told ABC News simply: “She’s gone.”
Noem was preparing to speak at the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference in Nashville when Trump called to deliver the news. She took the stage anyway and made no mention of her firing. Hours later, she announced via email that her last day would be March 31, when she’ll transition to a newly created role as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas.
Her departure marks the end of what many inside DHS consider a disastrous tenure marked by micromanagement, mass firings, and policies that critics say made Americans less safe. Trump tapped Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her — making Noem the first Cabinet secretary to leave during his second term.
Noem’s extreme overreach included firing hundreds of FEMA staff, politicizing disaster aid, and requiring personal approval of all expenditures over $100,000 — a policy that caused dangerous delays in disaster assistance. According to The New York Times, this policy created a $17 billion bottleneck that included money already approved by regional FEMA offices for debris removal, repairs to roads, bridges, and water systems.
The agency’s reimbursement backlog ballooned as Noem postponed billions in disaster payments. Republican Senator Thom Tillis confronted her with a graph of delayed FEMA payments during a recent Senate Judiciary hearing, calling her leadership “a disaster.” She publicly stated support for eliminating FEMA entirely and shifting disaster recovery responsibilities to states — a proposal that alarmed emergency management experts who warned of risks comparable to the devastating 2005 Hurricane Katrina response failures.
Noem and her chief adviser Corey Lewandowski — who is also leaving DHS — developed reputations for lashing out at staff. The pair fired or demoted significant numbers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement field leadership, gutting decades of institutional knowledge. Sources said Lewandowski would fire anyone he thought stood in his way.
Current and former DHS officials say Noem never took accountability for the department’s missteps, instead blaming others. She became a lightning rod for controversy after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis — both ruled homicides by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner — as well as for a $220 million advertising campaign in which she was prominently featured.
During her first appearance as secretary in January 2025, she walked out to the Trace Adkins song “Hot Mama,” bewildering DHS staff. At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on March 4, she called rumors of an affair with Lewandowski “tabloid garbage.”
FEMA staff voiced concerns about Noem’s leadership in an open letter. Officials placed some signatories on leave in retaliation. The agency lost experts with decades of experience and damaged relationships with state and local emergency managers.
Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Noem’s “reckless undermining of FEMA has put people’s lives at risk and greatly diminished the agency’s disaster response and recovery efforts. Good riddance.”
Dr. Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at UCS, was even more blunt. She said Noem “has overseen a reign of terror at DHS, harming communities across the country.”
Lewandowski, who served as Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016, has weathered multiple scandals. He was charged with simple battery in 2016 after he grabbed reporter Michelle Fields at a campaign event, though prosecutors declined to pursue the case despite finding probable cause. In 2021, Trump donor Trashelle Odom accused him of making unwanted sexual advances at a charity event.
Despite celebrations over Noem’s departure, longtime FEMA officials remain cautious. One described the workforce as “tired, demoralized, mad, maybe a little spiteful.” Another said they’re “not holding their breath” for meaningful change.
Noem will remain at DHS until March 31, though her duties during this lame-duck period remain unclear. The Senate Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to hold Mullin’s confirmation hearing on March 18. Whether he can stabilize the battered agency remains an open question for staff who’ve endured what they describe as the worst period in FEMA’s history since before Hurricane Katrina.