What Kristi Noem Should Do After President Trump Fired Her
It’s hard out there for a MAGA woman.
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Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Opinion Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Michelle Cottle Kristi Noem’s Story Was Destined to End This Way March 5, 2026, 8:35 p.m. ET Listen · 5:36 min Share full article By Michelle Cottle Ms. Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion. As I looked at Kristi Noem’s MAGA-fied visage plastered across the media on Thursday, along with the news that President Trump had fired her, I couldn’t help thinking: This was always going to end in tears. Not because the defenestrated secretary of homeland security was uniquely bad at her job. Sure, “ICE Barbie,” as her critics dubbed her, was no paragon of competence. Her handling of ICE agents’ bloody rampage across Minneapolis was appalling — as, really, was her aggressive defense of the president’s entire deportation orgy. (That photo op field trip to the Salvadoran prison? Pure trash.) Her leadership style was, at best, chaotic. Her congressional testimony this week was defensive, dishonest, bumbling and self-contradictory. Her relentless self-promotion was embarrassing and more than a little foolish given who she works for. Rule No. 1 in Trumpworld: Never steal the spotlight from the boss. Still, Ms. Noem was hardly the most incompetent, embarrassing or dangerous member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet. The competition is too steep. No, I thought about how she owed her post to her laborious transformation into a particular kind of ultra-MAGA woman who kicks butt while always looking picture perfect — superfeminine and superaggressive — a role that comes with built-in challenges and limited room for error. The more furiously Ms. Noem contorted herself to fit this Trumpworld mold and catch the attention of the MAGA guys, the more she risked earning the contempt of the very people she wanted to impress, especially the president. Then, when she outlasted her usefulness, she was casually sloughed off. Who could have predicted that one? Besides everyone. Respect never seemed to be part of the equation ...
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