The rumor mill fired up again this week after The Bulwark published a report claiming President Trump is considering swapping out DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and replacing her with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. As usual, the report relied on unnamed “former DHS officials,” which is Washington code for people who haven’t been in the room in years but still enjoy pretending they’re plugged in.
Mediaite amplified the story, saying top White House officials are supposedly “frustrated” with Noem, largely because of chief advisor Corey Lewandowski, who they claim has an “outsized role” inside DHS. Lewandowski responded immediately, calling the entire thing fiction. Frankly, it sounded like Beltway gossip the second it dropped.
Then came the second half of the narrative. Youngkin, who is term limited and heading out of the governor’s mansion in mid January, is being floated as a potential replacement. CNN previously reported that Youngkin prefers an economic or business oriented portfolio, but they also said he would be “excited” to serve in any Cabinet role. That little detail was enough for The Bulwark to build an entire storyline around a DHS shakeup that hasn’t actually happened.
The White House responded exactly how you’d expect. “Anonymous former staffers pretend to know what POTUS is thinking and the Bulwark treats them as credible?” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. She added, “This report and the Bulwark is total FAKE NEWS! Secretary Noem is doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda and Making America Safe Again.” That’s about as clear as you can get without skywriting it above the Potomac.
Newsweek chimed in too, noting that the administration is pushing back hard because Noem has been central to the stepped up immigration crackdown. Of course, they also claimed those policies are becoming “increasingly unpopular,” which is interesting considering most Americans explicitly asked for border security after the Biden era disaster. But whenever the press wants to soften a rumor, they wrap it in another rumor.
The idea of a Cabinet shuffle isn’t shocking. Every administration does one around the holidays. But the notion that Trump is secretly plotting to boot Noem because some disgruntled ex staffers whispered it to a Never Trump blog is laughable. Noem has been executing the president’s immigration agenda aggressively and effectively. That tends to matter more than anonymous chatter.
Until someone with an actual name steps forward, this looks like another attempt to stir drama where none exists. The media loves hinting at cracks in Trump’s team. The problem is they keep running these stories, and the cracks never show up.
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