What's going on: Looks like President Donald Trump really did miss that special feeling of saying, “You’re fired.” Yesterday, he ousted Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem. As someone who once killed her own dog, Noem might appreciate that karma can be a bitch — a lesson she now appears to be learning the hard way after a tumultuous tenure marked by mass deportations, protests, Rolex-clad photo ops, and impeachment calls. In office, her hard-line immigration tactics showed no mercy, not even for American citizens. She initially suggested that the two people killed by federal immigration officers were domestic terrorists. But the fallout from a $200 million ad campaign and Tuesday’s combative Senate committee hearing helped seal her fate. Still, the president’s not exactly sending Noem to the gravel pit — she’ll serve as special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas.” (If it sounds like a totally made-up role, that’s because it is.) Now, on to her replacement: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
What it means for Trump’s immigration agenda: If these men could cycle sync, Mullin would be PMSing in tandem with Trump. He’s a MAGA demagogue who’s expected to execute an immigration agenda to the president’s liking. Though Mullin is yet to be confirmed, Trump hailed him as someone who’ll “work tirelessly to keep our border secure.” However, a strategy change could still be on the horizon. According to Axios, some White House advisors have quietly suggested recalibrating DHS’s plans — as it turns out, detaining children as people die in immigration centers is not good for presidential polling during midterms. In fact, a recent YouGov survey found a record half of Americans now want to abolish ICE. Amid the shake-up, there are still a lot of unknowns, but many analysts are at least predicting fewer costumes and memes under the new leadership.
