Noem and Lewandowski turned Homeland Security into a reality show with poor trigger discipline
The Wall Street Journal reports staff beratings, polygraph tests, showboat raids, and a Coast Guard pilot allegedly fired because someone didn’t pack the secretary’s favorite blanket.
The Department of Homeland Security under Noem and Lewandowski is apparently run like a YouTube influencer’s channel. A world where the beatings will continue until loyalty improves, and where message control and perceived popularity are more important than due process or the actual mission. ICE Barbie is far more concerned with playing dress-up and posing in public than actually doing a legitimate job. When Noem’s position looked in jeopardy after the slaying of Alex Pretti, the immediate response was to find a message that worked and cut an ad. No introspection. No increased focus on de-escalation, but a new ad.
Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The pair have fired or demoted roughly 80% of the career ICE field leadership that was in place when they started.
In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home.
The DHS spokeswoman didn’t address the episode but said the secretary has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.”
In an incident last year that rankled some senior staff at the agency, Lewandowski made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law-enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, according to people familiar with his push. Officials are typically only issued a badge and a gun after undergoing law-enforcement training.
The administration was preparing to bring on Tom Feeley, a former top ICE official in New York, as its new director when Lewandowski asked Feeley if he would be willing to issue him and several other political officials badges and guns. Feeley declined, and he was subsequently passed over for the top job at ICE.
WSJ
When a politician best known for shooting her own puppy decides Homeland Security is a content studio, don’t be surprised when the agency starts behaving like one: costumes, cruelty, and a frantic belief that if the lighting is good enough, no one will notice the bloody hands.
“You just fired me over a blanket. You figure out how to get your own puppy-killing ass home.”
Let's keep documenting this stuff.