The Wall Street Journal reports:

Kristi Noem knew she needed a reset.

It was two days after federal agents had shot and killed Alex Pretti, and Noem was facing fire from all sides. Even some inside the administration were pushing President Trump to remove her from her position for her handling of the chaotic immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis and comments she’d made saying Pretti committed an act of domestic terrorism.

So Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, messaged Trump’s pollster with a request: They needed to cut an ad to help her, according to two people familiar with the episode. The pollster, Tony Fabrizio, who worked on Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, ignored the entreaty, the people said.

Throughout her tenure as secretary of Homeland Security, a sprawling agency charged with carrying out Trump’s central campaign promise of a mass deportation, Noem has attempted to burnish her personal stardom at every turn. With Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, at her side, she has staged a headline grabbing immigration crackdown while sidelining rivals and dissenters.

She’s carried out confrontational operations over the objections of longtime immigration officials who warned such flashy displays would discredit the department’s ultimate mission, according to two dozen current and former administration officials. Instead, she’s made the case that her approach would lead to more arrests as well as induce more people to leave on their own.

She has donned flak jackets on ICE raids, posed toting a large gun and recorded messages urging immigrants to self-deport. In one, she stood before a group of imprisoned men with shaved heads packed into tight rows in a notorious El Salvadoran prison. And she has done it all with an eye to her style, with TV-ready hair and makeup.

Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust and have fired employees—in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane, according to people familiar with the incident.

Noem and Lewandowski’s close relationship had already made Trump and his top advisers uncomfortable. Lewandowski had initially wanted to formally serve as Noem’s chief of staff, but Trump rejected the idea due to reports of a romantic relationship between the two—which he has continued to bring up, officials say.

After tabloid photos of Lewandowski showed him going back and forth between his apartment and Noem’s across the street last year, the secretary moved into a government-owned waterfront house on a military base in Washington that is provided to the leader of the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard falls under Noem’s purview at DHS during peacetime. Lewandowski also spends time at the house.

The DHS spokeswoman said Noem moved to the house for increased security and pays rent.

Lewandowski and Noem, who are both married, have publicly denied the reports of the affair, but people said they do little to hide their relationship inside the department. The DHS spokeswoman said the department “doesn’t waste time with salacious, baseless gossip.”

The pair have lately been using a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country, according to people familiar with the matter. DHS is leasing the plane but is in the process of acquiring it for approximately $70 million. DHS has previously used other planes through the Coast Guard or other agencies for the secretary’s use.

Noem, who previously served as governor of South Dakota and had little experience in immigration policy before becoming secretary, got the job in part because of a quiet lobbying effort by Lewandowski, who began advising her in 2019 and helped build her national profile.

Lewandowski took Noem to functions with Republican kingmakers, introducing her as a rising star in the party. He suggested her to others as Trump’s vice president in 2024. After failing at that, Lewandowski pushed for her to get the DHS post, a role viewed as central to Trump’s agenda and one he believed could be a launchpad for a potential 2028 presidential bid.

Officials at DHS said they believe the pair see DHS as a steppingstone to an even bigger perch.

Since taking office, the secretary has also closely monitored how her national profile compared with other administration officials. Top of her list was Homan, Trump’s border czar, with whom she has been in a battle for power and influence inside the administration.

Noem routinely berated staff if she saw Homan on TV and kept track of both their appearances to make sure she was on TV more than him, according to people familiar with the matter. On at least one occasion, she asked aides to ensure she drew a bigger crowd at a conference than Homan, who was speaking on a different day, one of the people said.

White House officials have grown angry that Noem and Lewandowski have declined to take guidance on events, messaging and management of the agency. Several senior administration officials described DHS as the biggest headache thus far of the second term.

Early in the administration, Noem allotted $200 million from the department’s budget to air an ad campaign featuring her warning immigrants in the country illegally—in English—to “leave now.”

The campaign annoyed Trump, who questioned White House staff about where the secretary found the money for the barrage of ads, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The ads rankled many inside the administration because they believed the campaign was more focused on her than the administration’s message, and signaled Noem’s own presidential aspirations.

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.

Lewandowski next turned to ICE’s legal office for help writing him a legal justification to be issued the badge and gun. A top ICE lawyer, Ken Padilla, also declined to sign off, and days later he was placed on administrative leave. He was later demoted and moved to FEMA, the people said. Padilla declined to comment.

Lewandowski eventually persuaded other lawyers to sign off. The ICE director’s autopen was used to sign the paperwork, the people said. [Continue reading…]