Kristi Noem might have stepped into a "trap" during her recent Senate hearing as reports suggest Donald Trump is looking to fire her, but according to some on social media, her prospective replacement could be far "worse."

On Thursday, the conservative National Review reported that Trump was "furious" with Noem over her handling of questions about a taxpayer-funded ad campaign while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, and echoed other reports that the president is potentially planning to fire her. Noem was pressed by GOP Sen. John Kennedy as to whether or not Trump approved the $220 million campaign, to which the Homeland Security secretary said that he had.

"It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president, as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,’ that he would have agreed to that,” Kennedy said.

As a result of those answers, Trump has privately begun suggesting that he is open to finally getting rid of Noem after months of controversy. Reactions to this report have emerged across social media, with senior CNN political reporter Aaron Blake suggesting that Noem fell for a trap set by Kennedy.

"John Kennedy was basically laying a bunch of traps around Noem and waiting for her to walk into one," Blake posted to X. "Judging by this report, it worked."

"Seems the questioning from Noem’s [Senate Judiciary Committee] hearing that most hurt her standing with the president came not from a Democrat but from a Republican," congressional reporter Benjamin S. Weiss added in his own post.

"It remains unclear whether Trump, known for openly floating personnel changes in private conversations with allies, will follow through on the ouster," Audrey Fahlberg, author of the report from National Review, posted to X after sharing the story. "Trump has so far resisted any high-profile Cabinet reshuffles during his second term, and insisted in early February that he had no plans to remove Noem from her post following her handing of the federal officer-involved fatal shootings in Minneapolis earlier this year."

According to National Review, Trump is reportedly considering staunch MAGA ally and Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as a replacement for Noem at the head of DHS. According to Democratic strategist and MS NOW contributor Max Burns, this would hardly be much of an improvement.

"Firing Noem to hire Markwayne Mullin is the definition of going from bad to worse," Burns wrote in a post to X.

"Ah so it looks like Markwayne's embarrassing brown nosing may pay dividends," Daily Kos reporter Emily C. Singer wrote in her post reacting to the news.

"If you want someone who won’t say something embarrassing when they get a tough question, this is an… interesting… backup," Benjy Sarlin, senior political editor for Vox, posted in reaction to the news about Mullin.

"Oh Lord. Dumb and Dumber Part III," podcaster Reed Galen wrote in a post to X.

President Donald Trump’s former Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, threatened national security, pointed out a former adviser to President George W. Bush on Wednesday — and that should be the focus of coverage regarding the many scandals surrounding Noem and her husband.

“The Daily Mail reports that it has reviewed hundreds of messages involving Byron and three women ...” Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist who consulted the last GOP president before Trump, said in his recent Substack post.

Schmidt went on to describe the litany of controversies surrounding the Noems, including Kristi Noem’s alleged affair with her unqualified adviser Corey Lewandowski and her bragging about murdering a puppy after it did not properly hunt despite inadequate training. He particularly singled out Noem spending millions in taxpayer dollars on glorified photo opportunities for herself.

“Over and over again, Kristi Noem wanted attention on herself,” Lewandowski said. “Look at the photographs. Look at the pictures. Here's Kristi Noem in the Coast Guard. Here's Kristi Noem in a fire costume. Here's Kristi Noem. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.” Yet despite these moral offenses, as well as “signing contracts on dozens of warehouses across the country, paying five times their value, eight times their value, to turn them into concentration camps, to turn them into prisons,” Schmidt remarked that Noem now wants Americans’ prayers after her husband’s photographs leaked.

“There is no official who has abused more people, broken more laws, or engaged in more corrupt acts — besides Trump himself,” Schmidt said. And Bryon Noem, despite leaving his wife’s side when she refused to deny her alleged affair with Lewandowski, did not seem to object to his wife’s violence and murdering toward innocent people while Secretary of Homeland Security.

“The simple truth is: Kristi Noem, when American citizens were murdered, she called them terrorists,” Schmidt said, playing a clip in which she used that term.

“And you know what?” Schmidt concluded. “She doesn't deserve any sympathy. She doesn't deserve any respect. And she absolutely doesn't deserve any of our restraint. Byron Noem and Kristi Noem were up to no good.”

Despite Schmidt’s harsh take on Bryon Noem, the New York Times reported in the aftermath of the photo leak that many of his South Dakota neighbors depicted him in sympathetic terms.

“These men all knew Bryon Noem as the nice, tall insurance salesman who married Kristi Arnold, the town beauty queen who grew up to be governor,” the Times reported. “But now there were these pictures.”

The article later added, “In interviews with locals and friends of the couple before and after The Daily Mail published its pictures, the prevailing sense that emerged was this: People can’t help but feel sorry for Bryon Noem. His marriage had been the talk of the prairie since long before Tuesday.”

The reported that “one man who was in there Tuesday morning looked at the report in The Daily Mail and shook his head sorrowfully. He didn’t know what to believe about Bryon Noem. Only that he liked him.”

The individual then said, “Such a nice man. It just tears me up.”

Noem was fired as Secretary of Homeland Security last month when a senator from her own party, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), publicly criticized her for spending $220 million in taxpayer funds on self-promotional advertisements.

"It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president, as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,’ that he would have agreed to that,” Kennedy told Noem at the time. Trump later denied authorizing the ads and cited Noem’s answer to Kennedy as a reason for her termination.

President Donald Trump may say his recently-fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “had numerous and spectacular results,” but a pro-Trump newspaper begs to differ.

“While Mr. Trump praised Ms. Noem’s ‘spectacular results,’ there’s no mistaking this move as anything other than a fed-up President cutting loose an aide who made herself into a serious liability,” wrote The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board. They praised Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) for asking Noem about spending $220 million on television advertisements that prominently featured her, asking whether Trump previously approved these commercials. Although Noem insisted Trump had approved, Kennedy later said he had spoken to Trump and “his recollection and her recollection are different.”

According to CNN political reporter Aaron Blake, Kennedy set a trap for the increasingly-unpopular Noem that the former South Dakota governor walked right into.

"John Kennedy was basically laying a bunch of traps around Noem and waiting for her to walk into one," Blake posted to X. "Judging by this report, it worked." Congressional reporter Benjamin S. Weiss argued in his own post that it “seems the questioning from Noem’s [Senate Judiciary Committee] hearing that most hurt her standing with the president came not from a Democrat but from a Republican.”

In addition to Kennedy’s questions about her expensive advertising campaign, Noem also faced tough queries about her alleged extramarital affair with aide Corey Lewandowski, which she denied, and border agents’ killings of protester Alex Pretti and civilian Renee Good. Noem defended the killings by describing them, inaccurately, as domestic terrorists.

“The empowering of border czar Tom Homan amid the Minneapolis mess was a good step for Mr. Trump, since Mr. Homan is a professional who talks about prioritizing public safety and conducting ‘targeted’ ICE enforcement against known illegal aliens in a humane fashion,” the Journal wrote. “If Mr. Mullin is confirmed by the Senate, he can help the President by following the Homan approach and explaining it consistently without the political melodrama.”

According to an exclusive NBC News report, “the president decided to fire Noem due to 'a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ICE.” Despite this private frustration, Trump publicly lauded Noem’s tenure.

"The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “I thank Kristi for her service at 'Homeland.'"

Sources within the Department of Homeland Security torched outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem's judgment after the revelation that she handed a key aviation contract to a CEO who previously led an airline company into bankruptcy, according to a new report from The Daily Beast.

Per the outlet's Friday report, during her time at the head of DHS, Noem awarded a $140 million federal contract to a two-year-old company called Daedalus Aviation. As part of the deal, the company would provide the agency with six Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to be used for deportation flights.

Eyebrows were raised, however, by Daedalus CEO Joshua Bustos and his prior leadership history. According to The Daily Beast, he previously served as the CEO for Safi Airways, the largest private airline in Afghanistan, starting in October 2015. Just two years later, however, the Afghan Civil Aviation Authority shuttered the company after it "failed to clear more than $16.7 million in outstanding taxes and debts."

"The carrier had been warned repeatedly before authorities moved to confiscate its assets in early September 2016," The Daily Beast's report explained. "It ceased operations days later."

The outlet continued: "In June 2019, Bustos’ appointment as chief commercial officer of SriLankan Airlines was questioned by some of the country’s parliamentarians, who cited his work at Safi Airways to argue that he had a questionable record in the industry. Six years later, Noem entrusted Bustos with one of the most significant aviation contracts in DHS history."

Speaking with The Daily Beast for the report, an anonymous DHS official called into question the judgment that led to Daedalus getting the massive contract.

“Given Bustos’ background, it should be asked of the U.S. government, why exactly was Daedalus Aviation chosen to head this vitally important project for the federal government?" the official said. "And who made the decision to choose them to lead this project?”

In the wake of President Donald Trump announcing her ouster from DHS, reports have surfaced about the contract mess Noem will be leaving behind and the questionable system she implemented. While heading up the agency, Noem insisted that all contracts over $100,000 had to be personally vetted and approved by her, meaning she was likely the one to make the call about Daedalus Aviation. According to an earlier Axios report, she will exit DHS with "dozens of pending contracts on her desk."

When President Donald Trump learned his then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed he authorized a quarter-billion dollar ad campaign, he was reportedly as “mad as a momma wasp.”

“I was stunned when Noem answered categorically that the president approved every single bit of it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told Fox News. “Later that day, I got a call from President Trump. He was mad as a mamma wasp. He said, ‘Kennedy, I hope you understand that I had nothing to do with this.’ I said, ‘I do believe you, Mr. President.'”

Kennedy added, “He was not happy. It was clear to me after that conversation that the secretary’s time at the department was limited. To be blunt, she was dead as fried chicken.”

The staunch pro-Trump Republican explained why he interrogated Noem about those ads.

“The fact that she spent a quarter of a billion dollars putting ads out across America –– a quarter of a billion dollars –– in which she was prominently displayed,” Kennedy explained. “They looked a great deal like political ads. And I found that breathtaking, and when I see what I perceived to be spending porn, I don’t care who does it. I’m going to call it out.”

When he asked Noem about the ad campaign earlier this week, Kennedy was skeptical that Trump would approve the pricey agenda item.

"It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president, as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them,’ that he would have agreed to that,” Kennedy told Noem. By asking that question, and getting Noem to say Trump had authorized the expense, he set her up for her own termination.

"John Kennedy was basically laying a bunch of traps around Noem and waiting for her to walk into one," senior CNN political reporter Aaron Blake posted on X. "Judging by this report, it worked."

Noem did not merely disclose her controversial spending habits during the Senate hearing. According to Adrian Carrasquillo of The Bulwark, “Her department had arrested and deported DACA recipients—the ‘Dreamers’ who are shielded from deportation and have had work authorization since 2012—at unacceptable levels.”

The Bulwark’s Andrew Egger, while skeptical about Trump’s replacement for Noem, nevertheless expressed relief at her departure.

“Trump’s pick to replace her, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, is a MAGA meathead of the highest order, but I’d hesitate to predict confidently that he’ll be any worse—at any rate, he’ll have his work cut out for him if he hopes to be,” wrote The Bulwark’s Andrew Egger. “And this isn’t nothing: We hope we won’t have to think about Corey Lewandowski’s sex life ever again.”

Egger’s hope may be premature. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) suggested earlier this week that Noem may have perjured herself during her testimony.

“Evidence suggests that your testimony was false,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Noem regarding her negative answer to the question, “Does Corey Lewandowski have a role in approving contracts, and if so, what is that role?” The New York Times subsequently cited department records showing Lewandowski had “personally approved contracts” and employees were under the impression his signature was a “green light” for spending.

President Donald Trump has finally begun to fire major members of his Cabinet, and now, one of his first-term biographers has predicted the next few high-profile officials who will get the axe, likening them to a "set of dominoes."

Trump made it official this week that Pam Bondi was being removed as attorney general and being replaced by Todd Blanche, the president's one-time personal defense lawyer and deputy attorney general under Bondi, as an interim AG while a proper replacement is sought. This came less than a month after the ouster of Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary.

Michael Wolff is a veteran reporter and author, best known for chronicling the chaos behind the scenes of the first Trump administration across a handful of books, using inside sources within the White House. During the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he discussed Bondi's firing and suggested that Trump has finally given in to his natural instinct to fire people to cover for his own failures.

"I think it’s just a pervasive sense of dissatisfaction: ‘Who can I blame?’” Wolff explained. “I don’t think it really relates to any one issue. I think it relates to [how] things are bad: ‘Somebody needs to be blamed other than me, Donald Trump, so I’m going to fire somebody.'"

From there, Wolff said that he would expect more firings to come sooner rather than later, as Trump's presidency continues to spiral, and gave a prediction for the next three names on the chopping block.

"Tulsi Gabbard next week," Wolff said. "[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] the week after, Howard Lutnick inevitably coming up.”

Reports have indicated that Trump is growing increasingly dissatisfied with Gabbard, his Director of National Intelligence, and might be looking to fire her. This is purportedly due to her refusal to condemn Joe Kent, who recently resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in protest against the Iran war, as well as her refusal of a demand to fire him before that. Her ouster would also fit the growing pattern of Trump ditching the most prominent female officials in his administration.

While Kennedy's name has not emerged much in reports about potential removals, Wolff claimed to have heard that Trump is asking around about his Health Secretary's fitness for office, seemingly growing to regret the noted vaccine skeptic's appointment.

"I know that he’s been calling around and saying to people, you know, ‘I hear people say, Bobby is crazy. You think he’s crazy?’” Wolff said. “And you know the answer he wants.”

The Daily Beast also noted that Lutnick, in addition to getting ensnared in an Epstein files scandal, has recently begun to anger White House insiders with his "shouting and grandstanding."

Republican senators are growing increasingly frustrated with President Donald Trump's defense chief, according to The Hill, "losing confidence" as the Pentagon descends into chaos.

On Monday, the outlet reported that several GOP lawmakers were privately hoping to see Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the next major firing by Trump, citing his endless feuds with top military leaders that have seen various respected names forced out, including Navy Secretary John Phelan and Army Chief of Staff Randy George, as well as his reported conflict with the well-liked Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. Some of these senators, speaking anonymously, admitted that Hegseth would not be confirmed again if his nomination were put forward again today.

These recent issues, the outlet explained, have come on the heels of longstanding worries about his fitness for the extremely important office that he holds.

"One Republican senator who requested anonymity said there have long been questions within the Senate GOP conference over Hegseth’s lack of experience managing a large and complex bureaucracy, as well as leeriness about his unconventional and often brash leadership style," The Hill explained. "The lawmaker, however, said confidence in Hegseth has dropped among Republicans because of his battles with senior military leaders who have strong relations with policymakers on Capitol Hill."

“The hollowing out of incredible leadership at the Pentagon has been a big concern,” the anonymous senator told the outlet. “It really came to a tipping point when Gen. George was dismissed.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina senator retiring from office soon, was among the few lawmakers who did not speak anonymously about their issues with Hegseth, questioning his ability to manage an agency so vast and complicated as the Pentagon, when his only past military management experience saw him in command of "30 or 40 people" at most.

"I think he’s missing the mark on personnel," Tillis said. "He has separated some of the most extraordinary generals that we’ve had in play. I don’t quite know what’s going on there."

He added: “Now he’s got an organization that’s much larger, much more complex than anything he’s done. I think he’s making some less-than-ideal personnel decisions.”

Tillis, who famously cast the "pivotal" vote to confirm Hegseth last year, said that, as of now, "there’s no question he’s got a failing grade," and noted that "in some respects he’s displaying the exact lack of experience" that caused Kristi Noem to get axed as Homeland Security secretary.

Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, was another name who spoke with The Hill on the record, calling George's dismissal a "mistake" and expressing bewilderment about the reasoning for it.

"I have the greatest admiration and respect for Gen. Randy George. He’s probably one of the finest officers the United States Army has ever produced. It was a mistake for Secretary Hegseth to dismiss him,” Ernst said. “As far as the reason for his dismissal, I wouldn’t even begin to know what it was."

Republicans in the Senate are pushing President Donald Trump to get any and all firings done soon, according to lawmakers who spoke with Politico, over concerns that new appointees might not be confirmed before the midterms.

"If you’re a Cabinet official thinking of pursuing a new professional opportunity, Senate Republicans have a request: Now’s the time to call it quits," Politico explained in a Thursday morning report. "The departure this week of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who is following former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi out the door, has some GOP lawmakers pondering a larger Cabinet shakeup and what that could mean to an unsettled Senate floor schedule."

The Senate schedule is looking packed for the rest of the year, with just over six months left until the 2026 midterms, where it is no longer outside the realm of possibility that Republicans will lose their majority in the chamber. In addition to "a litany of measures they are negotiating with the House," the Senate will also have to consider "at least one potential party-line budget reconciliation bill" to keep the government funded and, possibly, fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

That does not leave a lot of wiggle room for many high-profile Cabinet appointments, which would also become more of a nightmare for the administration before a Democratic Congress.

“The number of working days are very limited,” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, told Politico. “You just do the math. It’s a very compressed schedule.”

“As we get closer to the election… you never know what’s going to happen to the Senate,” another GOP senator told Politico anonymously.

"Tillis is among a group of Republican senators who believe Trump should make any further changes to his inner circle sooner rather than later to give the Senate maximum flexibility in confirming replacements," Politico explained. "Waiting, they fear, could mean significant delays in confirmations or worse if Democrats can retake the majority."

The outlet noted that no Republicans are publicly prepared to call out which Trump administration officials they think should be on the chopping block next. In private, however, "three privately fingered Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as someone they believe the president is likely to remove." Another lawmaker highlighted National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, questioning how long she "would remain in her post given her split with the president on recent issues such as the Iran war and a soon-to-lapse surveillance authority." Two of the anonymous Republicans also expressed doubts about FBI Director Kash Patel, given the recent reports about his excessive drinking and erratic behavior.

“He’s in a bad mood, so he’s letting a lot of them go,” one of the anonymous lawmakers said about Trump. “He’s preparing to really let a lot of them go.”