President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem in Ochopee, Florida, July 1, 2025 (DHS photo by Tia Dufour/Flickr)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was rocked by a major bombshell when, on Tuesday morning, February 17, the news broke that DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin — an aggressive defender of Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids — was leaving the agency. McLaughlin's departure comes at a time when Noem is facing rumors that she could be fired, although Trump praised her job performance during the recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
In a blistering article published on February 18, Salon's Amanda Marcotte stresses that although Trump promised "law and order," him and Noem are actually creating an environment of "chaos" and "pandemonium."
"In recent weeks," Marcotte explains, "America has watched as agents have tear gassed civilians, made race-based arrests that have scooped up citizens and even small children, and sent two non-violent citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, to their graves. As a presidential candidate in 2024, Trump billed himself as the savior who would end crime and bring order to what he falsely portrayed as a turbulent social landscape due to imaginary immigrant crime sprees. While the president appears to personally enjoy the violence and unrest his homeland security secretary has unleashed, even he can see the polling that shows it is backfiring. But this was inevitable, especially with Noem at the helm."
Marcotte adds, "Her personal behavior in office has been as bizarre as her theory that masked federal agents terrorizing innocents would read as bringing order to the public. More than anyone in the administration besides Trump himself, Kristi Noem is responsible for the current DHS funding shutdown."
The "irony" of Trump's "law and order" rhetoric, according to Marcotte, is that "Noem herself is not an orderly person."
"While authoritarians promise that strict hierarchies giving those at the top total control are necessary to keep people safe," Marcotte warns, "the opposite is true. Unchecked power creates chaos…. More broadly, it's true of every hierarchy the right wants to impose on us. Male dominance leads to women being raped and beaten. White supremacy leads to racial violence, including lynchings of Black Americans during Jim Crow or more recent killings, such as the 2020 police death of George Floyd…. ICE acts more like gangsters than law enforcement, terrorizing and kidnapping innocent folks and even shooting people who aren't doing anything wrong."
Marcotte adds, "Being subjected to Mafia-style rule is not 'safety.' Finally, the public is waking up to that reality."
