Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, despite her bureaucratic role leading the agency, is often seen sporting tactical gear – sometimes holding a firearm – and the Trump administration is doing its best to rationalize what Axios described as her “eyebrow-raising wardrobe choices.”
“[Noem] wears her agency's uniforms to honor the men and women she leads, who wear them daily in the line of duty,” a DHS spokesperson told Axios in its report Saturday.
Noem has taken an outsized role within the Trump administration, helping lead President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation policy, spearheaded by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, an agency under DHS. In doing so, Noem has “cast herself as the star of a well-funded media campaign,” Axios writes, appearing in television ads urging migrants to self-deport.
Those television ads have seen Noem dawn tactical gear, and even a western outfit – complete with a cowboy hat – while atop a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. A Republican consulting firm with “long-standing personal and business ties to Noem” had also received a “secret payday” for its work on DHS' media campaign, a $200 million, taxpayer-funded venture.
And, according to Axios, Noem’s unusually high profile as DHS secretary may be an effort to position herself for future ambitions.
“The high-visibility media blitz has fueled a nearly year-long rumor mill that Noem is interested in using Trump's immigration agenda to promote herself for a future political campaign,” Axios writes. “Noem also earned the tabloid nickname ‘ICE Barbie’ for her frequent ride-alongs with ICE, Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, dressed up in the uniforms of those units.”