Donald Trump has a "guillotine" above Kristi Noem's head in the form of false stories he has likely been planting about her in the media, according to a former DHS insider.
Former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, who has claimed his home was targeted by a break-in shortly after he published a scathing "Anonymous" op-ed about Trump's presidency, appeared on MS NOW over the weekend to talk about his former agency.
Specifically, he was asked why Trump is keeping Noem around despite reports saying she might be fired. While Taylor didn't know that answer, he did note that in the first Trump administration, Trump and his allies would leak false stories about people getting fired all the time.
"Well, he did a little bit ofthis in the first term. Donald Trump and his aides were thesource of leaks about peoplethey were going to potentiallyfire. They did that on purpose.I mean, people at the White House told me at the time theydid that on purpose to keepcabinet secretaries on theirtoes so they wouldintentionally leak stories thatthey were maybe going to firesomeone just to make sure thatthat person stayed loyal to thepresident," he said on Sunday. "Now, I don't know,in this case, if the pastcouple of months Donald Trumphas been the one leaking thestories about potentiallyfiring several people in hiscabinet, but I strongly suspectbased on the first term he orhis staff were, and then hegoes out there and denies thatthey're going to get rid ofpeople, but they do that tomake sure that those cabinetmembers know that theguillotine is raised above them,so that they don't make anyfalse moves so that they don'tcontradict the president, andso that they are loyal. This, he felt like,worked decently well in thefirst term. He's deploying itagain in a second."