Kristi Noem’s $200 Million Mistake

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News, Business News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kristi Noem brought a camera-ready leadership style to the Department of Homeland Security. Now, after a turbulent year leading the agency, Trump has fired her. WSJ's Michelle Hackman takes us behind the scenes of her controversial tenure and what led to her downfall. Ryan Knutson hosts. Further Listening: - Inside the ICE Hiring Blitz - Inside ICE's Aggressive Approach to Arresting Migrants Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Last year, a splashy ad campaign featuring Christy Noam, then head of the Department of Homeland Security, started showing up on TV.
0:13.7	Why do I love these wide open spaces? They remind me of why our forefathers came here.
0:19.8	Noam sits tall on a horse.
0:21.9	She's wearing chaps, a cowboy hat.
0:24.5	The granite faces of Mount Rushmore rise behind her.
0:27.5	I'm Christy Nome.
0:29.2	From the Cowboys Who Tamed the West...
0:30.8	The ads were directed to people thinking of illegally immigrating to the U.S.
0:34.1	It was a warning not to come.
0:37.3	You cross the border illegally, we'll find you.
0:40.7	Break our laws, we'll punish you.
0:43.5	These TV spots were mostly in English,
0:46.0	and the campaign was pretty pricey,
0:48.8	costing more than $200 million.
0:52.0	Our colleague Michelle Hackman says this campaign came to define Noam's unconventional tenure at DHS.
0:59.3	It's a long, glossy ad. It glorifies America, but it glorifies her too.
1:06.0	It almost felt like she wasn't just running the show at DHS. She was like literally, she was like starring in the show at DHS.
1:14.0	Totally.
1:14.7	That's exactly how I would describe it.
1:17.0	And she spent $200 million on these ads.
1:21.0	I mean, that's a huge sum.
1:24.1	President Trump fired Noam last week.
	...

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