President-elect Donald Trump has picked South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, CNN reported, citing two sources familiar with the decision.
Noem, who is currently serving her second four-year term as South Dakota’s governor, will be tasked to oversee an agency that is responsible for border protection and immigration, disaster response and the U.S. Secret Service.
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign and Noem’s office for comment via email outside of regular business hours.
It comes after Trump announced that two immigration hard-liners will serve in his incoming administration after he promised during his campaign to mount the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history.
He selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
Trump also announced via social media that Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, would be his “border czar.” Homan will be tasked with “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Noem was said to be among the contenders on Trump’s list for vice president, but that reportedly changed after she faced backlash from both sides of the political aisle earlier this year over revelations she made in her book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics And How We Move America Forward.
In the book, she wrote that she shot to death her family’s 14-month-old wirehair pointer, Cricket, that she was training for pheasant hunting. She wrote that she had included the anecdote to illustrate her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” if it has to be done.
She defended her decision to shoot the dog, writing on social media: “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm.”
She also said she had made the choice “as a mom” because “this was a dangerous animal that was killing livestock and attacking people.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.