Whether she is touring a notorious El Salvadoran prison or attending a two-hour Trump cabinet meeting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem knows what time it is.
Noem was famously spotted wearing a $50,000 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona when she toured the infamous Cecot prison shortly after the administration deported more than 200 people including alleged gang members there.
She sported the high-priced bling just days after the illegal migrant who allegedly snatched her Gucci handbag was publicly identified.
Noem, whose fashion choices have earned her the monicker ICE Barbie, was seen wearing the watch again at Wednesday’s televised Cabinet meeting at the White House.
A pool reporter spotted the accessory at the start of the event, where Noem and other cabinet secretaries each got time to defend the work of their agencies – while tossing myriad complements in Trump’s direction.
Noem jumped into the discussion after the meeting had been underway for an hour and 20 minutes, after Education Secretary Linda McMahon provided an update on Harvard University’s lawsuit against the administration.
She said Homeland Security ‘pulled back their grants’ because Harvard wasn’t providing information on critical activity by its students.
‘And until they give us that list, they’re not getting any more grants from homeland.’
That prompted Trump to respond that ‘the attitude they have is not American.’ He added that ‘a grant is a grant. We don’t have to give grants.’
Noem has been in the news repeatedly, and not just because of her agency’s furious activity in what the administration calls a ‘mass deportation’ campaign.
Her trip to El Salvador came shortly after the government there released footage of inmates having their heads shaved as they were transferred there from a U.S. military aircraft.
She stood in front of dozens of silent prisoners who were behind bars.
She has also been photographed on horseback and riding an ATV at the Mexican border as the administration crafts a tough-on-immigration image.
On Easter in Washington Noem had her Gucci handbag snatched. It included her identification, passport, and $3,000 in cash. A suspect without legal documentation was later arrested, and records show he went on a spending spree immediately after the incident.
Noem, the former South Dakota governor and lawmaker, has an estimated net worth of about $ 1 million, according to her financial disclosure. That included cash savings of about $265,000 and livestock equipment worth up to $100,000.
Her husband Bryan Noem had commercial real estate worth up to $500,000 and an insurance brokerage worth between $1 million and $5 million.