South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem appears set to become the latest Republican official to join Donald Trump’s Cabinet, as the president-elect has picked her as Homeland Security Secretary, CNN reported.
The governor – who was considered a contender for vice president before admitting she’d shot a puppy in a book she released earlier this year – will be a key point person on one of Trump’s key promises: to clean up the mess at the southern border and potentially deport millions of illegal migrants.
She will run the Department of Homeland Security, which has a $60 billion budget, with the assistance of Trump loyalists Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, who will serve as border czar.
Trump and Honan have said will start their work to deport ‘millions’ of migrants on his first day in the White House.
Starting with the asylum apps used by migrants to gain interviews and then targeting the super gangs terrorizing American cities, the pair is laying out who will be targeted for removal from the country.
Daily Mail spoke with sources across the country who mapped out exactly how they plan to do it.
Noem, 52, was considered a rising star in the Republican Party until a scandal earlier this year where she revealed in her biography that she shot her own puppy, a 14-month-old named Cricket.
The Republican writes that she took Cricket on a hunting trip with older dogs in hopes of calming down the wild puppy. Instead, Cricket chased the pheasants while ‘having the time of her life.’
On the way home from the hunting trip, Noem writes that when she stopped to talk to a family, Cricket got out of her truck and attacked and killed some of the family’s chickens, and then bit the governor.
Noem apologized profusely, wrote the distraught family a check for the deceased chickens, and helped them dispose of the carcasses, she writes. She wrote that Cricket ‘was the picture of joy’ as all that unfolded.
‘I hated that dog,’ Noem writes, deeming her ‘untrainable.’
‘At that moment,’ she says, ‘I realized I had to put her down.’
Noem then recalls leading Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her dead.
That wasn’t all. Noem writes that her family also owned a ‘nasty and mean’ male goat that smelled bad and liked to chase her kids, so she decided to go ahead and kill the goat, too.
She writes that the goat survived the first shot, so she went back to the truck, got another shell, then shot him again, killing him.
Soon thereafter, a school bus dropped off Noem’s children. Her daughter asked, ‘Hey, where’s Cricket?’ Noem writes.
The excerpts, first published by The Guardian, drew immediate criticism on social media platforms, where many posted photos of their own pets. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign surfaced the story on social media alongside a photo of Noem with Trump.
However, she had been brought back into the fold by Trump late in the campaign, including moderating his infamous town hall that turned into an impromptu dance party.
DailyMail.com also reported on rumors that Noem, who is married, was having an affair with Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski, who is also married, carrying on in 2019, if not before.
Neither denied the affair when asked by DailyMail.com. The Governor issued a statement attacking us for the timing of the article, while Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment
However, after the initial publication of the article, Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury vehemently insisted the pair had never had an affair.
The president spent much of Monday attempting to secure key parts of his cabinet ahead of his January inauguration.
He has offered the role of US ambassador to the United Nations to Elise Stefanik.
The House Republican and top ally of the president accepted the UN gig after it was offered on Sunday, DailyMail.com confirmed.
Trump also selected former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to be his next Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
Zeldin confirmed the news on X.com, promising to ‘restore American energy dominance’ and ‘slash the red tape holding back American workers from upward economic mobility.’
He has also asked Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida to be his White House National Security Advisor, sources familiar with the decision tell DailyMail.com.