There’s a report in the Bulwark, a Never Trumper publication, that suggests that President Trump is considering Glenn Youngkin as a replacement for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, citing former DHS officials.
The odd thing about this is that they are reporting this even though they admit that Trump is happy with her.
Here’s the reporting:
For weeks, a rumor has been circulating in political circles that Noem may soon be on the outs. It briefly surfaced in a CNN report a few weeks back that listed her first among the cabinet officials who could be caught in a year-end turnover, noting that while Trump himself has been happy with Noem, top White House officials have grown frustrated with her tenure—specifically, her employment of her divisive and combustible chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski.
Noem has downplayed any tensions or concerns. And in a text to me, Lewandowski called bullshit on any talk of turnover. “None of that is true,” he said Thursday evening.
But in conversations with three former DHS officials—who served in both the Biden and Trump administrations and are still in touch with current staff—it was made clear that Trump is indeed considering moving on from Noem. Two of those officials said they believed such a move could happen “really soon,” relaying that they’ve been told Noem has been taking on less of a role in directing department memos. But they and the third official also cautioned that the situation is fluid. Trump could decide to let Noem oversee the launch of new enforcement operations planned for January and February. And, as always, the president’s views are fickle and often heavily influenced by the latest person to grab his ear.
I honestly don’t believe this is the case. The last thing Trump would want to do is create more controversy for the media to seize upon, especially when he’s happy with Noem’s job performance. I don’t care how unhappy some of his officials are with her, if he’s happy, then she ain’t going nowhere.
I could be wrong, but this is how I see it. And I fully expect the White House to call this reporting completely false in the coming days, if asked about it.