Sick reason Trump chose 'ICE Barbie' for key DHS position 'exposed'

One episode from US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s personal history is said to have played an unexpected role in her rise within Donald Trump’s administration.

In her 2024 memoir No Going Back, Noem revealed that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket, describing the dog as having an “aggressive personality.”

Remorseless Noem doubles down

In the book, she revealed how she “hated that dog,” and labeled Cricket “worthless.” Recalling the incident from two decades earlier, she said of pulling the trigger, “It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done.” She then buried the puppy in a gravel pit.

According to advance excerpts from Undue Process: The Inside Story of Trump’s Mass Deportation Program by Julia Ainsley, Trump had at one point considered Noem as a potential running mate in 2024 before ultimately choosing JD Vance.

However, after her memoir was published in May 2024, it led to intense backlash over the shooting, and she was reportedly dropped from the shortlist.

Ainsley’s book, as reported by The Atlantic, notes that many believed the controversy would derail Noem’s prospects in the administration. Instead, the book claims that “Trump actually saw this particular biographical detail as an asset in his Homeland Security Secretary—it was one of the reasons he chose her.”

Noem's prominence within ICE

Noem was sworn in as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in January of last year, having previously served as the governor of South Dakota, and has since become synonymous with the contentious nationwide ICE raids.

Last September, Noem discussed the incident involving Cricket on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast with Miranda Devine. Doubling down on her decision, the heavy-handed Republican added that she had also killed a male goat she described as “disgusting, musky, rancid” and prone to chasing her children.

Noem explained that she included the story in her memoir to demonstrate her willingness to make “hard decisions,” acknowledging that critics had used the episode against her.

“I absolutely love animals, I’ve always had dogs, I still have a dog that goes everywhere with me, and that situation there was hard,” she said.

There have been calls from all sides from Democratic Party leaders, major advocacy groups, and even some moderate members of Congress, for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign following the fatal shooting of two people in Minneapolis who were protesting immigration enforcement actions.

In a unified response, top House Democrats, including Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar issued a statement criticizing the department’s response. They said, “The country is disgusted by what the Department of Homeland Security has done.”

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