How Unqualified Is Kristi Noem? Let Us Count the Ways.
The South Dakota governor has little to recommend her for secretary of homeland security.
STEVE BANNON FAMOUSLY SAID that his strategy is to “flood the zone with shit.” Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations take a page directly from Bannon’s playbook.
Several of Trump’s nominations—Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard to name two—are so manifestly dangerous that they may, just may, be rejected by the Republican Senate. Likewise, his nominations of those who are deeply unqualified, like Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have the effect of distracting attention.
Which leaves the merely minimally qualified a near-clear run toward confirmation. Consider, for example, the nomination of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to be secretary of homeland security. In any other administration (even Trump’s first) she would be an unserious candidate. This time around, her nomination got barely fifteen seconds of news, as it was buried in the landslide of even more absurd nominees.
Eight years ago, when Trump nominated Gen. John Kelly to be secretary of homeland security, I surveyed the types of expertise that the job required, identifying sixteen different types of experience and competence that one might reasonably look for in a qualified candidate. Gov. Noem does not seem to check many of these boxes. Here is a summary of her expertise and experience in the relevant areas:
Border security: None. South Dakota has no foreign border and no experience managing cross-border threats.
Trade experience/facilitating movement of goods: Virtually none. South Dakota’s only notable export destination is Canada, which is hardly a challenging destination, and its only major export is agriculture products.
Transportation security: None. South Dakota has no agencies devoted to directly managing aviation- or rail-security issues, relying instead on federal efforts.
Immigration: None, though it may hardly matter as it seems clear that Trump intends to run immigration policy from the White House. To the extent her views are relevant, Gov. Noem generally mimics Trump.
Counterterrorism: None. The top threat identified today by the South Dakota Homeland Security Department is preparation for active shooters. Foreign terror threats to South Dakota are virtually nonexistent.
Law enforcement: Some, but minimal. In 2018, the last year for which we have data, South Dakota had just over 3,000 law enforcement employees, not all of whom were sworn officers. The largest state agency, the Highway Patrol, had 172 sworn officers. DHS has the largest number of law enforcement officers in the U.S. government—currently about 80,000.
Grants: Some. South Dakota, like most states, is both a grant recipient and manages the distribution of grants to state and local activities. The DHS grant operation is much larger in scale, but relatively similar in nature.
State and local government and the private sector: Well qualified. As a governor, Noem will have direct experience in state and local interactions with the federal government on a host of issues.
International relations: Virtually none. Noem has based her claims of international experience on meetings with foreign leaders as part of a congressional delegation while she was in the House of Representatives.
Emergency preparedness and management: Qualified. Though smaller in size than FEMA, the South Dakota Office of Emergency Management has significant responsibility for managing the response to natural disasters, like floods and tornadoes.
Maritime domain awareness: None. South Dakota has no coastline.
Cybersecurity: Limited. Noem has said that cyber is her state’s “next big industry” and signed a state cyber law. But she is so dismissive of the domain that she, alone among all governors, rejected the 2023 DHS cyber grants intended to assist in building cyber capacity, calling it wasteful spending. If confirmed, she will be in charge of that same grant program.
Budget, procurement, personnel, and financial management: Limited. DHS’s top-line budget request for FY 2024 was $103 billion, supporting a workforce of 252,000 employees. South Dakota’s FY 2023 budget of $7.37 billion with approximately 29,000 employees is an order of magnitude smaller. As with grants and law enforcement, the scale of the challenge is simply much greater.
Leadership and motivation: Modest. While Noem clearly has relevant leadership experience, it is difficult to see how her nomination will motivate and increase the morale of the DHS workforce.
Patience and flexibility: Unknown.
Public speaking: Well qualified. As a governor this is one of your principal jobs.
Integrity and candor: To be determined, though having lied about meeting Kim Jong Un and having shot her dog, one might have doubts.
As I said eight years ago: “As one can see, the list is daunting. The perfect secretary is a mythical beast—no single person can have all of these capabilities. Which ones predominate will often reflect the priorities that a president places on the department. And those areas of expertise where a secretary is lacking really need to be filled by a capable deputy secretary subordinate or, in some cases, a component head.”
We should all wish Gov. Noem the best of luck. She has a daunting task ahead and her success is critical to the nation. But it will be a challenge. It is perhaps too harsh to say that she “really knows nothing about Homeland Security,” but it seems pretty accurate to say that she knows very little. She will likely win confirmation anyway—but that is hardly ringing endorsement or a cause for confidence in her competence.
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