Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) shared an intriguing theory Thursday behind the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, arguing President Donald Trump had only fired her to shield one senior official — the true “dark heart” of the administration — from accountability.
Newsom has been touring the country to promote his new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” and was speaking in New Hampshire on Thursday with progressive influencer Jack Cocchiarella when the subject of Noem’s firing came up in front of a cheering audience.
“I mean, let’s be honest here,” said Newsom. “The dark heart of this administration is not Noem, it’s [White House deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller, and he needs to be next. And it’s really true. In so many ways, she’s just a scapegoat in all this.”
He added, “Everything she was doing was designed by Miller. And I don’t think it, I know it.”
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Trump announced Thursday that Noem will be moving into a just-formed new position as “special envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” and confirmed he has nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as her replacement.
Noem was fired mere days after her disastrous hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which she refused to retract or apologize for smearing Renée Good and Alex Pretti after they were killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesota earlier this year.
Noem baselessly claimed the two Americans were engaging in “domestic terrorism” when government agents fatally shot them — and that Pretti was attempting to “kill law enforcement” before he was disarmed and killed.
In private, Noem reportedly claimed that Miller and Trump had guided her rhetoric about the killings — only for them to leave her high and dry.
Miller has steered Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda and hawkish foreign policy, openly justifying a “might makes right” approach in seizing Venezuela’s oil and potentially annexing Greenland by U.S. military force. He was also one of the architects of the travel ban on Muslim-majority countries during Trump’s first term.
Newsom, meanwhile, has sparked rumors of a presidential run in 2028, criticizing Trump throughout his book tour.
“Donald Trump is in retreat,” he said. “Today is a perfect example of that, with the first firing of a high-profile Cabinet member. He’s in retreat in places like Minnesota, because the steel spine of citizens that stood up, real patriots in this country, pushed back against all that.”
