Rumors inside the West Wing are swirling, and they all lead to one explosive point: Kristi Noem’s job may be hanging by a thread.
According to insiders, Donald Trump is weighing whether to boot his Homeland Security Secretary after her alleged romance with longtime Trump ally Corey Lewandowski finally boiled over.
Behind closed doors, advisers are furious. Noem’s supposed partner — married, loud, and notoriously clumsy in political circles — has become such a distraction that senior officials warn the pair could “burn the whole department down.” One former staffer didn’t hold back: “It’s horrible. They’re going to destroy this place.”
Trump is said to be waiting until January to make the move, timing it with a shift in Virginia’s governorship that pits Democrat Abigail Spanberger against outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin — a name suddenly floating around as a possible replacement for Noem.
Photo Illustration by Cesar Balbuena
The scandal, described as Washington’s “worst-kept secret,” has overshadowed nearly everything Noem touches. Lewandowski, who travels with her, shapes hiring decisions, and acts as her unofficial gatekeeper, has already drawn scrutiny for a bizarre streak of disastrous decisions. The most infamous blunder came last month, when the pair reportedly ordered ten Spirit Airlines jets… only to discover the planes didn’t have engines — and Spirit didn’t even own them.
The chaos doesn’t stop there. Lewandowski has been driving a controversial purge of ICE leadership nationwide, replacing officials with Border Patrol hardliners to push Trump’s most aggressive immigration crackdown yet — including a Chicago operation chillingly nicknamed “Midway Blitz.”
To make matters worse, Lewandowski is technically an unpaid special government employee, restricted to working 130 days a year. Yet internal investigators quietly suspect he’s blown far past that limit.
If Trump decides to cut them loose, don’t expect him to deliver the message himself. Despite branding himself the master of “You’re fired,” the former president rarely does the firing. In his first term, Rex Tillerson learned he’d been dumped while in a restroom. Steve Bannon, Anthony Scaramucci, and Rob Porter were all removed by then–Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Insiders say the same pattern is repeating. Trump wants people to like him — and that means the ax may fall, just not from his own hand.
One thing is clear: if Noem and Lewandowski go down, they won’t go quietly.