President Donald Trump gave a full-throated endorsement of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday amid reports she may be on the outs.
“Mr. President, the press lately focuses on one of your cabinet members, predicting that you’re going to fire this one or you’re going to get rid of that one. Of all your cabinet members, who would you perceive as the most under attack?” asked a reporter in the White House.
“Well, I think my cabinet’s fantastic. I read the same stories that I’m unhappy with this one or that one, and I’m not. I think the cabinet’s done a great job. I read a story that I was unhappy with Pete because he was attacking drug dealers,” Trump replied, adding:
I said, “That’s not exactly right.” I would say very much the opposite. Pete Hegseth has been phenomenal. I read a story recently I’m unhappy with Kristi [Noem]. I’m so happy with her. I mean, we have a closed border. We have a border that’s the best border in the history of our country. Why would I be unhappy with that? She’s fantastic, actually. No, we have a fantastic cabinet. Really fantastic cabinet.
I mean, Lutnick—I’ll have to think about, okay—he’s doing great. Well, Howard’s done really well, and Scott’s done really well. We have just a fantastic cabinet. I’ll tell you who’s doing a great job is Linda McMahon. We’re bringing education back to the states where it belongs. Education is going—we can’t do any worse than we’re doing right now. Let the states run it. You know, if you go back to some of our states that are run so well, so good, I would say forty of them.
And then you’ll have trouble with five, and you’ll have bigger trouble with another five. But you have thirty-five or forty states that will run education as good as Norway or Denmark, Sweden. We have some—you know, the heads of the list are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, a few others. I think if you go to Iowa and you go to Indiana and you go to—like, name a lot of states—I think it would be almost the equivalent, or maybe better. But you can’t run a school system in Iowa from Washington, D.C.
Over the weekend, the Bulwark, citing two unnamed former DHS officials, reported that “Trump is indeed considering moving on from Noem,” potentially “really soon.” The report suggested that outgoing Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) could replace her.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
