NASHVILLE — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem seemed deflated and shied away from mentioning President Trump’s name directly when she took the stage at a police sergeant’s conference moments after she was publicly fired Thursday, attendees told The Post.
“She was her normal self, except she maybe sounded a little less energetic than usual,” said one attendee who was in the room while Noem, 54, delivered the remarks at the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference.
“But she also didn’t mention Trump’s name very many times — she just referred to the ‘administration’ – normally I think she says his name more,” the woman noted.
Everyone at the conference had seen the news before Noem went on stage. Trump announced on Truth Social that Noem would be replaced as Homeland Security Secretary by Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) at the end of the month.
One New York State Police trooper noted that several other attendees wondered “if she would even show up.”
Still, he didn’t think the news was negative for Noem, as her new gig will be a “promotion,” he speculated.
“I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh no, this poor woman.’ It didn’t even seem like that big of news to me. She’s just getting transferred – it’s a promotion. So I was wondering if she was going to say something about it but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” he said.
Ex-Secretary Kristi Noem’s most memorable photo ops during her tenure at DHS:
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“It was like nothing had changed,” he said of her speech. “Even if she had seen it though, it’s not like it’s bad news for her.”
Trump noted that Noem would become Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a new position overseeing security in the Western Hemisphere.
Here’s the latest on the firing of Kristi Noem
Another NY law enforcement officer said he took Noem noted she was going to meet President Trump on Saturday – which the president also wrote in the X post – as acknowledgement of her reassignment.
“She said she was going to meet with Trump on Saturday during her speech, so I assume that’s to talk about the transfer and all that,” he said.
