(AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s allies are pushing a counternarrative in the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement that she would be leaving her post at the end of this month.

According to The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese, Noem had “grievances” with the Trump White House. One administration official informed Reese that “Noem told Trump and his White House that she was not getting the support she needed” at the end of 2025, and that while “Trump agreed and stepped in to help,” which led to a temporary improvement, things took a turn for the worse after federal agents shot and killed two Americans in Minneapolis, after which “Noem felt that she was thrown under the bus.”

That same official disputed Trump’s claim that he was not aware of a controversial, $220 million ad campaign that Noem starred in, insisting to Reese that “the White House was aware of Noem’s ad contract,” and asserting that “senior White House officials were even involved in getting the funds approved.” Trump directly refuted Noem’s claim that he was aware of the ad campaign in comments to Reuters on Thursday.

Another official who spoke with Reese denied that and called it “laughable that Kristi is trying to blame her own self-inflicted issues on someone else. The issues that led to Kristi’s replacement were a result of her own wrongdoings, not a lack of support from the White House.”

On Thursday, Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich reported that Noem’s ouster was attributable to “‘a combination of her many unfortunate leadership failures, from Minnesota, to the ad campaign, to the allegations of an affair'” with Corey Lewandowski, who has also been shown the door.

“Secretary Noem was questioned about the $200 million in advertising that she authorized that featured her prominently on horseback at Mount Rushmore. It was an ad campaign about border security. And she told Congress that the president approved of that campaign, even though apparently he did not,” said Heinrich, who also noted that Noem “never denied sexual relations” with Lewandowski.

The post Team Noem Fires Back at White House, Suggests Trump Lied About Ad Campaign first appeared on Mediaite.