Well, as Johnny Rotten said when Elvis kicked it (quite unfairly, in that case), “Good riddance to bad rubbish.” Outside of Stephen Miller, Noem is probably the purest fascist among Trump’s second-term frontline appointees. I say this because she understands spectacle, which is such a key element of the fascist worldview. The visual humiliation of those deemed to be human vermin by the regime in power sits at the heart of the historical fascist project. Those photos of her standing in front of the nearly naked prisoners of CECOT with her Rolex prominently displayed might constitute the single most indelibly fascist image of this presidency.
So that’s the first piece of bad news about Noem’s departure: It happened for the wrong reasons. The second piece of bad news is that it’s unlikely to produce much substantive change. Markwayne Mullin, whom Trump has nominated for the job, and whom we must assume will be confirmed by his fellow senators, doesn’t seem like someone whose ideas about the world are terribly different from Noem’s.
He will probably be smart enough to be less ostentatiously reactionary in front of the cameras. Although—maybe not. Have a look at this clip of his appearance on CNN after the execution of Renee Good. “Police officers are doing their job, and she was interfering in their job,” he said. “If you don’t wanna be in harm’s way, don’t get in the way of police officers who are doing their job.” Aside from the fact that ICE agents are not “police officers”—and that Good was getting herself out of the way at the time of this fatal confrontation—there’s Mullins’s clear and sick implication that Good deserved to be shot. Not arrested. Shot.
