One aide's exit spotlights the Noem mess
Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, at ICE headquarters in Washington in May 2025. Credit: AP / Jose Luis Magana
The exit of Tricia McLaughlin as spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security is ultimately a trivial matter. But McLaughlin’s combative presence through the first year of the second Trump administration became an emblem of the contention and chaos that the agency has been generating.
For the opaque and unwieldy ICE program aimed at deporting millions of people, McLaughlin has been a key front person for her boss, Secretary Kristi Noem.
Public relations cannot be going too well when one cellphone video after another shows ugly encounters that the department’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fails to fully account for — and when only 38% of respondents now tell a Reuters/Ipsos poll Trump is doing a good job on immigration. As McLaughlin said herself, "It’s a PR war." She was on the losing side.
Even before last month’s calamities in Minnesota the professional conduct of Noem’s stewardship at DHS was in question. Strategy Group, an advertising firm headed by McLaughlin's husband Ben Yoho, had received over $200 million to launch an advertising campaign for DHS, as reported by ProPublica and other news outlets.
One hokey TV spot featured Noem on a horse in chaps and a cowboy hat. She looks to the viewer with a message for immigrants: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”
Last month, within three weeks in Minneapolis, citizens Renee Good, a local mother, and Alex Pretti were shot to death by the department's agents. The official rationale was dubious and local and state investigators were excluded from the scenes. McLaughlin claimed Pretti "violently resisted" officers and wanted to “massacre law enforcement.” She said Good was also involved in “domestic terrorism.”
Neither claim is supported by evidence. Posthumous defamation to deflect legitimate questions doesn’t galvanize support for a public official. Her words will be remembered, if at all, as hideous spin meant to muddle legitimate questions.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Republican chairman of the chamber’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, captured the larger reality when he grilled immigration officials last week at a hearing. Of protests that followed, Paul said: “The thousands of people in the streets in Minneapolis and in Minnesota and the millions of viewers who witnessed the recent deaths, it’s clearly evident that the public trust has been lost.” He blasted the low standards for ICE agents to draw their weapons.
The immigration raids are anathema especially to those who identify as libertarians. The conservative Libertarian Party and state affiliates, from which Trump drew some support in 2024, are condemning the raids as unconstitutional and authoritarian, violating individual liberties and property rights.
The Cato Institute, which opposes big government, reported in late 2025 that three quarters of people in ICE detention had no criminal convictions — counter to official postures that the agency targets dangerous individuals as a priority.
At the Capitol, DHS’ nasty errors have had a destabilizing impact on budget plans. A number of lawmakers in both parties, facing November midterms, want DHS reformed before they approve further funding. On Wednesday, the White House reported that talks with Senate Democrats were still far apart. But despite a partial shutdown, immigration agencies are reportedly “flush” with cash from previous legislation, reducing urgency for a deal.
McLaughlin's exit becomes a telling footnote and a punchline. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn said: “Another MAGA extremist forced out of DHS. Noem next.”
Wait and see if that's just partisan trash talk — or if Jeffries knows something.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
