Cecilia Lei

Michelle Hackman covers immigration for The Wall Street Journal and reported on the ongoing issues with Noem and DHS.

The border security ad campaign reportedly cost $220 million, and it was a major subject of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this week.

It was brought up in this exchange with Republican Senator John Kennedy.

Yes.

Noem claimed that the ads had been effective, but Kennedy said they were only good at building up Noem's own name recognition.

After the testimony, Trump told Reuters that he didn't know anything about the ad campaign.

A watchdog at DHS is reportedly investigating the contract and whether it went through the standard bidding process.

But the ads were just one issue.

Over the course of Trump's second term, Noem emerged as one of Trump's most prominent senior officials, often attracting negative press attention and criticism from her own party's senators.

After the fatal shootings of Rene Good and Alex Preti in Minnesota, some Republicans called for her to go.

Her management of DHS personnel came under scrutiny, too.

In particular, the role of her top advisor, Corey Lewandowski, who's also expected to leave DHS.

The Journal and others have reported that the two were in a relationship.

When she was asked about it during this week's hearing, she dismissed the question as, quote, tabloid garbage.

But scrutiny of the pair has heightened this past year, especially over department spending.

Then there were announcements that raised significant security concerns, like the implementation of an airport policy where people without TSA PreCheck were permitted to keep their shoes on as they passed through security.

Noem is being demoted to a new role that is part of a security initiative.

Trump said he wants Republican Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen to fill the role as head of DHS.

The change would be effective at the end of the month, and Mullen would require Senate confirmation.

Six days into so-called Operation Epic Fury, and the conflict in the Middle East keeps escalating, and the death toll keeps rising.