Trump will save Kristi Noem — but shift her away from immigration: insiders
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to keep her job after meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump to discuss her handling of the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that has led to the shooting deaths of two Americans.
The president is reportedly unhappy with Noem's response to the fatal shooting Saturday of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents, and sources told CBS News that the DHS secretary was hit with questions about her leadership.
CBS reported that sources said Noem is not likely to be fired, but "her focus is expected to shift from immigration enforcement operations in the interior of the country to securing the southern border and other priorities."
"Noem and top aide Corey Lewandowski had elevated Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and tasked him with overseeing highly publicized and controversial immigration raids in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans and, most recently, Minneapolis," CBS News reported.
"The move — intended to bolster President Trump's mass deportation campaign — marked a significant change in tactics because immigration matters in the country's interior have historically been handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not Border Patrol."
Bovino was given a new title of "commander" and reported directly to Noem, which set off internal conflict over the aggressive campaign in the Minneapolis area. After the shootings of two 37-year-olds – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – this month, the administration removed him from the post and sent him back to California. He's expected to retire.
"One official said serious threats against Bovino in Minnesota, including death threats, factored into the administration's decision to pull him from the operation there," CBS News reported.
Trump dispatched his border czar Tom Homan, who reportedly has a chilly relationship with Noem, to lead the Minnesota operation, and government sources told CBS News they were not happy about remarks the DHS secretary and other top officials have made about Pretti's killing.
"When we gaslight and contradict what the public can plainly see with their own eyes, we lose all credibility and it's going to damage our reputation for generations," said one DHS official.
Republicans made a ‘tacit admission’ about midterms — and it could blow up in their face
A conservative columnist warned on Monday that her Republican colleagues just made a "tacit admission" about the 2026 midterms that could blow up in their face.
S.E. Cupp, a columnist for CNN, said during a segment on "The Source" with host Kaitlan Collins that Republicans have all but admitted that they don't stand a chance during the midterms with their push for mid-cycle redistricting. While those efforts seem to have paid off so far, Cupp warned that they could energize the Democratic base in a way that thwarts all the time Republicans spent trying to rig the election in their favor.
"Here's the thing that I think is important to point out if you care about democracy," Cupp said. "The republicans have done what they've done because they've been allowed to. But it's also a tacit admission that they know they cannot win without rigging it. They're out of ideas. They're not even attempting to win new voters or win back the voters that they've been losing since gaining them in 2024."
Several Republican states from Texas to Louisiana and Tennessee have adopted new election maps ahead of the midterms in an effort to preserve the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Cupp warned that voters can see through the Republicans' plans, and that may cause them to backfire in November.
"So this is the giddiness and the crowing I'm seeing from republicans about the state of the redistricting math and how it's helping Republicans," she said. "What they're not saying out loud is what I think a lot of voters can see, which is you had to rig it to make yourself competitive. And I don't even know if this will still make them competitive. They might actually be handing Democrats an advantage by really ginning up that base, firing them up to go and vote."
Red state candidate vows to turn ICE centers into prisons for ‘American Zionists’
A controversial Democratic candidate in Texas has proclaimed she would use Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers for a new purpose — to round up "American Zionists."
According to the San Antonio Current, Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist running for Texas' newly-redrawn 35th Congressional District consisting of eastern San Antonio and the exurbs around it, posted to Instagram that she will "turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking." She added that "it will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
In her Instagram post, which spanned several pages and ranted against "billionaire Zionists that control San Antonio," she also accused her Democratic primary opponent, Bexar County Sheriff's Deputy Johnny Garcia, of "want[ing] Mexicans and Jews in warehouses." She has previously claimed, with no evidence, that Garcia is part of a human trafficking operation on behalf of Zionists.
Galindo has repeatedly faced accusations of being antisemitic, which she denies, claiming that she supports "the Indigenous Jews (The Semites) of the Middle East" over "the Fake Jews" committing genocide against them.
All of this comes as mainstream Democratic figures in Texas and around the country line up behind Garcia's candidacy.
It also comes as a mysterious PAC with ties to the GOP has worked behind the scenes to boost Galindo to voters in the 35th District, which has been made significantly more Republican-leaning as a result of Texas lawmakers' MAGA-ordered mid-decade redistricting.
