Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was mercilessly mocked over her firing on this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL).
The show’s cold open saw SNL cast member Ashley Padilla impersonate Noem at a spoof press conference addressing her unceremonious exit.
Noem was reassigned from her role earlier this week and given a new position as a special envoy to the Shield of the Americas.
But many view her new venture as a demotion following a series of missteps and a disastrous grilling before Congress which finally exhausted President Donald Trump’s goodwill.
The SNL segment featured Padilla trussed up in Noem’s signature ‘ICE Barbie’ look complete with long, flowing wig and heavy make-up.
‘I just want to make it clear that I didn’t get fired, I self-deported,’ Padilla quipped, referencing her recent duties overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Padilla appeared alongside castmate Colin Jost, who took on the role of a boozy Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, complete with a keg stand.
Introducing her, he joked that Noem had been ‘reassigned under the bus’ before inviting her to make some parting remarks.
Saturday Night Live (SNL) took aim at former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in this week’s episode
Noem was played by Ashley Padilla, with castmate Colin Jost appearing as a boozy Pete Hegseth
‘Though I may be leaving this job, I will not be ending my mission. As I told my plastic surgeon, the work is never done,’ Padilla joked.
‘I gave my all to the DHS and I have no regrets, because like they say, you miss 100 percent of the dogs you don’t shoot.’
The joke referred to backlash against Noem which erupted after she bragged about once shooting her pet.
The anecdote appeared in her 2024 memoir as a misguided attempt to highlight her toughness as a leader.
Since then Noem has gone on to make further blunders and faced mounting criticism of her handling of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
On Wednesday she was left squirming during a Congress hearing about her antics while head of DHS including signing off on a $220 million border security advertising campaign which she featured in prominently.
She also swerved questions about her rumored affair with top advisor Corey Lewandowski, thought both have previously denied any relationship.
Noem was spotted scowling at her first media appearance since being ousted by Trump as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Jost performed a keg stand as part of the sketch before joking Noem had been ‘reassigned under the bus’ in reference to her new deployment as a special envoy
Noem was reassigned from her role earlier this week and attended her first event Saturday as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas
But prior to that she had made herself a deeply polarizing figure, loathed on the left as ‘Bloody Kristi’ and alienating independents.
As the midterm elections loom in November, Republican strategists have been alarmed at how what was previously Trump’s strongest issue – immigration – has become an electoral liability with Noem at the fore.
A key moment in that damaging process came when she stepped to the microphones, just hours after the fatal shooting of activist Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on January 7 and made inflammatory remarks.
She was similarly tactless when discussing the killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents just weeks later.
On Saturday Noem was forced to watch the president as he spoke at the Shield of the Americas Summit on Saturday, addressing his administration’s plan to take on cartels and secure the American border.
She was replaced at DHS by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin.
