WASHINGTON — The “final straw” prompting President Trump to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was her stunning non-answer at a House hearing Wednesday about whether she had “sexual relations” with top aide Corey Lewandowski, sources inside and close to the White House told The Post.
Trump had been nearing a boiling point in his frustration with Noem and already was considering ousting her after she claimed to senators Tuesday that he approved $220 million in ads starring the secretary herself — but her inability to answer the question sealed her fate.
“The question about the affair at the hearing was actually the final straw. It was f—ing brutal,” one source said of Noem’s reply, which was widely seen as an admission that she was sleeping with her subordinate. Her husband of 34 years, Bryon Noem, had joined her at the hearing. Lewandowski was not in attendance.
The soon-to-be-axed DHS head refused to answer directly when asked if she was having sexual relations with Lewandowski, calling the question “garbage.”
“Have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) asked Noem during the hearing.
“I am shocked that we’re going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today,” Noem said in response. “I would tell you is that he is a special government employee who works for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government.”
After repeated pushing from other lawmakers for a yes-or-no response, Noem still deflected.
“I really think you need to say the word ‘no’ into the record so that you can clear that up,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said.
Noem never did.
“It kept mounting up,” said another source, who agreed that it was the last nail in the secretary’s coffin.
A third source said, “There was just no going back with the two hearings. It all became about her and him.”
Lewandowski himself told The Post he wasn’t sure what role the alleged affair played.
“You’re asking me to speculate on things that I have no insight into,” he said when reached by phone.
Trump’s ouster of Noem — the first cabinet shakeup of his second term — came shortly after he told Reuters that she lied to Congress about his approval of advertising spending, giving the impression that was the core reason for his decision to swap her out for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).
“I never knew anything about it,” Trump told the outlet of the ads.
Some of the ad money flowed to a company run by the husband of Noem’s then-spokeswoman. One ad featured Noem, 54, on horseback, riding in front of iconic Mount Rushmore, which sits in her home state of South Dakota.
And her voiceover featured tough words: “You cross the border illegally, we’ll find you. Break our laws, we’ll punish. You harm American citizens, there will be consequences. But if you come here the right way, your American dream can be as big as these endless skies.
“From President Trump and me: Welcome home.”
Sources said the ad issue was indeed a key motivation for Trump, though her poor handling of the affair query removed any doubt.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters after Noem’s termination that Trump was “mad as a murder hornet” and considering replacing her with Mullin on Tuesday night after her Senate testimony — though he didn’t do so until Thursday following her disastrous House testimony on Wednesday.
“The president, when he called me Tuesday night, the night of the hearing, when he was mad as a murder hornet, he asked me what I thought about Markwayne,” Kennedy said.
For her part, Noem maintained a strong public facade. She spoke to a law enforcement conference in Nashville minutes after she was fired and kept it to business as usual.
She thanked Trump in a statement for her new appointment as the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
“In this new role, I will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise I forged over my time as Secretary of Homeland Security. We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again,” she said.
Trump was already aware of Noem’s relationship with Lewandowski, who served as his first campaign manager in 2016, and has joked about it for years — but viewed her handling of the affair question as a disaster for her already crumbling credibility.
Here’s the latest on the firing of Kristi Noem
Noem and Lewandowski began to lose influence in January when a second anti-deportation activist, Alex Pretti, was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, following the earlier fatal shooting of Renee Good. Trump sent in the pair’s internal rival, border czar Tom Homan, to calm and wind down the local operation.
An administration official said: “Replacing Kristi was based on the culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ICE.
“Kristi’s drama sadly overshadowed and distracted from the administration’s extremely popular immigration agenda, which will continue full force.”
Noem clashed with several officials inside DHS, including the acting heads of ICE and FEMA. Several senior staff — longtime government employees with years of experience — fled the department under her tenure, citing her management policies.
She also had a contentious relationship with Homan as the two feuded on the best approach to tackle the country’s illegal immigration problem and deportation operation.
Ex-Secretary Kristi Noem’s most memorable photo ops during her tenure at DHS:
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Lewandowksi, who led a reign of terror at DHS while serving as Noem’s de facto chief of staff, despite being an unpaid special government employee, is now likely out of a job at DHS.
One source said they “don’t know who would want him.”
But a different source said they suspect that Lewandowski, whom Trump has periodically dropped and then welcomed back into the fold before, eventually will find his way back into a position of power.
For his part, Lewandowski downplayed his influence at the department, saying he was merely an “unpaid volunteer” for Trump’s White House.
“I haven’t made that decision,” Lewandowski said when asked if he’ll stay on with the Trump administration.
