Kristi Noem warns the public that they can’t trust the government – then is reminded that she is part of it
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Donald Trump’s new secretary of Homeland Security forgot which side she was on.
Kristi Noem was grilled Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union about Elon Musk’s role in the federal government and his access to sensitive systems at DHS housing data collected by FEMA as part of its efforts to help disaster victims. Host Dana Bash pressed the secretary about whether Americans could be comfortable with Musk, whose DOGE group was not authorized by Congress and exists as a White House initiative, potentially accessing private data Americans authorized the federal government to collect.
Noem argued that they could, because Musk had been vetted by Trump himself: “The president has authorized him to have access to that.”
She went on to be questioned by Bash about whether this represented an about-face by MAGA-world, which had erupted with rage against Hillary Clinton in 2016 for housing State Department emails on a private server at her home during Clinton’s time as secretary of State.
“I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about and worried about the government, particularly unelected people, having access to personal data,” noted Bash.
Noem responded: “Well, we can’t trust our government anymore.”
“But you are the government now,” said a surprised Bash.
The secretary would go on to argue that Musk had “gone through the processes to make sure that he has the authority” to access the data and agencies in question.
But the president’s critics are not likely to be sated by her declaration. The DOGE efforts across government have resulted in whole agencies, including the Department of Education, United States Agency for International Development and others, being locked and shuttered as Musk’s team attempts to radically transform them or close them down completely.
Democrats who sought to speak with DOGE officials and learn the extent of those transformations were turned away at the doors of the Education Department and other agencies when attempting to enter the facilities in Washington, D.C., this week. The cloud of rumors, news reports and the efforts by DOGE to remain out of the public eye has only fed the uproar on Capitol Hill, which in turn has ramped up the pressure on Democratic leadership to present an effective strategy for the party.
Meanwhile, Musk is poised, according to Trump, to extend his program-slashing efforts at the Pentagon in the days ahead. The president said in an interview airing Sunday along with the Super Bowl that he expected to find “hundreds of billions of dollars” in waste, fraud and other misuse as the Musk team’s efforts continue.
In Washington, federal workers are reacting to the day-to-day stream of DOGE-related headlines with dread. Social media groups on Reddit and other platforms are awash with anxiety and fear as many report their jobs disappearing already while thousands more fear they could be next.
Republicans have largely reacted with glee, identifying individual federal programs (real or otherwise) for ridicule as the Trump administration looks to shatter the U.S.’s foreign aid sphere and so many other parts of the federal government.
Democrats at the state level have seen some success in getting the courts to stop Musk’s team from acquiring access to personal and private information about Americans stored by various federal agencies impacted by the DOGE cost-cutting crusade. On Saturday, a federal judge ruled that DOGE personnel must cease accessing sensitive systems at the U.S. Treasury, and directed the team to delete any data taken from those servers.
