Patriot Brief
- What Happened: Sen. John Fetterman publicly urged President Donald Trump to fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
- Why It Matters: The demand comes amid heightened scrutiny of immigration enforcement and recent fatal incidents in Minnesota.
- Bottom Line: Fetterman is breaking with Trump while trying to position himself as a moderate on border security.
Sen. John Fetterman just took a very public swing at President Donald Trump, calling on him to fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a blunt post on X.
Tagging both Trump accounts, Fetterman made what he called a direct appeal. “I make a direct appeal to immediately fire @Sec_Noem,” he wrote. He accused Noem of betraying the department’s mission and warned Trump, “Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.”
The White House did not immediately respond.
What makes the moment notable is that Fetterman has often tried to present himself as a different kind of Democrat, especially on immigration. He has pushed back on calls from the left to abolish or defund ICE and has said outright that criminal migrants should be deported.
That posture did not stop him from piling on after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota, which have fueled protests and political pressure around federal enforcement operations. “Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti should still be alive. My family grieves for theirs,” Fetterman said earlier this week, calling the Minneapolis operation “an ungovernable and dangerous urban theatre.”
At the same time, he tried to walk the line. “I reject the calls to defund or abolish ICE,” Fetterman said, while insisting enforcement strategies must change.
From where this sits, it looks less like pragmatism and more like a Democrat trying to have it both ways. Fetterman wants the credibility of backing border security without owning the reality that enforcing the law is messy and dangerous. When pressure rises, he turns on Trump’s DHS chief and hopes the blame sticks.
Trump built his presidency on border enforcement. Firing Noem now would not calm the chaos. It would reward it.
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