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When Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would remove Kristi Noem from her position as head of the Department of Homeland Security, she became the first Cabinet casualty of the president’s second term. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that though Noem “has served us well” and “has had numerous and spectacular results,” she will be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. Noem will now be Trump’s “special envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” a made-up position at some new initiative that he intends to launch this weekend.

It’s never a good day to be fired, but Noem’s departure comes at a particularly unfortunate moment for her. Trump handed down his decision after Noem spent two days floundering under questioning in Congress, during which lawmakers from both parties made her out to be an unqualified, amoral disgrace to her job.

First, in the Senate on Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats excoriated her for accusing Alex Pretti of domestic terrorism after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot him to death, bringing additional pain on his grieving family. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis called for Noem’s resignation, comparing the killings of Pretti and Renee Good under her leadership to the time she killed her own dog for misbehaving. Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, gave her grief for spending more than $200 million on an ad campaign........

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