“I want you to do [ads] for the border,” Donald Trump told Kristi Noem after nominating her to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At least that’s what the DHS secretary recounted at a Conservative Political Action Conference dinner in February: “‘I want them around the world,’” Noem recalled Trump saying. “‘I want you to tell people not to come to this country if they’re going to come here illegally.’”

Noem has certainly taken that directive to heart. Since assuming her position, Noem has appeared alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a slate of videos and photo ops, posted on social media, broadcast around the world and uploaded to the DHS website under the banner of “Making America Safe Again.” Whether accompanying ICE on an early morning raid in New York City or riding an ATV through the Arizona desert, Noem’s spotlight-ready makeup and curated costumes have been scorned by ICE officials, conservative commentators and the general public alike. In one particularly noxious video, Noem delivers a message from inside El Salvador’s infamously brutal “Terrorism Confinement Center,” or CECOT, where Trump recently sent hundreds of migrants from the U.S. Wearing an ICE baseball cap and a $50,000 gold Rolex watch, Noem stood in front of a crowded prison cell and told the cameras, “If you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences you could face.”

While Noem’s “made-for-television” approach might be irking some in Trump’s government, the videos are overall exactly what the president asked for. Trump himself, of course, has roots as a reality TV star, and he’s long had a knack for capturing the public’s attention. Indeed, the videos lay bare a core tenet of this administration: that the cruelty, as the adage goes, is the point.

Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Khury Petersen-Smith presciently

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