Kristi Noem Is No Longer Trump's Shield of the Americas Envoy, State Department Says
An official says her envoy status expired last month; the former DHS secretary now serves as a senior adviser to Deputy Secretary Landau on the same portfolio.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem no longer holds the title of special envoy for the Trump administration's Shield of the Americas initiative, a State Department official told CBS News on Thursday. She still works on the effort, which coordinates security cooperation across the Western Hemisphere.
"Kristi Noem's envoy status expired last month and she is no longer in the role," the official said. The official added that she now serves as a senior adviser to Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau and continues to work on the Shield of the Americas portfolio.
The administration created the Shield of the Americas earlier this year. It is a coalition of the United States and several Caribbean and Latin American countries, with stated goals that include economic cooperation, anti-cartel enforcement and other issues.
Noem was named special envoy in March, after she was removed as Homeland Security secretary. Scrutiny of her management of the department and of the influence of her adviser, Corey Lewandowski, had been mounting. The Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as her replacement on March 23 by a vote of 54 to 45, while the department faced a 38-day shutdown.
Her move into the new post overlapped with a five-country tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, much of which took place while she was finishing her time at DHS. On March 25 she met Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa in Quito. Lewandowski appeared in photos from those visits, and the State Department later said he held no formal position there.
Her visible work as envoy was limited. In September she held discussions in Washington with Ecuadorian and Colombian diplomats. Her envoy designation expired just before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, but she kept taking part in related diplomatic meetings there. On September 22 she met Noboa again, and Ecuador's government publicly identified her as the Shield of the Americas special envoy. She also attended a gathering of Shield leaders hosted by President Donald Trump, who praised her at the event. "I want to thank Kristi Noem for doing a really terrific job," he said.
The change is quiet, and the State Department did not announce it. It surfaced only when CBS News asked about her status. It leaves Noem in a smaller, behind-the-scenes role at a moment when she remains in the news for other reasons. The New York Times reported earlier this month that she approved more than $300 million in plane purchases from a donor's firm on her last day at DHS.
The State Department did not say whether she will take on a new formal title. For now, the official said, she remains involved in the portfolio she was originally hired to lead.
