Trump: Firing Noem 'Wasn't a Hard Choice'

President Trump says Kristi Noem's firing was more about a promotion for someone else than any failures on her part, though he admits that he "wasn't thrilled" about her $220 million ad campaign. In his first public comments since pushing the Homeland Security chief out of the Cabinet, Trump told NBC News he was impressed with Noem's performance at DHS and with her handling of the border, but opted to elevate Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma instead. "She's a fine person. She did a good job. I'm a big fan of the senator from Oklahoma. It wasn't a hard choice," Trump said.

Trump distanced himself from the ad campaign urging immigrants to leave the US voluntarily, which had been one of the biggest controversies dogging Noem. Under questioning this week from Republican Sen. John Kennedy at a Senate hearing, Noem said Trump had been aware of the decision to greenlight the pricey campaign. Trump says otherwise. "I wasn't thrilled with it. I spent less money than that to become president. I didn't know about it," he told NBC. On Thursday, shortly before Noem's firing was announced, Trump told Reuters, "I never knew anything about it."

On Tuesday, Noem told senators that bidding for the ad campaign "went out to a competitive bid" but on Wednesday, she admitted that it didn't, Bloomberg reports. DHS invoked a national emergency to avoid the competitive bidding process last year, reports the Hill.

• During Wednesday's House hearing, Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse said one of the contracts for the ad campaign went out to a company that was created just eight days before the contract went out, CBS News reports. "You want the American people to believe that this is all above board, that $143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn't have a headquarters, doesn't have a website, has never done work for the federal government before, and is registered apparently or attached to a residence from a political operative, and of course one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm that's tied to, to you back when you were governor of South Dakota?" Neguse asked.

Last month, sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump was annoyed by the ad campaign, which included an ad featuring Noem riding a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. The sources said Trump wondered where Noem got the money for the ads, and others in the administration were annoyed that the ads seemed to focus more on promoting Noem than the administration's message. Noem will remain in the administration in a newly created post, "Envoy for the Shield of the Americas," which Trump has described as leading a new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere.