Inside the East Wing on Monday, the mood was calm. It was a world away from the tear gas and anger in Minneapolis. While protestors marched for Alex Pretti, the nurse killed by federal agents days earlier, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wasn’t packing her bags. She was sitting in the White House. She was there because she had the First Lady’s ear. In this West Wing, where personnel changes happen by tweet and tempers flare publicly, Melania Trump’s friendship is the only insurance policy that actually pays out.
Sources in the room told RadarOnline that the vibe was striking for what it lacked: tension. It didn’t feel like a war room or a crisis management session. Instead, insiders said it felt like old friends catching up in a dorm room. They talked about the upcoming midterm races. They discussed the new “gold card” immigration proposal. They even spent time chatting about the renovations to the new White House ballroom. It was casual. It was friendly. And it was completely divorced from the violence unfolding on the streets of Minnesota.
CNN airs side-by-side comparison of Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino reading the same script as they attempt to lie about the killing of Alex Pretti. pic.twitter.com/WNd4ZfxIdD
— FactPost (@factpostnews) January 27, 2026
That friendship is the primary reason Kristi Noem is still employed. Two people are dead in Minneapolis in under a month, a track record that would normally end a cabinet secretary’s career. Yet Kristi Noem’s position remains safe. The split-screen reality is jarring. Inside the executive mansion, the talk is of ballroom aesthetics; outside, the administration faces its most volatile domestic crisis in years.
The flashpoint came on January 24 with the death of Alex Pretti. He was 37, a nurse at the local VA hospital described by neighbors as a gentle guy. The account from his family is simple and brutal: Pretti saw agents shove a woman to the ground and stepped in to shield her. He was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the pavement, and shot. Kristi Noem’s department immediately branded the incident “domestic terror,” a label that shocked legal experts and enraged Pretti’s family. The video evidence suggests something far less clear-cut than terrorism: a chaotic scrum and a lethal overreaction.
I STAND WITH KRISTI NOEM pic.twitter.com/XJjUheB0Oa
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) January 27, 2026
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander overseeing the Minneapolis operation, was quietly reassigned to his old desk in El Centro, California. Bovino had a reputation for aggressive tactics and a loud mouth on social media. He became the necessary casualty. DHS officials tried to spin the move, with Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin insisting Bovino remains a “key part of the President’s team” and hasn’t been fired. It was a thin cover. The administration needed a body to throw to the media to stop the bleeding, and Bovino was the most convenient option.
President Donald Trump solved the Kristi Noem problem in his usual way: he didn’t fire her, he just took away her power. To handle the crisis, he reached over her head and tapped Tom Homan, the “Border Czar,” to take personal command of the situation in Minneapolis.
“Tom is tough but fair,” Trump told reporters, making the new hierarchy clear. Homan will report directly to the Oval Office on this matter, effectively bypassing the Department of Homeland Security. On his way out of the White House, Trump stopped to clarify the bottom line to the press: Noem isn’t going anywhere. She has been directed to focus on the southern border and leave the interior enforcement to Homan. She survives because she has the right friends in the East Wing, even as the professionals are brought in to clean up the mess in the Midwest.
