Loyalty Over Lives-Part III
Replacing Expertise with Obedience.
The Department of Homeland Security is one of the largest and most complex agencies in the federal government—responsible for disaster response, border security, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and infrastructure protection. But under Kristi Noem’s leadership, it’s being reshaped into something simpler: a loyalty test.
From the moment she took over as DHS Secretary, Noem made her priorities clear—not through sweeping speeches, but through quiet purges. Within weeks, longtime FEMA officials, regional directors, and career public servants began disappearing—replaced not with subject-matter experts, but with ideologues, campaign loyalists, and former staffers from Trump’s political operation.
This wasn’t about performance. It was about submission.
🎯 Purges and Buyouts
In April 2025, Noem issued a department-wide buyout offer under the guise of “streamlining.” What it really did was push out hundreds of experienced Homeland Security employees—especially those in FEMA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Immigration Services—creating a vacuum of knowledge and institutional memory.
The positions left behind? In many cases, they weren’t filled. And when they were, the appointees often lacked any background in emergency response or public service—but had MAGA credentials and media loyalty.
🕵️♂️ The FEMA Shake-up
One of Noem’s earliest moves was ousting Acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton, who reportedly opposed the “Abolishing FEMA” proposal. He warned that the plan would jeopardize recovery efforts in smaller states and rural communities—ironically, the very areas that MAGA politicians claim to represent.
In his place, Noem installed a former communications executive with ties to America First Legal and Project 2025—not someone with field experience in disaster zones, but someone skilled at controlling narratives.
📉 The Risk of Hollow Government
What Noem is executing is a deliberate transformation of governance: from a system that values technical expertise to one that rewards ideological loyalty. This isn’t administrative reform—it’s administrative vandalism.
- FEMA, once staffed by engineers, climate scientists, and public health experts, is now hollowed out.
- Homeland Security’s cybersecurity divisions are losing talent to the private sector, unable to compete with the dysfunction.
- Border and immigration operations are being steered by culture-war figures rather than operational professionals.
In short: the lights are still on, but fewer people know how to run the switchboard.
🧠 What This Means
When the next hurricane hits, or a cyberattack cripples a water grid, or wildfires tears through mountain towns, there may be fewer professionals in place to coordinate the response.
The system is being redesigned to look intact while it fails— all in service of a political movement that sees government competence as an obstacle to control.
And make no mistake: in Project 2025’s doctrine, failure is the point. If government doesn’t work, they can argue it should be eliminated entirely.
📢 What’s Coming Next!
Part IV: Power, Cruelty, and the Project 2025 Blueprint- How Kristi Noem Became the Face of Federally-Enabled Chaos.🚀