U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is both a Trump loyalist and a student of the President’s high self-regard. Trump is known to boast about himself and his purported accomplishments in superlatives — from “I have the best words” to calling himself the “best physical specimen” among recent presidents.
This week the President boasted about “acing” a cognitive test with a “perfect score” — not to mention his wild 2016 campaign assertion that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Noem, whose praise for the President has been unwavering, has been evidently taking notes — as evinced by a Homeland Security Department social media post this week to mark Noem’s birthday.
The official DHS account, which Noem controls, wrote: “Happy birthday to the greatest Homeland Security Secretary in American history, @Sec_Noem!”
Kristi Noem making her social media team call her the “greatest Homeland Security Secretary in American history” on her birthday: https://t.co/4VM92l0qbW pic.twitter.com/9cyWfI328d
— Homeland Security Committee Democrats (@HomelandDems) December 1, 2025
Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee slammed and mocked Noem for the self-praise and featured a doctored image of President Barack Obama bestowing an honor on himself. They captioned the image: “Kristi Noem making her social media team call her the ‘greatest Homeland Security Secretary in American history’ on her birthday.”
The DHS post credited Noem with numerous accomplishments including, in very Trump-like terms, “ushering in a Golden Age of travel.” It concluded by saying “Secretary Kristi Noem is shattering records and saving American lives.”
[NOTE: When Trump isn’t blowing his own horn, his underlings — no matter how high ranking — are compelled to do it for him, most prominently during televised cabinet meetings featuring fulsome, treacly praise from participants. Hearing the likes of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer in August talk about Trump’s “big beautiful face on a banner,” former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Trump’s “sycophantic” meeting would have made Kim Jong Un or Vladimir Putin “blush.” The Washington Post headlined its coverage: “In 3-hour televised Cabinet meeting, Trump soaks up flattery”.]
One commenter, aligning with the Homeland Dems who excoriated Noem, shared a response from Google’s generative AI engine Gemini, which concluded that “to laud the personal birthday of a political appointee…signals that personal loyalty and political conformity are prioritized over institutional neutrality.”
Gemini says (because I have cornered grok) :
“When a government agency—whose existence is supposed to be non-partisan and focused on its public service mission—uses its official capacity to laud the personal birthday of a political appointee, it signals that personal loyalty and…
— Thomas P (TOM) Logan
(@TokyoTom2020) November 30, 2025
Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee, chaired by New York Republican Andrew Garbarino, are:
- Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, Mississippi
- Eric Swalwell, California
- Lou Correa, California
- Shri Thanedar, Michigan
- Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island
- Dan Goldman, New York
- Delia Ramirez, Illinois
- Tim Kennedy, New York
- LaMonica McIver, New Jersey
- Julie Johnson, Texas,
- Pablo Hernández Rivera, Puerto Rico
- Nellie Pou, New Jersey
- James Walkinshaw, Virginia
- Sylvester Turner, Texas
- Troy Carter, Louisiana
- Al Green, Texas