DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s allies come to her defense as critics bash her wardrobe
Allies of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem are celebrating her as the “definition of South Dakota toughness” as critics lampoon the Trump administration official for wearing a cowboy hat or protective vest amid her hands-on efforts to secure the southern border and deport illegal immigrants.
“Kristi Noem is the definition of South Dakota toughness and actually ran a working ranch for decades,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “She talks straight, works hard, and gets the job done. Like any great leader, she’s not sitting behind a desk — she’s out there on the front lines, rolling up her sleeves and working alongside the people she leads.”
“You don’t see that much in Washington,” he said.
Noem, who was confirmed as DHS chief on Jan. 25, has been on an immigration and security blitz since then, joining immigration raids on the streets of New York City and taking a horseback tour of the southern border in Texas.
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As Noem works to help deliver on President Donald Trump‘s campaign vow to lock down the border and clean house of illegal immigrants who flooded the nation under the Biden administration, critics have latched onto criticizing Noem’s wardrobe selection.
She has been accused of wearing “cosplay outfits” or “cosplaying” a cowboy when she donned a cowboy hat during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Noem also has been mocked as “ICE Barbie” or “Border Patrol Barbie” for wearing a baseball cap, an apparent bullet-proof vest and makeup while helping conduct the raids in New York City at the end of January.
To those in Noem’s personal and work orbit, however, she has long worn outfits that match the job she has before her — including when she has to get “her hands dirty.”
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“If folks want to nitpick about her wearing the same gear as the people she’s leading — a cowboy hat, work clothes — they don’t understand her, and they sure don’t understand South Dakota,” Johnson said in comment to Fox Digital. “That’s who she is. Always has been.”
“People in New York or D.C. wouldn’t last a day in the real America,” he said. “I told folks she’d be an ass kicker, and that’s exactly what she’s doing.”
A source close to Noem, who spoke to Fox News Digital on the background of the secretary’s upbringing, speculated that critics likely “just don’t get her,” while arguing that complaints about men’s wardrobe choices are few and far between.
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“Kristi Noem was taught by her father not to complain about a problem, but to go and fix it,” the source said. “She gets her hands dirty when she throws herself into a job and that’s what she’s doing.”
Noem stepped down as South Dakota’s governor following her confirmation to lead DHS and has a history of routinely swapping typical Washington, D.C., fashion, such as pantsuits and heels, for cowboy boots and jeans when outside of her office.
While serving as governor, Noem was repeatedly spotted wearing jeans and more work-styled outfits while on the border. She has participated in the South Dakota Buffalo Roundup and joined state farm fairs.
Noem was the first governor to deploy National Guard troops to border states in 2022 and repeatedly visited southern states such as Texas amid the immigration crisis, which she said created a “warzone.”
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Noem grew up on a ranch in South Dakota’s rural Hamlin County and has remained close to her country roots.
She came under fire in 2024, when she published a memoir that garnered outrage for defending the killing of a farm dog that attacked other animals.
Noem reflected on her rural lifestyle in her Senate confirmation hearing in January, saying she has “spent my life in rural America” and that she understands “what it means to work hard every day to build a better future for our kids and our communities.”
Another Noem ally close to the secretary who spoke to Fox News Digital said that “petty insults” aimed at Noem are actually borne out of opposition to Trump’s immigration policies.
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“The simple fact is that many of her critics are opposed to President Trump’s mission to keep the nation safe by fighting illegal immigration, and they’ll try to undermine it any way they can — and that includes hurling petty insults at the Secretary of Homeland Security to undermine her and the president,” the source close who Noem said. “It won’t work. She’s sworn to do the job the president gave her of protecting this country, and that’s what she’s going to do.”
Trump can delete Elizabeth Warren’s failed experiment once and for all
Rohit Chopra’s departure as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) should not merely mark the end of his tenure but the beginning of the end for the CFPB itself.
Under Chopra’s leadership, the CFPB has gone from an overzealous regulatory body to an outright rogue agency, expanding its reach beyond financial services into digital marketplaces, crippling businesses with unjustified fines, and making financial products more expensive for everyday Americans.
Now, with a new administration in office, President Donald Trump has a unique opportunity: appoint a CFPB director who will gut the agency from the inside and prepare it for a well-deserved abolition.
The CFPB, a creation of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, was initially sold as a watchdog for consumer interests. In reality, it has evolved into an unchecked behemoth that stifles competition, raises consumer costs, and meddles in industries far beyond its intended scope.
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Under Chopra, the CFPB has aggressively expanded its regulatory footprint, targeting comparison shopping websites, gig economy platforms and even video game currencies. It has sought to regulate financial transactions on platforms like Expedia and Care.com, ensnaring ordinary consumers in regulatory capture.
The Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling upholding the CFPB’s funding structure emboldened Chopra to escalate the agency’s crusade against financial institutions and fintech companies. But the ruling didn’t endorse the agency’s wisdom or legitimacy. Congress created the CFPB, and Congress – or, better yet, a motivated Trump administration – can dismantle it.
The CFPB’s regulatory philosophy under Chopra has been punishment, not protection. The agency has levied billions in fines and penalties against financial institutions, but these fines don’t protect consumers – they punish them. When banks are hit with massive penalties, they don’t simply absorb the loss; they pass the cost onto their customers.
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This means higher checking account maintenance fees, reduced credit card rewards and benefits, and fewer low-cost lending options for middle-class and low-income Americans. The irony is glaring: a philosophy that claims to protect consumers is, in reality, making financial products less accessible and more expensive for those it purports to help.
Elon Musk, who has been working with Trump on streamlining the federal government, put it bluntly: “Delete CFPB.” Musk’s call for abolition is more than just a tweet – it’s a recognition of the damage this unaccountable agency is doing to innovation, financial markets, and consumer choice.
The CFPB’s recent attempt to expand oversight of Big Tech’s payment platforms, including Musk’s X Payments, was a glaring example of its mission creep. While initially designed to oversee financial products, the agency under Chopra increasingly sought to police non-financial businesses, threatening to strangle competition and restrict consumer access to innovative financial tools.
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While complete elimination of the CFPB will require congressional action, Trump can neutralize the agency from within by appointing a director committed to rolling back its power.
A new CFPB head should immediately halt enforcement actions that increase consumer costs, eliminate unnecessary regulations and burdens on financial institutions, shrink the agency’s budget and workforce, and redirect focus to consumer education rather than punitive measures. If Congress refuses to act, a Trump-appointed director can at least unilaterally leverage the agency’s unique funding mechanism to render the agency toothless, forcing it into irrelevance.
The CFPB is not a long-standing pillar of American governance, but a failed experiment of Elizabeth Warren’s progressive regulatory vision. Its unchecked authority, lack of congressional oversight, and hostility toward financial markets make it a danger to businesses consumers. Chopra’s departure is the perfect moment for a strategic realignment of financial oversight in the United States.
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President Trump and congressional Republicans must seize this opportunity. The CFPB is doing more harm than good, and its dissolution is not just a policy preference but an economic necessity. American consumers deserve financial freedom, not bureaucratic interference.
It’s time to delete the CFPB once and for all.
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USAID worker recalls the moment of panic White House’s ‘DOGE’ came knocking
A USAID worker said Monday that office employees scrambled to hide anything “incriminating” when the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came knocking.
DOGE is not a government agency but has been tasked by the White House’s executive office with dismantling wasteful spending initiatives, and “special government employee” Elon Musk’s most recent target is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The billionaire has argued that the agency is “beyond repair” and said President Donald Trump agreed that USAID should be closed down. Musk moved to rapidly seize control of USAID and shut it down.
ABC News reported on how DOGE showed up at USAID offices in Washington, D.C., late last week and demanded access, speaking to one employee who claimed to have seen it all play out.
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“DOGE was in the building. We started — we took down our Pride flags, we took down- I took out any books I felt would be incriminating,” Kristina Drye, a speechwriter for USAID, said. “No one was talking. We heard they started taking transcripts automatically of all of our Google Meets.”
She added further, “They unplugged the news in the little kitchen galleys. It didn’t feel good. And then Saturday, all of the websites went down. And then I lost complete access to my computer.”
On Monday, the White House listed a variety of questionable and DEI-related projects USAID has contributed to.
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At the top of the list was a $1.5 million program slated to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities” and a $70,000 program for a “DEI musical” in Ireland.
Initiatives that supported LGBTQI programs were also flagged as an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, including $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru.
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Trump stuns the world with proposal for Gaza: ‘Create an economic development’
The U.S. will “take over the Gaza Strip,” level it and rebuild the area, President Donald Trump said during a press conference Tuesday evening after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said Tuesday evening in a joint press conference with Netanyahu. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.”
“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he said. “Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.”
Netanyahu, who joined Trump for the Tuesday press conference, is the first world leader to meet with the president at the White House under his second administration.
When asked about taking over the Gaza Strip, Trump said he could see the U.S. in a “long-term ownership position” of the piece of land, which would likely bring stability to the Middle East.
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“I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East,” Trump said. “And everybody I’ve spoken to – this was not a decision made lightly – everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land. Developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know. Nobody can look because all they see is death and destruction and rubble.”
Netanyahu, when also asked about the Gaza Strip, reiterated to the media that he has three goals, one of which is tomake sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.”
“President Trump is taking it to a much higher level,” the Israeli leader said. “He sees a different – he sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so much, so many attacks against us, so many, so many trials and so many tribulations. He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this.”
The pair’s White House meeting included discussing the current ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group and its future, Iran’s grip on the Middle East and resettling Gaza residents in other nations.
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“In our meetings today, the prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated and ultimately restore peace to a very troubled region,” Trump said during the press conference. “It’s been troubled, but what’s happened in the last four years has not been good.”
Trump said the Gaza Strip has become “a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it.”
“It should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there,” he added.
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Netanyahu lauded Trump’s tenacity and ability “to think outside the box” during his comments to the press.
“Your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas, will help us achieve all these goals,” he said. “And I’ve seen you do this many times. You cut to the chase. You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say, you know. And after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads, and they say, ‘You know, he’s right.'”
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The Israeli leader continued that his nation’s victory would also be a win for America.
“Israel’s victory will be America’s victory,” Netanyahu said. “We will not only win the war working together, we will win the peace. With your leadership, Mr. President, and our partnership, I believe that we will forge a brilliant future for our region and bring our great alliance to even greater heights.”
Singer wears DOGE dress to Grammys red carpet stunning onlookers
Singer and songwriter Joy Villa, well-known for her contentious attire at Grammy Award shows, strutted the red carpet once again on Sunday in a gown that served up a strong message.
Villa was spotted at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in a gold dress and necklace dispersed with images of the DOGE Shiba Inu dog meme, a necklace featuring his face and a red hat that read “The hat stays on.”
“I was kind of a walking meme,” Villa told Fox News Digital. “Obviously, I’m a MAGA girl and MAGA and crypto are starting to bridge the gap.”
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“Cryptocurrency represents freedom,” she added. “We can disengage from the big banks. As artists, we can dictate our own financial independence.”
The dress was tailored by atelier dress designer Andre Soriano, who also curated the controversial “Make America Great Again” dress Villa first wore to the 2017 Grammys.
“I’ve had people try to snatch my MAGA hats off,” Villa said.
Villa said that among the vicious rhetoric she has received since expressing her support for President Donald Trump and his policies eight years ago are threats of sexual assault and death in addition to racial slurs. Despite having experienced vocal and physical backlash, Villa said the hat sends a message of her courage, resilience and vibrancy.
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“I don’t worship Trump, but I worship Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, and I know that God gave me a voice to speak in Hollywood as an artist, as an actress, as a musician,” Villa told Fox News Digital. “The red carpet is my battlefield.”
A focal point of Villa’s conservative messaging at high-profile events is her religious devotion.
“I shared Jesus Christ with every single person I interviewed and none of them posted that,” she said.
“America needs to bless God because the fight is not over yet,” she added. “We got to stop aborting babies. We got to put prayer back in schools. Nobody needs to have their religion demonized and, for some reason, you can say every other name at the Grammys or the red carpet awards except for Jesus Christ.”
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While Villa’s remarks about religion were passed over by the media, her message in support of the deportations of illegal immigrants in the U.S. was publicized.
“I’m a proud Afro-Latina,” she said. “I know being in the Latina community, being a woman of color, I know how much illegal immigration hurts us, and people won’t talk about that.”
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has acted on his promise of mass deportations and cracked down on illegal immigration. This has included ending deportation protection for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and deporting thousands of illegal immigrants to Mexico.
“It is a crime to come here illegally,” Villa said. “I’ve traveled to 39 countries and in every single one of them I had to get the proper documentation and show my ID.”
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Villa scrutinized actress Selena Gomez for taking to social media recently to cry about President Trump’s swift action removing illegal immigrants.
“Girl, sit all the way down,” Villa said. “You are an American citizen and those are not your people.”
“Deport everyone who’s coming here illegally,” she said.
First US case of potentially deadly virus discovered in small southern town
A fatal virus has reportedly been discovered in shrews in Alabama, sparking concerns about potential contagion to humans.
The Camp Hill virus — thought to be the first “henipavirus” in North America — was discovered by researchers at The University of Queensland.
A henipavirus is a genus of viruses that is zoonotic, which means it can be spread from animals to humans.
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“Henipaviruses have caused serious disease and death in people and animals in other regions,” Dr. Rhys Parry from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said in a press release on The University of Queensland’s website.
“The closest known henipavirus to Camp Hill virus that has caused disease in humans is Langya virus, which crossed from shrews to humans in China,” the researcher said. “This indicates that shrew-to-human transmission can occur.”
Another dangerous henipavirus is the Hendra virus, which was first detected in Brisbane, Australia and has a fatality rate of 70%, according to Parry.
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Another cited example is the Nipah virus, which has shown between 40% and 75% fatality rates in Southeast Asia (Bangladesh and India).
“The discovery of a henipavirus in North America is highly significant, as it suggests these viruses may be more globally distributed than previously thought,” Parry added.
The Camp Hill virus was detected in northern short-tailed shrews, a small mammal that is commonly found in the U.S. and Canada, according to the press release.
More research is needed to determine whether the virus poses any threat to humans, Parry said.
Queensland researchers plan to work on developing vaccines for this family of viruses, according to Dr. Ariel Isaacs, another researcher at the university.
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“The next step for this work is to characterize key surface proteins on the virus that are involved in cell entry to broaden our understanding of the virus family and identify better ways to protect against it,” Isaacs said in the release.
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Those at highest risk of contracting a henipavirus are travelers who are exposed to infected animals (primarily bats and pigs) or who eat foods contaminated by those animals’ body fluids, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Health care workers treating infected patients are also at a higher risk.
To prevent infection, the CDC recommends avoiding “unprotected contact” with potentially infected animals and their body fluids, following safe food precautions, and using personal protective equipment and barriers in medical settings.
There is no specific antiviral treatment for henipavirus infections, according to the same source.
“Therapy consists of supportive care and management of complications,” the CDC’s website states.
Mexico puts its foot down on Trump’s move to send worst criminal migrants to Gitmo
Mexico will not allow the U.S. government to send Mexican migrants to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente said Mexico would rather directly receive the migrants.
The Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. embassy in Mexico to explain its position.
This comes after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that the Trump administration has begun flying detained illegal migrants from the U.S. to Guantánamo Bay, although she did not specify the nationalities of the people on those flights.
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“I can also confirm that today the first flights from the United States to Guantánamo Bay with illegal migrants are underway,” Leavitt said.
“And so President Trump, Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are already delivering on this promise to utilize that capacity at Gitmo for illegal criminals who have broken our nation’s immigration laws and then have further committed heinous crimes against lawful American citizens here at home,” she continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to expand the detention camp to hold up to 30,000 “criminal illegal aliens.” The U.S. military base has been criticized around the world for its inhumane abuse and torture of detainees, including in interrogation tactics.
One flight from Fort Bliss to Guantánamo Bay has roughly a dozen migrants on board, according to the Pentagon. An additional flight left the U.S. on Monday.
The migrants will be held in the detention camp that was set up for detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The migrants will be separated from the 15 detainees who were already there, including planners in the 2001 terrorist attack.
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Last week, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called Trump’s effort to send 30,000 migrants to Guantánamo an “act of brutality.”
“In an act of brutality, the new US government announces the imprisonment at the Guantánamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied territory [of Cuba], of thousands of migrants that it forcibly expels, and will place them next to the well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” he said in a translated post on X.
$2.4M now going to customers after fast fashion retailer exposed for shady move
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is issuing over 148,000 refunds totaling nearly $2.4 million in a settlement order involving online fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova, which is accused of hiding negative reviews.
To qualify for the refund, consumers who purchased items from Fashion Nova before Nov. 21, 2019, had to make a “valid claim” with the FTC before the August 15, 2023, deadline. Currently, the FTC is no longer accepting claims in the matter.
In the final order, Fashion Nova is explicitly prohibited from hiding reviews or endorsements, and is obligated to present them to customers “regardless of the endorser’s opinion or rating.” Additionally, the retailer was ordered to pay $4.2 million.
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While recipients of the FTC payments in this case were spread out across the country, according to the commission’s data, Illinois had the largest number of recipients with more than 25,000. Among the 148,351 recipients, the median refund was $16, according to the FTC.
The FTC made its allegations against Fashion Nova in January 2022, kicking off the first-of-its-kind case.
“From as early as late 2015 through mid-November 2019, Fashion Nova chose to have four- and five-star reviews automatically post to the website, but did not approve or publish hundreds of thousands lower-starred, more negative reviews,” the FTC wrote in its complaint against Fashion Nova.
The FTC claimed to have found “numerous instances” in which Fashion Nova “suppressed product reviews with ratings lower than four stars,” making the representation of their products “false or misleading.”
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While this case was the FTC’s first involving negative reviews, it was not the commission’s first case involving Fashion Nova. In April 2020, the fast fashion retailer agreed to pay $9.3 million over allegations “that it didn’t properly notify consumers and give them the chance to cancel their orders when it failed to ship merchandise in a timely manner, and that it illegally used gift cards to compensate consumers for unshipped merchandise instead of providing refunds.”
Additionally, in 2022, the FTC put several companies offering review management on notice, informing them that “avoiding the collection or publication of negative reviews violates the FTC Act.”
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In its guide to featuring online customer reviews, the FTC instructs companies to not “prevent or discourage” consumers from submitting negative reviews. While a “reasonable process” to ensure reviews are genuine is allowed, the FTC tells businesses to “treat negative and positive reviews equally.”