WASHINGTON — The “final straw” prompting President Trump to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was her stunning non-answer at a House hearing Wednesday about whether she had “sexual relations” with top aide Corey Lewandowski, sources inside and close to the White House told The Post.
Trump had been nearing a boiling point in his frustration with Noem and already was considering ousting her after she claimed to senators Tuesday that he approved $220 million in ads starring herself — but her inability to answer the question sealed her fate.
“The question about the affair at the hearing was actually the final straw. It was f—ing brutal,” one source said of Noem’s reply, which was widely seen as an admission that she was sleeping with her subordinate — after her husband of 34 years Bryon Noem joined her at the hearing.
“It kept mounting up,” said another source, who agreed that it was the final straw.
A third source said, “There was just no going back with the two hearings. It all became about her and him.”
Lewandowski himself told The Post he wasn’t sure what role the alleged affair played.
“You’re asking me to speculate on things that I have no insight into,” he said when reached by phone.
Trump’s ouster of Noem — the first cabinet shakeup of his second term — came shortly after he told Reuters that she lied to Congress about his approval of advertising spending, giving the impression that that was the core reason for his decision to swap her out for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).
Some of the ad money flowed to a company run by the husband of Noem’s then-spokeswoman.
Sources said that the ad issue was indeed a key motivation for Trump, though her poor handling of the affair query sealed her fate.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters after Noem’s termination that Trump was “mad as a murder hornet” and considering replacing her with Mullin on Tuesday night after her Senate testimony — though he didn’t do so until Thursday following her disastrous House testimony on Wednesday.
“The president, when he called me Tuesday night, the night of the hearing, when he was mad as a murder hornet, he asked me what I thought about Markwayne,” Kennedy said.
Trump was already aware of Noem’s relationship with Lewandowski, who served as his first campaign manager in 2016, and has joked about it for years — but viewed her handling of the affair question as a disaster for her already crumbling credibility.
Noem and Lewandowski began to lose influence in January when a second anti-deportation activist, Alex Pretti, was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, following the earlier shooting of Renee Good. Trump sent in the pair’s internal rival, border czar Tom Homan, to calm and wind down the local operation.
An administration official said: “Replacing Kristi was based on the culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ICE.
“Kristi’s drama sadly overshadowed and distracted from the Administration’s extremely popular immigration agenda, which will continue full force.”
Lewandowksi, who led a reign of terror at DHS while serving as Noem’s de facto chief of staff, despite being an unpaid special government employee, is now likely out of a job at DHS.
One source said they “don’t know who would want him.”
But a different source said they suspect that Lewandowski, whom Trump has periodically dropped then welcomed back into the fold before, eventually will find his way back into a position of power.
For his part, Lewandowski downplayed his influence at the department, saying he was merely an “unpaid volunteer” for Trump’s White House.
“I haven’t made that decision,” Lewandowski said, when asked if he’ll stay on with the Trump administration.
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