John Law (4:13)

Thanks Isaac and welcome everybody. Hope y' all had a wonderful weekend. We're going to get right into it with today's quick hits. First up, Iran's assembly of Experts chose Mojtabat Khamenei, the son of deceased leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country's new supreme leader. Separately, Turkey's Ministry of National Defense said North Atlantic Treaty Organization defenses intercepted an Iranian missile entering Turkish airspace, the second such incident in the past week. Finally, US Central Command announced a seventh US Servicemember death in the ongoing conflict with Iran. The service member was wounded in an Iranian attack on US troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1 and later died from his injuries. Number two, President Trump said in an interview that Cuba is going to fall pretty soon, adding that he plans to send Secretary of State Marco Rubio to negotiate with the Cuban government. Number three, Customs and Border Protection said it will establish a system for issuing tariff refunds following the Supreme Court's ruling striking down duties levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The system is expected to be operational within 45 days. Separately, 24 states sued to challenge President Trump's new 15% global tariff, arguing the president improperly justified the duties of under section 122 of the Trade act of 1974. 4 Two people were arrested after allegedly igniting a pair of suspicious devices outside of Gracie Mansion, the New York City mayoral residence. The incident occurred during an anti Islam protest and counter protest, and law enforcement said the suspects admitted to being inspired by ISIS. And number five oil prices rose to over $119 per barrel, the highest price since mid-2022amid shipping disruptions linked to the conflict in Iran. Within the last several hours, President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and her firing comes after scrutiny over her handling of immigration enforcement. Noem's response to three shootings in Minneapolis raised serious questions and did the way she spent as day, the way she spent $200 million of taxpayer money. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that he will reassign Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and nominate Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, the Republican from Oklahoma, to replace her as secretary. The decision marks the first announced departure of a cabinet secretary in the second Trump administration. Noem will be reassigned to the new anti drug trafficking office position of Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas. President Trump thanked Noem for her service on Thursday, writing that she has had numerous and spectacular results, especially on the border. However, the president was reportedly angered by her claim during testimony last week before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees that he signed off on a $220 million DHS advertising campaign that prominently featured Noem. I never knew anything about it, trump told Reuters on Thursday. Separately, lawmakers from both parties challenged Noem during the hearing on her response to the killings of two U.S. citizens by DHS agents in Minneapol, Minnesota in January. In the aftermath of each incident, Noem claimed the victim's actions had constituted domestic terrorism and had put agents lives in danger. Comments she said she stood by in the hearings. In a statement, Noem thanked President Trump for her new role with the Shield of the Americas, saying Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth are incredible leaders and I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren. The new initiative, formally announced by Trump on Saturday, will coordinate countries in the Western Hemisphere on countering drug trafficking and cartels in the region. The effort coincided with joint operations between the US And Ecuadorian militaries targeting drug traffickers. Senator Mullen is expected to replace Noem on March 31. Mullen is a first term senator and a vocal supporter of President Trump, particularly his immigration agenda. The Senate must confirm Mullen before he can take office. Unless another person is appointed, Deputy DHS Secretary Troy Edgar will serve as acting secretary if Mullen is not confirmed by the end of the month. Additionally, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Slit will appoint a replacement to fill the vacant seat until a new senator is elected in November. Today, we'll cover Noem's ouster and Mullins nomination with views from the right and the left, and then Isaac's Take.

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John Law (10:51)

All right first up, let's start with what the right is saying. The right supports Trump's decision to remove Nome, with many hoping it will reorient DHS toward more effective immigration enforcement. Some express optimism that Mulling can succeed as her replacement. Others say Noem's poor communication skills led to her firing. The Washington examiner editorial board wrote about a welcome change of leadership at DHS. The seeds of Noem's ultimate firing came early in her tenure. A $220 million DHS advertising campaign ostensibly designed to promote self deportation by illegal immigrants included many wince worthy scenes glamorizing gnomes. The board said Noem's little empire was built on sand and started to crumble, first with the shooting death of anti ICE activist Renee Goode and accelerated with the death of Preddy a short time later. On both occasions, Noem and her team rushed to issue statements to news outlets that later turned out to be false. Mullen is a passionate advocate for Trump's immigration policies, known for his confrontational and performative style. But although he has an aggressive demeanor, he has always seemed well informed with a thorough knowledge of his subject matter, the board wrote. Noem's vanity projects and personal life turned the DHS into a soap opera, squandering credibility when the country needed competence. Mullen won't fix every problem overnight, but he can restore basic professionalism, disciplined messaging, lawful priorities and a chain of command that respects facts. In USA Today, Dace POTUS said Americans need a strong and functional Department of Homeland Security. Noem was never well suited to her position, but she fit the Trump mold of making immigration enforcement a spectacle. That strategy got her the job, but it is also precisely what led to her losing it, potus wrote. Noem should have been fired long ago. Her mismanagement of the Department of Homeland Security was put front and center by the botched Minneapolis saga in which thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers flooded the streets in an attempt by the administration to grab headlines rather than actually deliver results on immigration. That haphazard approach led to the deaths of two protesters interfering with immigration enforcement and of whom Noem and others in the administration then decided to lie, POTUS said. Whatever the motivation, it is good that Noem is out of dhs. She wasn't good at her job and lacked the basic human decency that is demanded by the office. I hope that Senator Mullen approaches the position with more humility and competence. Americans need a strong and functional Department of Homeland Security. It was increasingly clear that Noem wasn't the one to provide that in Red State Jennifer Oliver o' Connell suggested Noem was the architect of her own demise. Noem never shook that ICE Barbie photo op ditzy image, and it became more cemented with her less than stellar press conferences, particularly in critical moments for their agency. In her handling of the Minneapolis death of anti ICE activists Renee Goode and Alex Preddy, the Noem came off as offensive, incompetent and out of her depth, o' Connell wrote. The fact that Trump chose to position Homan for de escalation and cleanup for his situation made it clear he had lost confidence in her ability to continue to lead not just Operation Metro Surge, but the agency. If Noem's lack of coordination and communication with Homan is any indication, she might have created these same disconnects with personnel within the entire dhs, o' Connell said. One of Mullon's jobs may well be to re clarify the mission and unify the people tasked with its execution. His skill in finding consensus within the Senate body will serve him well in doing what Nome's singular focus on herself failed to accomplish. Alright, that is it for what the right is saying. Which brings us to what the left is saying. The left supports Noem's removal, but says it was for the wrong reasons. Some worry that Mullen will continue DHS's immigration crackdown. Others say Noem created ongoing political crises for Trump. In D.C. report, Terry H. Schwadron said Noem was fired for all the wrong reasons. Trump did not fire Noem because she has overseen the fatal shootings of two citizens protesting ICE tactics in Minneapolis or or for allowing untrained camo clad anonymized paramilitary Homeland Security forces to grab migrants for deportation without judicial war. And Schwadron wrote he fired Noem because her performance at a congressional hearing was the last straw in embarrassment over buying herself two luxury jet planes, for reportedly having a love affair with colleague Corey Lewandowski and for bad press. Trump did not fire her for failures to provide emergency aid through female for what appeared to be outwardly political reasons, or for ridding her departments of people who know something about Iranian counterintelligence at a time when we are in war, schwadron said. We can praise Trump for recognizing that Noem was not up for the job for which he chose her out of political loyalty. But we can also be clear that he is doing it for the wrong reason. In the Guardian, Moira Donegan wrote, noem's replacement won't be an improvement. Noem became a figurehead of cruelty for DHS immigration policies. A fan of photo ops and publicity stunts, she traveled to El Salvador last week to pose in front of a cage full of shirtless, tattooed prisoners at secot, the massive prison camp to which many immigrants from the US Were summarily shipped without due process. In the early months of the Trump administration, Donegan said, Noem made sure to contrast the brutality of the concentration camps where she was being photographed with her own coiffed, powdered and surgically enhanced appearance. Mullen, a close Trump ally and immigration maximalist, is unlikely to mark much of a departure from Noem either in policy substance or managerial savvy. The mass deportations, self dealing and aggressive, even seemingly contemptuous approach to citizens and their rights seems likely to continue for as long as Trump, Miller and their allies control the vast apparatus of the dhs, donegan wrote. But Noem's departure, the first firing of a cabinet secretary in Trump's second term does reflect the president's profound political weakness as the nation heads toward the November midterms. In Bloomberg, Erica D. Smith suggested Noem's abuses at DHS went deeper than photo shoots. Noem forgot the first rule of working for defend him, not yourself. Instead, Noem has emulated Trump's performative toughness, callousness and cruelty. She seemed to believe that she could keep her job by belligerently doubling down on his unpopular policies, smith said. That was another miscalculation. Although scenes of immigration agents dragging people from their homes in their underwear are getting less attention tension these days than the war in Iran, Americans haven't forgotten about the crackdown in Minneapolis that led to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens. Just this week, a poll from YouGov found that half of Americans want to abolish ICE an all time high. The biggest shift came from independents, the swingy voters who will decide control of Congress in the midterm elections. Smith wrote that polling should be taken as an indictment of Noem's leadership. It is also a political problem for Trump, given the dwindling support for his signature policy of mass deportations. And it's a boon for Democrats who are using it as political cover to continue to block funding to fully reopen the Department of Homeland Security. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.

Isaac Saul (18:18)

Alright, that is it for the left and the right are saying. Which brings us to my take. Hey look, Congress did something for as long as I've been writing publicly about politics, I've been criticizing Congress for giving up more and more of its authority to the executive branch. This issue has hit a fever pitch in the last few years, with more power than ever surrendered by the rank and file to congressional leadership, the Legislature forfeiting its most basic duties like tariffs, and US Senators now resorting to posting on X to beg Israel not to bomb certain infrastructure in Iran rather than, you know, voting to take back their war powers. But Krissy Noem's exit represents an increasingly rare moment where Congress did its job executive branch oversight and got a result ousting an incompetent leader on the Suspension of the Rules podcast this week I nominated Senator John Kennedy, the Republican from Louisiana, as my good Guy of the Week for his question questioning of Krissy Noem. Some Tangle readers were skeptical of my praise, but I'll stand by it. Kennedy asked smart, direct questions. He wasn't theatrical, he didn't perform outrage for the cameras, and he wasn't grandstanding. He just asked Noem the right questions in the right way for her damning answers to seal her own fate. Kennedy's method was almost certainly for President Trump's eyes alone, but it was much more effective than retiring Senator Thom Tillis, who used most of his time to berate Noam and try to generate viral clips. Kennedy's restraint and tact is also a stunning contrast to Noem's disastrous term at dhs. From her made for TV tough talk while cosplaying as a federal agent to self dealing and corruption, to allegations of extramarital relationships at work, to her blatant lying about the American citizens killed by DHS agents and the mistreatment of hundreds of citizens and non citizens alike, it's been headline after headline of incompetence. That's why, somewhat unexpectedly, today's newsletter featured an agreed section. Commentators across the political spectrum are happy to see Noem go, albeit for different reasons. Of course, the pitfalls of Noem's appointment were easy to see coming. In November of 2024, I wrote an edition praising Trump's first round of picks for his second administration. With one notable exception, Kristi Noem. The only pick so far that really made me go yikes. Was the choice of Governor Kristi Noem, the Republican president from South Dakota, I wrote in 2024. Noem obviously has some experience. Serving as a state executive is one of the most important and difficult jobs there is, and she won reelection in a landslide in 2022. But this is one of the most powerful jobs in the country, and her policy record on the signature Trump issue of immigration is scant. Aside from supporting Trump's so called Muslim ban, she legislated very little on the issue in Congress and naturally has not had much of a role to play on immigration as governor of South Dakota. She hasn't exactly proven herself capable of navigating the national spotlight either. As pro Trump pundit Shawn Davis put it, noem is a lightweight and a completely unserious person, and she's not remotely suited to the most important border security cabinet position in the entire government, end quote. So no, I'm not surprised that Noem's tenure is coming to an unceremonious end. The question now is whether a leadership change will make a meaningful difference in a lot of ways. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, the Republican from Oklahoma, is a confounding choice. Most of my criticism of Noem from 2024 also applies to Mullen now. He has no law enforcement experience, sits on no committee related to the Department of Homeland Security, and has no signature pieces of immigration related legislation. He is, in short, another risky pick who, like Noem, has had some ugly public moments, like when he challenged the Teamsters president to fight during a congressional hearing, and a lightweight resume for the task at hand. If I were Mullen, I'm also not so sure I'd take the job. Leading DHS comes with a lot of power, but with Trump's focus on immigration enforcement, it also shines a particularly bright spotlight on the position that few are equipped to handle. Not to mention the agency is in disarray as Noem departs. Oh, and one more thing. It's currently shut down. Yet Mullen is a Trump loyalist, and when the president comes calling, you're supposed to step up. Mullen has a few things going for him. He seems less scripted and more genuine than Noem, and I suspect he'll be a much more effective messenger of the president's agenda. He has a track record of connecting with voters as an Everyman and is a senator from Oklahoma, which is much more impacted by what happens at the border than Noem's home state of South Dakota was. I'm optimistic that Mullen can improve on Noem's abrasive style, too. Not long after he was tapped, he told reporters that while he is a conservative Republican, he'd try to work across the aisle to ensure all Americans are kept safe. That kind of tone is a notable departure from the outgoing secretaries. But will that tone shift just put a new face on the same policies or genuinely reset strategy, approach and goals as I do for all politicians? I'll remain skeptical of Mullen's promises and posture until we see him in action. After all, this is the same lawmaker who promised to leave after three terms in Congress, then served five and then became a U.S. senator. Mullen says he changed his mind on his promise after Trump won the presidency. Especially notable for me personally is that Oklahoma is part of the Big Bend sector, which I've been writing about recently because of a resurrected plan to build a wall through national and state parks there. I'll be keeping a close eye on how Mullen navigates the situation there with presumably a more intimate knowledge of the region and with his background as a member of the Cherokee Nation. He has not exactly been an advocate of public lands and environmental protection, but but he also seems to have a genuine love for the great outdoors, narrow conservation efforts and the Wild West. What does he do when his hardline border policies run headfirst into a proposal that many of his constituents and Texans are going to loathe? We'll see. That will be just one of many tests ahead. For now, all eyes are on Iran, but this pick may have more important long term impacts on day to day life for Americans and our neighbors. That's especially true given the DHS funding fight and its oversight of TSA and fema. Personally, I'll be approaching Mullen's appointment with an open mind and some baseline gratitude that he isn't Krissy Noem. We'll be right back after this quick break.

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Isaac Saul (26:04)

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Ebay has all the parts that fit my car. No more annoying, just beautiful. Millions of finds, each with a story. EBay. Things people love. All right, that is it for my take. Which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Rochelle in Minnesota, Rachelle said I'm curious to know the difference between refugees, tps, asylum seekers, green card holders, up to citizenship, what is illegal and how the status changes lately, et cetera. Okay, these are all different distinctions of non citizens who are inside the United States. Broadly speaking, legal status authorized or unauthorized just refers to whether an immigrant is in compliance with the requirements of their designation, which will describe an order of least to most privileges below so a border crosser Many visitors with a valid passport and proper visa can stay in the United States for up to six months, and some people without passports from participating countries can stay for lesser periods based on their visa. Anyone who crosses the border illegally is in the country without authorization and is susceptible to being detained and or removed. TPS stands for Temporary Protected Status. That's a designation granted by the Department of Homeland Security to nationals from countries that make it difficult or unsafe to be deported there. TPS can apply to any non citizen who applies for it during designated periods and has been continuously in the country since the date of designation and is not subject to inadmissibility. For example, people who have committed felonies can be deported regardless of their country's design. An asylum seeker is a foreign national who can apply for asylum because they fear persecution. The refugee definition under international law, if given asylum and then granted parole, asylees are often able to remain in the country with a work permit while their case is reviewed, which can sometimes take a year or more. A refugee is a foreign national who has the same credible fear as an asylum seeker, but who has been approved for the U.S. refugee Admissions Program before arriving in the U.S. refugees are permitted to work and have access to social services like Medicaid. They are required to apply for lawful permanent resident. That's a green card status one year after being admitted. And then finally, there are green card holders which are lawful permanent residents who have been approved to live and work in the United States. Under some conditions. Residents fall under various restrictions that are complicated to describe, but we've talked about them before on the show and they typically apply for naturalization after living here with a green card for several years, finally is citizens, which is any immigrant who has complied with the requirements of their residency, applied for citizenship and passed their examination which makes them naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Under the law, there is no difference in rights afforded to native born and naturalized U.S. citizens. All right, that is it for your questions answered. I appreciate that one, Rachelle. We're going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace.

John Law (29:42)

Thanks Isaac. Here's your under the radar story for today folks. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Commerce Department officials have drafted new regulations that would expand US Government control over exports of artificial intelligence chips, requiring government approval for chip shipments to any country. Currently, these export controls are in place for approximately 40 countries, but the potential regulation would cover all countries. If enacted, the rule could significantly impact AI development worldwide as access to AI chips like those sold by Nvidia are prerequisite to building facilities for training and running AI models. Bloomberg has this story and there's a link in today's episode description. And last but not least, our have a nice day story. The neglected tropical disease leprosy, which can lead to permanent nerve damage if left untreated, persists in more than 120 countries around the the globe. This month, Chile became the first country in the Americas and the second worldwide to reach an elimination status for the disease. This milestone reflects decades of sustained public health efforts, including prevention strategies, early diagnosis, effective treatment, continuous follow up and the commitment of health teams across the country. Ximena Aguilera, Chile's Minister of Health, said the World Health Organization has this story and there's a link in today's episode description. All right everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, Please go to readtangle.com where you can sign up for a newsletter membership, podcast membership or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day, y'.

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Our Executive Editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul, and our Executive producer is John Lowell. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman with Senior Editor Will Kbach and Associate Editors Audrey Moorhead, Lindsey Knuth and Bailey Saul. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website@retangled.com. We're in on the ground in 100 countries. Sadly not on holiday, but we've got a sunscreen on anyway because whether it's Tokyo or Toronto, we're monitoring markets, tracking trends, and decoding consumer behavior so you don't have to Euromonitor International gives you global market intelligence with local nuance. Visit euromonitor.com where everywhere you need to be.

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