Pundits Left and Right Turn Fashion Police on ‘ICE Barbie’
Kristi Noem, ‘dolled up in full glam,’ as one site puts it, certainly has the press agog.
The Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, is being mocked as “ICE Barbie,” even by some Republicans. It’s an odd twist, with the GOP — at last making progress in closing the gender gap — playing fashion police for a high-profile woman in the White House.
Ms. Noem, in an ICE-branded bulletproof vest, has taken a hands-on approach to her job, joining officers in search of lawbreakers. But taking personal responsibility for the human impact of raids isn’t redounding to the telegenic 53-year-old former governor’s credit.
Mr. Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, has also led enforcement missions. As a bald, stocky man ten years Ms. Noem’s senior, Mr. Homan gets no notice of his outfits. It’s hard to imagine the Daily Beast reporting, as they did of “ICE Barbie” on Friday, that he’s “dolled up in full glam” and “even Fox News thinks she might be going too far.”
On Tuesday, the New Republic described Ms. Noem as “ICE Barbie … obsessed with being the face” of her department, although that’s any cabinet officer’s role. They noted her “ICE baseball cap, cowboy boots … full blowout, fake eyelashes;” even the Rolex she wore during “publicity stunts.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Ms. Noem is “rankling ICE officials” and others in the Trump Administration. The Telegraph in London described the “brunette hair extensions tumbling over her shoulders,” and the “neatly manicured fingernails wrapped around” her firearm.
On Friday in the Hill, a “creative team” member on the 2004 and 2008 Republican presidential campaigns, Myra Adams, got in her licks. Ms. Noem, she wrote, “keeps America safe with heavy stage make-up and false eyelashes,” “perfectly coiffed … in skin-tight jeans” and “a clinging white jersey.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone lingering over Mr. Homan’s appearance this way. Mr. Trump’s critic-turned-ally, Megyn Kelly, might be expected to sympathize. Having worked at Fox News Channel, this columnist can attest to the snickering that went on behind her back.
Instead, Ms. Kelly joined the mean girls on “The Megyn Kelly Show” three weeks ago. “Stop with the glam,” she said of Ms. Noem “out in the field with her gun, being like, ‘We’re going to go kick some ass.’ No one wants you there.”
That Mr. Trump nominated Ms. Noem to be there didn’t occur to Ms. Kelly, who told the secretary she’s dressed inappropriately “as you cosplay an ICE agent, which you’re not.”
It’s true that Ms. Noem isn’t one of those ICE officers; she’s their superior, and having the boss around ensures good behavior. It’s the same reason Mr. Trump, in his real estate career, walked job sites to ensure that things were done right.
“There’s no false eyelashes on an ICE raid,” Ms. Kelly said, making sport of Ms. Noem’s “25 pounds of hair” and “30 pounds of makeup.” Would similar notice be taken if Mr. Homan showed up for his next outing in a toupee, doused in Old Spice?
In October, when Mr. Trump drove a garbage truck wearing an orange safety vest, Ms. Kelly sang a different tune. On “Stu Does America,” she praised that cosplaying stunt as “another iconic photo for Trump.” Gender is the key variable.
On “Meghan McCain’s Happy Hour” last week, the daughter of the late Republican of Arizona, Senator McCain, objected, too. “I don’t think,” she said of Ms. Noem, “that it is productive to have a full face of hair and makeup and hair extensions” on an ICE raid.
Lost in all this is job performance. Ms. Kelly did allow that Ms. Noem is “doing a great job” and her “actual performance as DHS secretary … has been amazing.” A CNN poll released Thursday backed this up, finding that immigration is “an area where Trump is strongest.”
Mr. Trump’s approval on immigration stands at 51 percent, 13 points better than at this juncture of his first term. CNN also cited a mid-February Washington Post-Ipsos poll where 45 percent of registered voters judged that immigration policy is on the right track, a 31-point improvement over December.
Hollywood might cast someone in Mr. Homan’s mold to play a DHS chief. But, in the real world, performance matters more than appearances. Ms. Noem is delivering on the task Mr. Trump assigned her. How she looks while doing it is of no consequence in judging her success.
