The second Trump administration is a more faithful reflection of the malignant narcissist at its center than the first was. All noblesse and no oblige, Piggy’s first principle is and always has been personal impunity.
Maybe in an administration that more accurately reflects Trump’s bad character, it was inevitable that some trickle-down impunity would accrue to the toadies who staff the regime. At Piggy’s pleasure and subject to his abrupt withdrawal of the privilege, of course.
Just ask formerly strutting bantam Gruppenführer Bovino about the conditional nature of borrowed impunity. Was Bovino’s abrupt “rehoming” to a farm out in the country where he can run free the first dent in Trump 2.0’s “no scalps” rule?
There are so many bad actors and so many scandals that would have resulted in firings, resignations or cannon shots into the sun in “normal” administrations. It’s hard to keep it all straight.
And it’s difficult to know what constitutes a bridge too far in an administration populated entirely by psychopaths. The usual rules, such as “don’t make the boss look bad,” aren’t evenly enforced or enforced at all — Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. still have jobs, despite their manifest incompetence.
So maybe a super long and detailed WSJ article on Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski’s tumultuous tenure at DHS doesn’t mean anything except that some of their fellow pit vipers are anonymously venting to journalists. Or maybe it means Noem and Lewandowsky will be led to a gravel pit soon, who knows. WSJ gift link, plus excerpts:
A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS
Secretary, with close adviser Corey Lewandowski, faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operationsWhite House officials have grown angry that Noem and Lewandowski have declined to take guidance on events, messaging and management of the agency. Several senior administration officials described DHS as the biggest headache thus far of the second term…
Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The pair have fired or demoted roughly 80% of the career ICE field leadership that was in place when they started.
In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home.
The DHS spokeswoman didn’t address the episode but said the secretary has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.”
Excellence at blanket tracking? I’ll outsource further commentary on the blanket incident to Popehat:
OK everyone who is making fun of Kristi Noem over the blanket thing has OBVIOUSLY never had a toddler who was elevated to a Cabinet position
— Popehat Ways Could Often Be Different (@kenwhite.bsky.social) February 13, 2026 at 10:14 AM
But seriously, I went to high school with a few violent sociopaths like that, including couples I would mentally classify as “most likely to perish in a murder-suicide.” Their names still pop up in the crime section of the local paper from time to time. Middle age doesn’t mellow that type.
In an incident last year that rankled some senior staff at the agency, Lewandowski made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law-enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, according to people familiar with his push. Officials are typically only issued a badge and a gun after undergoing law-enforcement training…
Efforts to issue Lewandowski a gun stalled after The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations inquired about the incident last year, the people said. Still, Lewandowski has been spotted by DHS staff sporting a badge, emblazoned with the words “Homeland Security.”
It’s awful to say because domestic violence is horrible no matter whom it happens to, but if the senior staff would just give Lewandowski the damn gun, the DHS leadership problem might take care of itself.
There’s no moral to this story of a pair of amoral creeps, but it is stress-testing the “heighten the contradictions” theory. Trump’s trickle-down impunity is seeing to that.
Open thread.
