It didn’t take long. Days after Kristi Noem was pushed out of the Department of Homeland Security, the walls started changing—and inside the building, people were apparently more than happy to help.
According to The Washington Examiner, DHS employees quietly celebrated as multiple framed photos of the former secretary—described by staff as “glamour shots”—were taken down from the agency’s headquarters.
The removal started even before Noem officially exited the job.
More than 10 framed photos of her were pulled from the walls of her workspace at Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C., sources told The Examiner. The images had been prominently displayed throughout the office, creating what some staff saw as an over-the-top, personality-driven makeover of a federal agency workspace.
Noem’s tenure ended abruptly on March 5, when President Donald Trump fired her following months of controversy and two tough congressional hearings. Instead of disappearing entirely, she was reassigned to a new and largely undefined role as special envoy to something called “The Shield of the Americas.” Meanwhile, Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, was sworn in as her replacement this week.
But inside DHS, the more immediate shift wasn’t policy—it was décor.
The photos in question had reportedly gone up early last year, part of a rapid office redesign carried out by Noem’s team. In the process, images of rank-and-file federal agents were removed and replaced with multiple portraits of Noem herself—something that didn’t exactly go over well internally.
“Every single picture had a picture of Noem, and it was such a turn off,” one unnamed official said.
The reaction from staff, according to the report, ranged from eye-rolling to outright mockery.
“People were snickering about it, like, ‘Did you see the upgrade?’” the official added. “No leader that I know would have allowed that to happen. If they walked in and saw their photo in every picture, they would say, ‘What were you thinking?’”
That sentiment appears to explain why the photos didn’t last long once her position did.
As soon as the transition began, the portraits started coming down—one by one—effectively undoing a visual overhaul that had drawn quiet criticism for months.
No official statement has been made about the removal of the photos, and DHS has not publicly addressed the report. But inside the building, the walls are going back to normal. And judging by the reaction, that’s exactly how a lot of people there want it.
