Democratic Sen. Tina Smith took a swipe at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for her love of ghoulish publicity stunts Thursday. ‘ICE Barbie’ Replying to a video on X of bodybuilders throwing around weights with the caption,

Kristi Noem said it is not the federal government's responsibility to manage "disasters" like the deadly flash floods in Texas, saying it was instead the state's responsibility.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked her social media followers to pick which portrait of her on horseback they prefer, leading some social media users to accuse her of horsing around on Instagram amid a disaster in Texas.

ICE Barbie’s not done playing dress-up. In fact, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem loves her costumes so much that she’s asked her most loyal fans on Instagram to vote for their favorite depiction of Cowgirl Barbie riding a horse and sauntering off to save America from undocumented immigrants.

Kristi Noem earned the nickname "ICE Barbie" due to cosplaying while performing her duties as homeland security secretary, but this outdated look took the cake.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for DHS, told CNN: “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens. The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the Trump administration from suggestions that the delayed warning residents received during the flash floods in Texas this week was insufficient.

In a Monday, July 7 post on Instagram, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem highlighted three photos of her on horseback and asked social media users to pick the one they liked best. The former South Dakota governor posted,

According to a report from The Daily Beast, Senator Ted Cruz was vacationing in Greece as tragedy struck his state. Over the July 4 weekend, flash flooding took the lives of at least 95 people in Texas, including 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic, an all-girls camp along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

During a FEMA review meeting Wednesday, Noem referenced a study from a feminist disaster response group, Tagnawa, to argue against the agency’s adequacy in disaster situations. Tagnawa’s study unpacked the gender-based discrimination Filipino women in Hawaii faced following the 2023 Lahaina wildfires that killed over 100 people.