It's like a miracle -- Kristi Noem visits the Naples Pier and declares problem solved. Also, an update on surprise Oval Office announcement scheduled for today
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Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, spent Labor Day weekend in Florida where she toured the hurricane-ravaged Naples Pier for a photo op then posted on her Instagram account:
“The iconic Naples Pier was destroyed in 2022, and the city is still waiting on answers from FEMA. They couldn’t even get permission to remove the old pier. I saw this failure first-hand today with Mayor Heitmann and Gary Young, and now the project is back on track.”
It’s like a miracle! Kristi Noem merely has to take a stroll on the beach and problems instantly vanish.
Careful observers will note that what Noem didn’t mention in her self-congratulatory post is that for the past seven months this “failure” has been occurring on her watch. She’s been the Homeland Security director since January of this year. DHS oversees FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency she excoriated.
Also unmentioned is that since the beginning of the Trump administration, FEMA’s workforce has been slashed by a third and that hiring at the agency has been frozen.
“Americans deserve better than years of red tape and failed disaster responses.”
Was that an accusation or a confession?
Speaking of FEMA, shortly before Noem’s Florida vacay, more than 180 FEMA employees sent a letter to Congress warning that incompetency of the agency’s leadership could lead to another Katrina-like disaster, referring to the disastrous emergency response to the hurricane that devastated New Orleans 20 years ago.
The New York Times reported that:
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, has become directly involved in FEMA operations. She has imposed new spending rules that have delayed hundreds of FEMA contracts and that hampered FEMA’s response to the catastrophic floods that swept through Central Texas in July.
FEMA immediately sprang into action to respond to this criticism. The solution:
Most of the people who actually signed their names to that letter to Congress were suspended from their jobs.
Later that weekend, Noem appeared on Face the Nation to declare that another of the federal agencies she oversees—I.C.E.—will continue to aggressively round up and imprison undocumented immigrants.
Where will they go? Not to Alligator Alcatraz since a federal judge has shut that down because her agency —aided by Gov. Ron DeSantis—bungled the permitting process.
Noem defended the use of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., and California during the Face the Nation interview, and didn’t rule out expanding the use of troops in other cities such as Chicago.
“L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action then. That city would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state.”
To which California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded on social media:
“Hahahahahhahahahahahahahaha.”
In other news
Congress returns from its summer vacation today facing, among other things:
A looming government shutdown by the end of September if a funding deal isn’t reached.
Continued efforts to release the Epstein Files. At one point, Trump’s attorney general (and former Florida attorney general) Pam Bondi declared she had the files “on her desk” ready to be released. Where they disappeared to is anyone’s guess.
Update on White House Announcement since this was posted earlier today
The White House earlier said there will be an “announcement” at 2 p.m. ET today following a week in which President Donald Trump has been unusually absent from the public eye.
Is this about his health? Social media has been ablaze with speculation.
But according to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump will be making an “exciting announcement … related to the Department of Defense.”
Stay tuned.
J.C. Bruce, journalist and author, is the founder of Tropic Press. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida. Share this email with your friends. They will love you for it.
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