Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem‘s time as the special envoy to the Shield of the Americas has ended, according to a State Department official on background to USA TODAY.
Noem’s special envoy status expired last month, according to the official. She will still be involved with the Shield of the Americas, though, as a senior advisor to Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The Department of State issued a statement on Oct. 16, posted by Noem’s special envoy account, stating that “the Special Envoy to the Shield of the Americas role was always a six-month appointment,” and that Noem remains at the State Department as a senior advisor.
The former secretary became special envoy in March after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that she was ousted from her role as Homeland Security secretary. In the same post, Trump nominated now-Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who was a senator at the time, to that position. Just last month, Noem participated in meetings for the Shield of the Americans that occurred on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly convening in New York City.
In an interview with NewsNation on Oct. 15, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott casted the move from special envoy to special adviser as typical, telling NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer, “There’s always these types of changes that happen. This is part of what’s happening with these positions. But, certainly, we remain dedicated to implementing the president’s agenda across the board.”
She was fired from her cabinet level role earlier this year shortly after lawmakers grilled her about her department’s massive spending, specifically a $220 million ad campaign that featured her prominently. It also followed the controversial immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis at the end of 2025 and early 2026 that resulted in the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
President Donald Trump created the Shield of the Americas in March as a coalition of the United States and other Caribbean, Central and South American countries as a coordinated effort to defend Western Hemisphere economies through cooperation, defend democratic governments and promote national sovereignty.
In September, Trump called the group, which includes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, “the largest and most powerful alliance for economic and national security ever to convene in the Western Hemisphere.”
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kristi Noem’s special envoy role to Shield of the Americas ends
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