Puppy Slayer Kristi Noem Is Probably Not Going to Be Donald ...
Donald Trump famously hates dogs (and most living things), but it appears that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem’s bizarrely detailed account of killing her family’s pet pooch is a bridge too far even for him—at least when it comes to hitching his political future to a woman now synonymous with the words puppy murder.
In the days since Noem’s inclusion of the grisly killing in her new book emerged, multiple outlets have reported that the governor’s stock has plummeted in Trumpworld, where she was once being considered as a potential running mate. According to Semafor, the “median reaction” to the dog story within Team Trump was “WTF,” with a person close to the campaign telling the outlet: “Governor Noem just keeps proving over and over that she’s a lightweight. We can’t afford a Kamala [Harris] problem.”
The Daily Beast has similarly heard that the governor is toast (or, to use a term she might be more comfortable with, roadkill):
In Trump’s orbit, Noem’s decision to disclose in her forthcoming memoir that she once shot and killed a family dog is being seen as pure political self-immolation—part of a series of “lapses in judgment” and a sign of “desperation that President Trump especially doesn’t like,” according to over a half dozen GOP sources who spoke to the Daily Beast on condition of anonymity to detail confidential conversations. “Everyone around Trump is talking about this,” said a MAGA operative.
“Haven’t seen a more public suicide than Jim Jones at Jonestown,” another Trumpworld source told the Daily Beast…. The Trumpworld source added that Noem had “a very slight shot before” of being Trump’s running mate but that it is “less than zero now.”
According to the MAGA operative, people around the ex-president “are fixated on the ads that would run if she were anywhere involved with President Trump’s campaign, regarding the dog.” They added: “I mean, this stuff is devastating. There’s nothing more popular in politics than dogs, and she killed one—and she continues to talk about it…That’s what’s baffling and shows out-of-control judgment.”
On Sunday, Noem wrote on X that she could “understand why some people are upset” by her decision to kill family dog Cricket, but justified the choice by noting that “South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down.” She added that she included the gruesome anecdote as an example of her willingness to not “shy away from tough challenges.”
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Kristi Noem Doubles Down on Decision to Kill Family Dog
