WASHINGTON—On the evening of Jan. 25, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry ended up in a memorable spot: in the home of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, standing before him and Kristi Noem.
As Landry held a Bible that had belonged to Noem’s late father, Thomas swore her into her new federal role. Hours after the Senate confirmed her nomination, Noem was officially President Donald Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security.
How did all the pieces fall into place?
The tale begins with a New Year’s tragedy: New Orleans’s Bourbon Street, the place where the United States goes to party, was targeted by a radical Islamic terrorist, U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
Fourteen men and women were killed, and dozens more were injured when Jabbar drove his pickup truck through a crowd in the early morning hours of Jan. 1. Jabbar died in a subsequent shoot-out with police.
“The terrorist on Bourbon Street—he committed those acts while having an ISIS flag tied to the bumper of his truck,” Landry told The Epoch Times.
Landry noted that Jabbar was a homegrown terrorist, born in the United States.
“That is something that should frighten Americans,” he said.
The attack was conducted just weeks ahead of the upcoming Super Bowl, slated for Feb. 9 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. After the Bourbon Street tragedy, the Big Easy needed help from the Department of Homeland Security.
“That’s why we immediately began to push the Senate to confirm Gov. Noem,” Landry said. He had gotten to know the future Cabinet member when they were both serving in Congress, and he supported her nomination.
And New Orleans is not the governor’s only concern. Many of the president’s biggest pledges concern immigration and border security. Noem will play a key role in unwinding the previous administration’s policies and putting Trump’s vision into place.
“That was a whole other reason to try to get Gov. Noem into that seat as quickly as possible,” Landry said.
The governor added that the urgent needs of North Carolina, still recovering from Hurricane Helene, and Los Angeles, freshly devastated by wildfires, require active leadership from the Department of Homeland Security.
Damage from the Eaton Fire is seen from the streets of Altadena, Calif., on Jan. 24, 2025. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
In Noem’s Corner
In January, Landry was in Washington to testify before the House Committee on Infrastructure and Transportation. That gave him a chance to advocate for Noem as she moved through the confirmation process. Very quickly—faster than Landry expected—she was confirmed in a 59–34 vote on Jan. 25, with seven senators not voting. Noem was positioned to be sworn in on the very same day.The governor said Noem called him, asking if he and his wife, Sharon, would like to observe the ceremony.
Vice President JD Vance was supposed to swear in the incoming Cabinet member. But scheduling issues derailed that plan.
“She said, hey, who can swear me in?” Landry said.
Someone contacted Thomas, who said he was available. Everyone headed to the justice’s Virginia residence.
What an honor to be sworn in as Secretary of @DHSgov by Justice Clarence Thomas!
I will faithfully execute the duties of this office. I will always preserve the Constitution and the security of our nation. pic.twitter.com/xt5gMm5DJU— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) January 26, 2025
It was not the first time that Thomas had sworn in a top Department of Homeland Security official. Indeed, as he informed Landry, he swore in the very first of them, Tom Ridge, as director of the new Office of Homeland Security in October 2001. Vice President Dick Cheney went on to swear in Ridge as Homeland Security secretary in January 2003, after the office was elevated to a Cabinet-level agency.
“I thought, wow, that’s very nostalgic,” Landry said.
Before the ceremony began, Noem asked her fellow governor, who had been in her corner, to hold her late father’s Bible.
“I’m thrilled that she’s in place now,” Landry said.
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, testifies before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 17, 2025. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Noem said she vows to “fully equip our intelligence and law enforcement to detect and prevent terror threats of all facets.”
“We will deliver rapid relief to Americans in the face of natural disasters, empower our brave men and women in law enforcement to do their jobs, and remove criminal aliens and illegal gangs from our country,” she said.
With the secretary now on the job, thanks in part to the work of his own hands, Landry said he believes that his state’s Super Bowl festivities will send a powerful message.
“We’re going to put it on in the city of New Orleans in memory of those victims to say, hey, guess what, we don’t fear, we don’t bow to terrorism, and we’re going to make the place safe,” he said.
Down in New Orleans, which has a long blues tradition, things are starting to look up.
