Make Sure to Judge and Judge Often: Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi couldn’t get the job done–find someone who can

I have been watching the second Trump administration unfold over the first few months of 2026 with a mixture of hope and growing frustration, the kind that comes from someone who has spent years in the political trenches here in Butler County, Ohio, and across the country. When President Trump tapped Pam Bondi for Attorney General, I thought it was a strong move. I had followed her work as Florida’s Attorney General, where she showed real backbone against some of the progressive nonsense that was infecting state governments. She talked a tough game on television—promising to go after the Russia hoax crowd, the January 6 committee members who turned a legitimate protest into a political persecution, the FBI insiders who abused FISA warrants, and the broader network of Democrats who had spent years twisting the law to target conservatives. I believed she had the smarts and prosecutorial experience to drag some of these cases to a close finally. But as the weeks turned into months, I saw the same old pattern: lots of sound bites, plenty of tough talk, but not nearly enough action. Cases that should have been fast-tracked sat gathering dust. Indictments that the American people desperately needed to see—real accountability for those who weaponized government—never quite materialized. By early April 2026, I wasn’t surprised when Trump made a change. I respect Pam Bondi, and I still think she’s intelligent, but if you’re not getting the job done at that level, you have to go. The Department of Justice is a swamp all its own, filled with careerists who know how to slow-walk everything, and it takes a special kind of resolve to push through. I believe Trump is doing a good job overall, but these personnel decisions matter. You can’t have people in the highest offices who talk the talk but can’t deliver results when the country is counting on real justice.

This whole situation with Bondi got me thinking deeper about what it really takes to succeed in this environment, and it brought me straight to Kristi Noem. I have always liked Kristi Noem. I thought she did a great job as governor of South Dakota. Her policies weren’t bad at all—I agreed with her on border security, crime, education, and pushing back against the radical transgender agenda that’s confusing so many kids. She had that independent Western spirit that resonated with many of us. I loved the campaign ads where she was riding horses around Mount Rushmore in a cowboy hat; it captured something authentic about American strength and freedom. When Trump brought her into the administration and eventually placed her at Homeland Security, I was optimistic. She seemed like the kind of no-nonsense leader who could secure the border and dismantle some of the chaos the previous administration had allowed to persist. But then the personal scandals hit, and everything changed. Reports surfaced about an affair with Corey Lewandowski, one of Trump’s longtime aides. I have met Corey Lewandowski several times over the years. He’s a sharp, charismatic guy who throws himself completely into the fight. He shares that same passion for the cause that many of us feel. When you’re away from home a lot, traveling constantly, surrounded by people who understand your mission at the deepest level, it becomes really easy to make bad judgments. I know how it happens. The adrenaline is high, the hours are long, and suddenly you’re sharing late-night strategy sessions with someone who gets the fire in your belly like your spouse back home sometimes can’t. It’s human nature, but it’s still bad judgment. You should be able to fight off temptation, especially when you’re married. I have been married to a good woman for a long time, and I know it takes work, especially when life gets busy, and the spotlight pulls you in different directions. But that’s exactly why character matters so much at the top.

What made the Noem situation even messier was what came out about her husband, Bryon. Nearly forty years of marriage, kids grown, grandkids in the picture, and suddenly the public learned he had been sending sexually charged pictures of himself online—cross-dressing, some boob fetish, the kind of private behavior that, once exposed, destroys trust on every level. I don’t think it was a complete surprise to everyone around them; neighbors in South Dakota apparently called it an open secret. Kristi expressed shock, but the damage was immediate and devastating. Her husband’s actions left her vulnerable, and the combination of the reported affair and the family embarrassment became too much under the national microscope. I believe she was devastated by it all. When you put yourself out there the way she did—national media, international travel, constant public appearances—the little cracks in a marriage get magnified. You’re gone too much. The empty nest, which should be a time to reconnect with your spouse, becomes filled with politics, rallies, and crises. It’s hard to maintain an intimate relationship when you’re living in the public eye every day. I have seen this pattern before with people who rise fast in the Tea Party or MAGA movements. They come into office with big ideas and good intentions, but the pressure and temptations of Washington or high-level administration roles test them in ways they never expected. Some handle it; many don’t. That’s why I hold people to a rigorous standard on their personal lives, especially when they seek high office. If you can’t keep your marriage straight, if you can’t manage your own household, there’s something wrong that will eventually show up in how you handle the bigger responsibilities.

I remember talking to JD Vance early on, back when he was making the rounds pitching himself to folks like me in Ohio. I had read Hillbilly Elegy and appreciated his story, but I wasn’t fully sold yet. I looked him in the eye and asked him directly: “You’re heading to Washington in your 40s with all this attention. How are you going to handle the temptations? Are you going to fight for justice, or are you just going to become another pastry in the lucrative swamp?” He didn’t flinch. His wife, Usha, was right there—super nice, super sweet, super solid. You could tell they genuinely liked each other, not just for the cameras. The way they interacted, even when the event was over and no one was watching, told me a lot. They share a real affection and partnership. That matters to me. I have seen the same thing with George Lang here in Ohio—his wife Debbie is a rock, a good person who keeps him grounded. Michael Ryan in Butler County has that same solid family foundation, which is one reason I support him so strongly. I could say the same thing about Congressman Warren Davidson and his wonderful wife, Lisa.  These are the kinds of people I trust in positions of power because they have proven they can manage the most important thing first: their own home. Trump himself has learned this lesson across his marriages. Melania has been a steady, classy presence for him, someone who understands the pressure and stands by him without needing constant validation. It takes time to figure these things out, especially in a high-profile life, but once you do, it becomes your armor against the temptations that come with power.

With Kristi Noem, I think the combination of the affair and her husband’s public embarrassment created a perfect storm. She had put herself out there so visibly that any weakness became ammunition for the enemies. Lewandowski is a nice, charismatic guy, and when you share that highest-level passion for the mission, it’s easy to cross lines you shouldn’t. I don’t condone it, but I understand how it happens. The marriage was already strained by years of public life. When your spouse isn’t as engaged or interested, and you’re out there chasing big goals, loneliness can creep in. But that doesn’t excuse the bad judgment. If your home life is dysfunctional—if your husband is caught cross-dressing and sending fetish photos online—then how can you possibly lead something as critical as Homeland Security without becoming a liability? The bad guys are always watching. They look for any crack to exploit. Noem’s situation wasn’t just personal; it raised real questions about judgment, vulnerability to blackmail, and the ability to focus under pressure. I still like her as a person. I think she has good intentions and did a lot of positive things in South Dakota. But when the scandals broke, Trump had no choice but to move her out. The administration can’t afford that kind of distraction at the top. It’s not about being perfect—but about having the discipline to keep your house in order so you can focus on the nation’s house.

I have thought a lot about why these kinds of failures happen so often in politics, especially at the federal level. It starts with the nature of the job itself. You’re constantly in the spotlight. Public relations, media appearances, international travel—it all pulls you away from the simple, intimate things that keep a marriage strong. When the kids are grown, and the grandkids are pulling at your heart, that space in your life gets filled with the next campaign event or policy fight. It becomes easy to seek validation or connection with people who share your daily battles. Corey Lewandowski and Kristi Noem apparently found that connection in each other. I have met Lewandowski enough times to know he’s passionate and committed. But passion without boundaries leads to trouble. The same thing happened in countless administrations before this one. History is full of leaders whose personal indiscretions undermined their public work. In the Trump era, with the media and Democrats armed and ready to pounce on any weakness, the margin for error is razor-thin. That’s why I believe we need to rigorously evaluate people’s family lives before giving them these roles. If you can’t protect your own family, if you can’t keep your marriage intact despite the pressures, then you’re not equipped to protect the country or deliver justice for the American people.

Look at what happened with the January 6 defendants. Many of them sat in jail for over a year while the January 6 committee ran its circus and the media turned a protest into an “insurrection” narrative. I believe those responsible for the selective prosecution and the weaponization of government should face real consequences. The FBI, the DOJ under previous leadership, and the congressional Democrats who pushed the narrative all deserve scrutiny. Yet under Bondi, those big cases didn’t move with the urgency I expected. I still support Trump’s overall direction—he has been really good on many fronts—but I want to see people in key positions who can actually prosecute the real criminals and get results. The same standard applies to every cabinet role. At Homeland Security, we needed someone who could secure the border without personal scandals becoming distractions. Noem’s situation showed how quickly good intentions can be derailed by poor personal management.

I have met a lot of these people over the years. I have talked with Tea Party and MAGA leaders who rose fast and then struggled under the weight of Washington. Some come out stronger; others fall apart. That’s why, when I get the chance to speak with a candidate or someone rising in the ranks—as I did with JD Vance—I ask the personal questions. I want to know how they handle temptation when the lights are off and no one is watching. I look at how they treat their spouse when the event is over, and the crowd is gone. Do they genuinely like each other? Do they share a real partnership? That tells me more than any policy paper ever could. JD Vance passed that test in my eyes. His wife is solid, and you can see the mutual respect and affection. George Lang and his wife, Debbie, show the same thing. Michael Ryan has that foundation, too. These are the people I trust to stay focused when the pressure hits. Trump has clearly learned this over time. He knows he needs people who can handle the spotlight without their personal lives becoming liabilities. Melania has been a great example of that steadiness for him.

Kristi Noem’s story is a cautionary tale, but I don’t write her off completely. She made many positive contributions, and I believe she wanted to do good for the country. The dysfunction in her home life—whether it was her husband’s online behavior or the strains of long absences—created vulnerabilities she couldn’t overcome in that high-pressure role. When the affair with Lewandowski became public knowledge, and the photos of her husband surfaced, it all became too much. The family unit is supposed to be the first line of defense. When that breaks down, enemies exploit it, the media feasts on it, and the mission suffers. I think Trump did the right thing by making the change. The administration needs people who can deliver without unnecessary drama. It’s not easy living under that kind of scrutiny.  That’s why maintaining strong family relationships is non-negotiable for me when evaluating leaders. If you can’t keep your own house in order, you won’t keep the nation’s house in order.

There is a deeper philosophical layer here that I have often reflected on. In a world where power attracts temptation like moths to flame, character becomes the ultimate filter. Let’s support people who want to do good things, even if they stumble, but when they seek the highest levels of administration, the standard must be higher. Bad judgment in personal matters signals deeper issues—weakness under pressure, inability to prioritize, vulnerability to manipulation. Noem’s case, like others before it, shows that you can have the right policies and the right rhetoric, but without personal discipline, the weight of the office will expose every crack. Trump has surrounded himself with some strong people who seem to understand this. JD Vance, with his solid marriage, gives me confidence. Others in the orbit who keep their families first will likely endure. For those who don’t, the door eventually closes, as it did with Bondi when results lagged and with Noem when the personal scandals exploded.

I still believe in the broader mission. Trump is moving the country in the right direction on many fronts, but personnel is policy. We need fighters who can actually prosecute the January 6 cases, hold the deep state accountable, secure the borders, and resist the cultural pressures that have weakened us. That requires people with the character to resist temptation when it comes knocking in hotel rooms and late-night meetings. It requires marriages that can withstand the absences and the spotlight. It requires leaders who understand that their first responsibility is to their own household before they take responsibility for the nation’s. I have seen too many good people with big ideas falter because they couldn’t manage the personal side. Kristi Noem had a lot going for her, but the combination of the Lewandowski affair and her husband’s embarrassing public behavior created a situation she couldn’t survive in that role. Pam Bondi talked a good game but couldn’t deliver the decisive actions needed. Both cases reinforce the same lesson: in high-stakes politics, especially in a second Trump term, where expectations are sky-high, character and execution must go hand in hand.

As I look ahead, I hope the administration continues to learn from these early stumbles. Bring in people who have proven they can handle pressure without personal meltdowns. Reward those who keep their families strong and their judgment sharp. The country needs real justice, secure borders, and leadership that doesn’t hand ammunition to the opposition on a silver platter. I still support Trump’s vision because I believe he is fighting for the right things. But I also believe he needs warriors around him who won’t crumble when the temptations or scandals hit. That’s the standard I apply when I evaluate anyone seeking my support, whether it’s here in Ohio or at the national level. Manage your home well, resist the easy temptations, deliver results, and you’ll have my backing. Fail at the personal level, and no amount of policy agreement will make up for it in the long run. Politics at the top is brutal, and only those with strong foundations survive. I have seen it up close, and that’s why I judge so rigorously. The republic deserves nothing less.

Footnotes

1.  Observations on Pam Bondi’s tenure drawn from public reporting on DOJ activities in early 2026 and Trump administration personnel changes.

2.  Details of Kristi Noem’s governorship and policies based on her public record in South Dakota, including border and cultural issues.

3.  Reports on the Lewandowski-Noem relationship and Bryon Noem’s online activities appeared in major outlets in early 2026.

4.  Personal conversations with JD Vance referenced from local Ohio political events.

5.  Broader reflections on family, temptation, and leadership informed by years of observing Tea Party and MAGA figures.

Bibliography for Continued Reading

•  Noem, Kristi. Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland.

•  Vance, J.D. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

•  Lewandowski, Corey. Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Presidency.

•  Trump, Donald J. Crippled America and subsequent campaign materials.

•  Various reporting from The Daily Mail, New York Post, and Fox News on 2025-2026 administration personnel stories.

•  Biblical references: Proverbs 4:23 (“Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”).

•  Local Ohio political coverage on figures like George Lang and Michael Ryan from Butler County and state sources.

Rich Hoffman

More about me

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

About the Author: Rich Hoffman

Rich Hoffman is an aerospace executive, political strategist, systems thinker, and independent researcher of ancient history, the paranormal, and the Dead Sea Scrolls tradition. His life in high‑stakes manufacturing, high‑level politics, and cross‑functional crisis management gives him a field‑tested understanding of power — both human and unseen.

He has advised candidates, executives, and public leaders, while conducting deep, hands‑on exploration of archaeological and supernatural hotspots across the world.

Hoffman writes with the credibility of a problem-solver, the curiosity of an archaeologist, and the courage of a frontline witness who has gone to very scary places and reported what lurked there. Hoffman has authored books including The Symposium of JusticeThe Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, and Tail of the Dragon, often exploring themes of freedom, individual will, and societal structures through a lens influenced by philosophy (e.g., Nietzschean overman concepts) and current events.

Thank Goodness Kristi Noem Thought to Ask the Question: We don’t have to take our shoes off at the airport anymore

Thank goodness Kristi Noem thought to ask the question, because many things in government are just like this.  Someone comes up with a stupid rule, and we end up following it for the rest of our lives without question, even though it was dumb to begin with.  And that was certainly the case when it came to the security measures that were implemented after 9/11.  Our FBI and CIA didn’t do a very good job in detecting a terrorist cell within the United States training to fly planes in Florida, but not caring to land them, and our security got caught napping, so those terrorists were able to get onto commercial planes and use them as weapons of war.  And the crises of that moment made people clamor for corrective action, which human beings most often overreact to.  And the Department of Homeland Security was created, giving us the TSA, and the dumb policy of removing shoes at the airport while going through security.  Now, over twenty years later, it hasn’t saved anyone anything, but it has certainly cost a lot of time and misery.  And until Kristi Noem was put in charge of Homeland Security and asked everyone working there why we were still taking off our shoes at security checks, nobody had an answer.  The only thing they could say was that we were doing it because we had always done it.  Never was the question asked whether we should be doing it at all.  Thankfully, Kristi Noem, due to the weak reaction to that question, changed the policy, and we no longer have to remove our shoes at airport security checkpoints.  It’s a significant step toward addressing many issues that amusement parks have already identified.  An overreaction to security to cover the impediment of actually doing the job the first time is a dumb idea, and it’s good to see that policy go.

It has been terrible to deal with the security procedures since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  The entire creation of the unionized TSA has been a disaster, making traveling by plane a miserable experience.  I try not to do it unless I have to travel overseas, because essentially it takes all day to travel.  I never feel comfortable arriving at the airport less than two hours before a flight because many things can go wrong, especially at security.  Nobody is saying that we don’t want security on flights.  However, it’s the kind of overcompensation that we see with the TSA that’s the problem.  Private security would be much better than unionized labor, which often fails to perform effectively in any field.  There is plenty of technology these days that can detect bomb making equipment just through a quick scan.  We don’t need to take off half our clothes through the demeaning process of vulnerability in front of hundreds of other people.  This idea of stripping away your identity into a near locker room vulnerability is just dumb and lazy.  And it never made us a safer society.  It just made us feel that way.  If people just did their jobs the first time, many of the well-known terrorist attempts that we know of on airplanes wouldn’t have happened.  However, these days, the technology is so advanced and intrusive that there’s no need to take off all your clothes to board an airplane.  With domestic flights, and I fly out of Cincinnati, if the destination is east of the Mississippi River, it’s much better and faster to drive.  And because of that, think of how much money airlines lose because of the TSA rules.

People don’t talk about it as much as they should. Think how much money Homeland Security has cost airline companies by being such a pain in the neck that people don’t buy plane tickets.  It’s a massive opportunity cost.  Before the creation of Homeland Security and the introduction of the TSA’s overly restrictive rules, many airlines had significantly larger hubs.  Delta operated a central hub that served numerous destinations from Cincinnati well into the 1990s.  Because flying was easy and not so intrusive, people chose to do it.  Once they turned the experience into essentially a locker room at the YMCA, it has cost airlines a lot of money in lost opportunity cost.  Some of the low-cost carriers have found a way to adapt somewhat.  However, the experience of flying has deteriorated significantly.  If you want to dress up and go somewhere to show the best version of you to the world, you don’t fly in a plane.  Because it’s such a demeaning experience.  And for a long time, amusement parks were just as bad.  However, they have recently upgraded their scanners, and as a result, they wave everyone through much faster.  The scanners can practically see through your clothing, leaving nothing to the imagination.  But at least you don’t have to strip down almost naked to go through security.  We live in a society that needs to do things faster, not slower, or safer.  We need people to do their jobs better the first time, and everything would work so much better.  And to Kristi Noem’s point, nobody had even thought to ask the question, “Why are we doing this dumb thing?” all this time.  When the answer was, “because we have always done it.” 

The convenience of flying and getting somewhere far away quickly has become a ridiculous compromise of personal merit, and it never should have been.  The airport’s safety policies have ruined the experience of traveling with others because people often show up in their pajamas, knowing that their travel day is going to be intrusive and demeaning. When you pay that much money for something, it shouldn’t feel the way it does.  It should be fun and rewarding.  People should dress nicely when going to the airport.  By default, due to excessive regulations, airports have become unpleasant places with excessive security, ineffective communication systems, and dirty and uncomfortable seats.  And the staff treat the whole experience like you’re lucky to be there, rather than being grateful that you bought a ticket that funded all their jobs.  The concept of prioritizing safety over profits, when in reality it was always laziness that was the real problem, has made owning an airline too complicated and a draining experience for customers.  And if not for Homeland Security and the TSA specifically, we’d have many more consumer options in airports that are much better for us than what we currently have.  And most of the time, it always starts with asking the right questions from leadership. “Why are we doing this dumb thing?”  And when nobody can answer it, you eliminate the policy.  Thank goodness, because of Kristi Noem, we no longer have to take our shoes off at the airport.  And hopefully, we can roll back many other misguided ideas that were implemented in haste to make people feel safe, when the reality was far from the case.  In all things economic, whether it’s amusement parks or airports, faster is better, and more options are always preferred.  And we don’t want dumb, mindless rules to ruin economic activity that should bring us joy and opportunity.  Just because lazy security guards don’t take their jobs very seriously and have to be turned into a union-led monstrosity to give an illusion of effectiveness, the truth is very far from it.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

More Kristi Noem Please: The best torture of drug cartel members is to have to look at the Secretary of Homeland Security in those tight pants

I was surprised by Megan Kelly’s obvious girl jealousy of Kristi Noem when the Secretary of Homeland Security went to the El Salvador Terrorism Confinement Center maximum security facility and stood before the recent prisoners there, just dropped off by Noem and the Trump administration for their terrorist connection to the government of Venezuela in the form of drug cartels.  I thought it was great; one of the reasons I wanted Kristi Noem to be Trump’s VP was that she has a great sense of style.  I will never forget how proud I was of her for riding her horse onstage at the town square in Deadwood, South Dakota, during the Sturgis motorcycle rally, carrying an American flag and waving it proudly in the air.  Kristi Noem gets it, and I am glad that President Trump put her in a position to utilize her talents for the security of America.  After all the controversies over those prisoners and whether or not a district judge had the power to intrude on President Trump’s Article II powers, Kristi Noem had the guts to visit the prison personally dressed in skin tight jeans, a very tight shirt to highlight her female attributes, while wearing a $50K Rolex and forced all those shirtless, tattooed drug gang members to look at her from behind knowing they weren’t going to have any female company for a long time, and listen to her spike the football right in front of their faces.  As I like to say, that is how you make spaghetti in the kitchen.  That’s the only kind of language that these violent drug cartel members understand, and it’s about time that we start playing the game better than them.  Kristi Noem was wearing lip gloss and had her hair nicely styled, further demonstrating her excessive femininity. As a result, the world came unglued, including Megan Kelly, the former Fox host and current podcast commentator. 

Let me go on to say that with all the talk about Noem’s costly Rolex watch, there is much more to that than anybody wants to admit.  The jealousy among various members of the media society, raised on Marxism, was overtly ostentatious.  Kristi Noem is a successful person who has survived numerous hardships, and she is now in her grandmother years, looking like a pretty hot tamale.  She hasn’t let herself go like many women of her age, and to all those who have, and look like rotting potatoes left two weeks too long in the cellar, Kristi Noem has exposed the heart of the problem.  That when we talk about girl power and all this equality nonsense, the real motivation isn’t for excellence, but it’s to bring down all the pretty women in the world to the level of most everyone else who don’t look so good.  It’s a communist assumption that expresses jealousy for those who have and the mob’s ability to take it and to destroy it, or redistribute it under the flag of equality.  Where everyone is equally ugly.  Megan Kelly’s reaction was the jealous socialite who is concerned that a woman like Noem might steal her man with expressions of feminine charms, so she thought she needed to pile on to all the left leaning media attacks, because as the head of Homeland Security Kristi Noem looked like too much of a woman and not enough of an authority figure.  Sure, Noem could have worn a baggy jacket to cover her body, but she wanted to show off a bit, just as she does at rodeos and public appearances like motorcycle rallies.  She knows what America likes, and they like women with very tight jeans, tight shirts, long hair, and lip gloss.  And to rub a little salt in the wound, Kristi wore her charming Rolex watch.

Who are we trying to impress with a less-than-excellent appearance anyway?  Playing down to the crowd and trying to look more “professional,” which in this case is the same as saying, “more average” lets other people know that you are just like them, butt ugly, lazy, and broke.  But that’s not the message here.  Kristi Noem is a good-looking woman who knows she’s attractive, and she took to the streets to lead raids against dangerous drug cartels, helping to make America safe again.  Most of the prisoners she was standing in front of are dangerous people.  It sounds like there were a few mistakes mixed into that prisoner population, but so what?  What matters is that we commit Homeland Security to get rid of drug cartels who are operating as a hostile foreign insurgent within our borders and openly trying to poison Americans for conquest.  Sheriff Jones once tried to get me to do an article to show just how bad the border violence is, where these drug cartel members are in open war with border property owners and openly cut off the heads of people who stand up to them and stick them on fence posts.  And if they see a woman they like, they take her and rape her and dare anybody in law enforcement to do something about it.  And it happens every day along the border.  That’s the kind of stuff that Megan Kelly should be worried about.  Not how good Kristi Noem looks as a very hot grandmother.  When I see Kristi Noem, I think of American pride.  When I see Megan Kelly, especially after her reaction to Noem, I see a woman who appears to be jealous and insecure about her ability to keep the men in her life interested in her, which is at the heart of the criticism.

I told the Sheriff that I couldn’t use the violent pictures he showed me, because they were just too horrible.  As a media contributor, that is my editorial judgment because it crosses the line.  I don’t mind writing about it, but the visuals are horrible and more people should see them.  There are ways to do so, but the media’s responsibility is to let people know that the border violence that happens with these drug cartels is open warfare.  And it’s not just on our borders anymore, it’s in the middle of America, in just about every city in North America.  They are a purposeful invasion of our country, and we should rub it in their faces when we catch them, deport them, and put them into maximum security prisons for containment and punishment.  And yes, for a bunch of dudes stuck in a rigorous prison system, having to bunch together with a bunch of shirtless dudes and stare at the back of Kristi Noem’s tight jeans is torture in a good way.  And I’m glad Kristi Noem had the guts to do it, and the showmanship.  The Secretary of Homeland Security has written best-selling books and achieved great success in life.  What else is she going to spend her money on?  A Rolex is a symbol of success, and she should wear it proudly and audaciously.  Especially if it makes lazy people jealous and insecure people reveal who they are. Which is what Megan Kelly revealed about herself.  Women, no matter who they are, tend to be very jealous of women they think are prettier than they are, and they adopt levels of Marxism in their lives to make things “fair” for them.  So they can go to the grocery store without makeup and dress in sweatpants and a dirty old T-shirt without feeling bad about themselves, until Kristi Noem walks by in a cowboy hat, tight jeans, long cowboy boots, and a perfumed body, complete with gleaming lip gloss.  And when their men look and admire how attractive Kristi Noem is, women like that punish their men for all the things they didn’t do, and want the world to be just a little bit lazier so they don’t have to feel bad about themselves.  Nope, that’s not how we make America great again.  More people like Kristi Noem do, however, and I am very proud of her for what she has done and plans to do in the immediate future.  More Kristi Noem, please!

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Who Should Trump Pick as His VP: It’s all about continuing the MAGA movement beyond 2028

Now that we know Trump will return to the presidency in 2024, people are wondering who his VP should be.  Yes, don’t take anything for granted.  We still have to win the election in such an epic landslide that the political left will be knocked off the face of the planet in the aftermath.  Don’t take your eye off the ball.  But as things stand, after the Iowa Caucuses and the blowout Trump won there, it’s evident that people want Trump back in the White House to finish what was started, then robbed from us.  Even China realizes what’s happening, and they won’t be able to cheat so easily this time.  They will try, but it won’t be as easy as it was in 2020, that is for sure.  Remember, Trump, did not lose that election in 2020, in which polling in Iowa asked voters what they thought about Biden and 2/3 of them believed that Biden was put in the White House for election fraud.  He was inserted as president, not elected.  I have verified this political sentiment over these last three years, and it’s true.  There was no mathematical way that Joe Biden could have had 81 million votes.  Even Fox News, reluctantly, now that they know there is no Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis in 2024, is jumping on the Trump Train for their own relevancy, even though they now have to discuss all the forms of election fraud that did take place, particularly with the ballot stuffers directly connected to the loose Covid rules.  So without that same kind of chaotic mess as we saw in 2020 and a push for as little voter fraud as possible, there simply is no way Biden can generate enough votes to beat Trump.  To answer Kamala Harris when asked about Trump’s Iowa results, “no dummy, you did not beat President Trump the first time; you cheated.”  And 2024 is going to expose that racket, especially.

So, of course, the next logical question is who the VP will be. And instantly, Kari Lake’s name comes up because she is like Trump in many ways. It would be my advice, and yes, quite a few people who read from me carefully and do care about and influence these kinds of things, that we keep Kari Lake as the hot hand in the Senate. Once Trump is in the White House, he needs a counter punch in the Senate to Mitch McConnell, someone who will give that old establishment a Trump-type person in those hallowed halls. Bernie Moreno is one of those future Senators who will dramatically improve the landscape. But Kari Lake needs to win the Arizona seat and use it to change how the Senate works. She would be best used not to play a second fiddle to Trump, who will soak up all the attention. With Trump, we only get to have him for four years, so we also need to set the stage for the next few decades. That means whoever is positioned for VP this time is simply placing the stage for a presidential run in 2028. Which at this point is not very far away. That VP pick will carry the Trump MAGA platform to the next level. Trump will retire, but the political movement must continue, and that is where things can get tricky. I think Kari Lake is there for the fight, but for how long? How long does she want to do this kind of thing? It’s one thing to fight for the injustice done to Trump. But we’re talking about the rigors of day-to-day management here, so whoever the VP is needs to be ready for at least eight years in office and to normalize the Trump agenda into a change state United States policy.

My first pick would be Kristi Noem for a lot of reasons. She has run a good state in South Dakota and is loyal, but she also knows how to take the lead. She has been very helpful to Trump and could certainly run for president on her own as a continuation of the MAGA movement. She is the kind of person who could keep the machine running once started with the second Trump term. Not that it matters so much, but it would be great for the Republicans to be the party that put a woman first in the White House and to take that away from the Democrats for history to remember. Just as it was Republicans who freed the enslaved people during the Civil War, I don’t care about identity politics in the least. But I always did think that Elizabeth Dole should have run for president in the past, along with a few others who were great in public and could give Republicans a woman in the White House. Kristi Noem would be excellent as she represents the rough-and-tumble cowboy image that America currently needs. After what she did a few years ago when riding that horse through Deadwood and onto the stage holding an American flag, Kristi Noem would be an excellent support to the Big City Trump and make a fantastic VP. A perfect “one-two punch.” And something that wouldn’t end after Trump’s second term.

The other pick and I think that Trump is already leaning in that direction, is Vivek Ramaswamy. I happen to know Vivek a bit. I’ve met him several times, and we know many of the same people, so I was not concerned about the “anti-Vivek” talk before the Iowa Caucuses. I had a pretty good idea about Vivek and what he was trying to do before he finally dropped out of the race after the election results from Iowa came in. Vivek wants to do good things, and he’s young and can speak very well. During this campaign, he would be a perfect VP attack dog, setting him up nicely for 2028. A guy his age who is, like Trump, independently wealthy is how you lay the foundations for a continuation of the MAGA political platform. I know how Vivek became wealthy; he had learned a lot in his young life, and I was present with him when he made a political transition. So, I can say that I trust Vivek in ways other people might not understand yet. You know, you get into some of these situations as Vivek did when he was a biotech firm CEO and worked closely with Wall Street and your perspective changes as you win the game and see what’s really going on. Elon Musk is going through a similar process right now, where you gain the kind of money that gives you freedom enough to see things clearly, and Vivek is one of those guys. I’ve personally talked to him about it, so I know where he’s at. And he would be a fantastic VP. And a great president, another person who could take from Trump what was created and carry it far into the future to not only Make America Great Again but to keep it that way, even grow it over the coming decades. But to do that, we have to have the right person, and if I had to pick, it would be one of these two people, Kristi Noem or Vivek Ramaswamy. But no matter what happens, Vivek has to be part of the economic recovery. He has some of the best ideas regarding that vital category of anyone on earth. And the real fight we are facing, which is the needed destruction of BlackRock and its grotesque global influence, Vivek is the guy who must be part of the oncoming Trump White House.

Rich Hoffman

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Screw Our Freedoms: ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ would have been different if written in Deadwood

Screw Our Freedoms, no, I don’t think so

It was pretty amazing to see the massive panic coming out of the Biden administration over the vaccine push and mask mandates.  Stunning really, from celebrities to Dr. Fauci himself, last week leading into this one has been a test of sorts for this global push for a central government to take over all day-to-day activity.  But for that to happen, they had to scare us into imprisoning ourselves into the cage they intended for us.  Instead, what happened was that they found most of us refused to enter and are running about doing our own thing regardless of their taunts.  That left Arnold Schwarzenegger to tell us on CNN to “screw your freedoms.” Dr. Fauci said pretty much the same, something in direct reference to Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, as over a million people descended on the Sturgis Bike Rally, an annual event I talk about a lot.   Despite the Covid warnings of the new “Delta variant,” people went anyway and didn’t wear masks.  People were getting tired of the government crying wolf every day, and they were finally starting to ignore them.  I would argue that people should have stopped listening to the government months ago, but ultimately, people were getting it, and the government has been in a bit of a panic.  So much so that Biden avoided talking about the evacuation of Afghanistan but instead deflected comment to the booster shot to the vaccine that would be available soon.  Covid is their cover story to hide all the crimes that have been committed, even when the world was on fire and all they wanted to talk about was a glass of water. 

This is Where We Are

God bless Kristi Noem, who went to Sturgis herself after a week of the press following Dr. Fauci and trying to put tremendous peer pressure on her to cave to the gods of Covid.  She rode her horse onto the stage at Outlaw Square in Deadwood carrying an American flag in front of a large crowd and gave an excellent speech on freedom.  The optics were tremendous, and you could tell by what the media didn’t show.  Hardly anybody covered a prominent American governor riding her horse carrying an American flag while wearing a cowboy hat down the streets of Deadwood, South Dakota, at all.  But for Kristi Noem, it was her answer to the criticism.   It was a kind of Braveheart moment in this new American story, and it infuriated the government.  Wait, Kristi Noem is the government.  So was Donald Trump. Let’s say instead, these insurgents connected to international Marxism have infected Washington D.C. and other academic circles with the intent to overthrow our American Constitution.  How about that?  We don’t want to overthrow the government.  We want our government to resume administrative power and take away the leverage that the spooks, kooks, and losers of international Marxism have over us presently.  We let them have that leverage after all out of niceness, and they misread that niceness as weakness.  But that niceness has expired.   

This is what Leadership looks like

While all this was going on, I read Vivek Ramasamy’s new book Woke, Inc. a few times, which I liked a lot.  But, there was a lot I didn’t like at all, which I attribute to him being on the inside of corporate America for a long time—even being tempted by the fruits of globalism.  I loved his book because I loved his perspective.  But as I closed the book for the third time in a 70 some hour period, I concluded that Vivek is still learning. He’s a brilliant guy who has made a lot of money, but he’s still the kid in India who grew up with a caste system spoiled by American capitalism.  He thinks the modern Woke problem can be solved like the story he recites in the book The Brothers Karamazov, where the Grand Inquisitor committed Christ to death because the Church no longer had a use for Jesus.  Jesus Christ had served his purpose, and now it was time to die and let the Church handle things.  Well, we can’t help where we are born, and I’m perfectly open to people fleeing from where they came from to come to America for a chance. I’m even more for America spreading its influence to many of those places so that they can get western civilization in their back yards, which makes what’s happening in Afghanistan that much more of a tragedy.  But in America, when we get tired of being poked in the eye by some bad guys, we won’t be kissing them on the cheek and leaving quietly as Jesus did in that story.  The Brothers Karamazov is a very European story. That’s not how things are done in America, or at least they haven’t been.  And that planned assumption that Americans would passively sit around and be bossed around was a bad one from the start.  Yes, there are plenty of bootlickers in America who will.  There are more who won’t, and that is what’s going on with the masks and the vaccines. 

Liberty or Death……..but where are the deaths?

I only bring up Vivek because he wrote a reasonably significant book that the mainstreamers have fully embraced.  He represents many people who hatched this Covid plan, and clearly, they don’t understand Americans.  I was enormously proud of Kristi Noem when she hoisted that flag on stage atop her horse in Deadwood.  I had just returned from that exact spot a few weeks ago.  Deadwood and South Dakota, in many ways, are vestiges of freedom that people growing up in India or Russia can’t even imagine until they see it for themselves.  And even then, the culture change is dramatic. It’s not an accident that Mike Lindell held his Symposium in South Dakota. That’s where the heart of America is, and you can certainly feel it when you visit. It’s a long way from Wall Street and the hacks of investment that Vivek knows.  People who ride horses, shoot guns, and love their American flag aren’t putting up with what they are seeing, and the current government is just now getting a feel for it.  These kinds of Americans aren’t going to be controlled by Facebook or Google. They’ll just come up with their alternative.  They aren’t wearing masks or have the government tell them to take the medicine they don’t want.  And if the government gets too pushy, they’ll get shoved back.  When people wonder why Afghanistan is the “graveyard of empires,” as Biden calls it, they haven’t seen anything yet when they try to go door to door in Ohio or South Dakota to confiscate guns and force people to take a vaccine.  Instead, they will see something far different from what Vivek Ramaswamy proposed with his example of Christ versus The Grand Inquisitor.  If The Grand Inquisitor tried some of that stuff that he tried to pull on Jesus Christ in the city of Deadwood, or Sturgis………well, I would promise that he would have been shot dead before he ever had a chance to sentence Christ to death.  Fyodor Dostoevsky’s great book would have been a short story instead of a great literary classic if written in Deadwood.  And the bad guy would have died quickly and spectacularly under a hail of gunfire.   The American way to fight these things ultimately isn’t with a kiss on the cheek, but a hand on our guns and the willingness to defend ourselves when pressed by an authoritarian government that does not have our best interests in mind.  And it’s good to see people finally sticking up for themselves because that is ultimately the way to peace where such a tragedy could be avoided.  Do like Nancy Reagan used to say, “Just Say No.”

 

Rich Hoffman

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