Trump needs a solid VP, not a social climber like Kristi Noem

Trump could pick a better VP than Kristi Noem - Jonathan Ernst /Reuters

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s fall from political grace has been stunning. The proximate cause is her bizarre statements regarding killing her puppy years ago and claiming to have met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il when she didn’t. The real cause is a malady all too common: ambition that far outstripped her ability.

Think back to early 2019. No reasonable observer would have thought Noem, a newly elected governor of a politically insignificant safe Republican state, would shortly become nationally prominent. But that is exactly what happened. She was determined to rise, and rise she did.

Her decision to resist mainstream thinking regarding how to react to the Covid pandemic was the first thing that attracted conservative attention. She then exploited that interest by appearing frequently on Fox News and giving interviews to friendly outlets. Noem was articulate and direct on television. Conservatives hungering for a female, less confrontational version of Trump, started to pay attention.

She followed this beachhead up with two moves that showed she had the president’s favor. Noem hosted Trump’s July 4 celebration at the foot of Mount Rushmore, and then had a prominent speaking role at the televised Republican National Convention. When she announced she would give speeches in New Hampshire, host to the nation’s first presidential primary, politicos of all stripes started to take note.

She then started to show signs that maybe her political antenna didn’t pick up all frequencies. I went to New Hampshire to cover her first talk to Republican activists but was ushered out of the room by her Svengali, Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski, when I mentioned my interest was to write about Noem despite having been granted access by the event organisers. One Republican politico incredulously said to me afterwards, “she wouldn’t let you listen to her stump speech?” Yes she did, and that’s always a bad sign.

Warning signs abounded for all who wished to see afterwards. She bungled a bill banning transgender athletes from competing in competitions featuring their non-biological gender, first saying she was for it and then vetoing it. Social conservatives howled and even subsequently signing similar bills has not removed the stain from what many regarded as a betrayal.

Noem also displayed other problems. She had five chiefs of staff in her first five years in office and has not hired a replacement almost a year after the last chief departed. Noem also has had rocky relations with the GOP-dominated legislature. The former Senate President Pro Tempore called her weak and she was challenged for re-election in 2022 by the outgoing State House Speaker. These aren’t signs of a gifted politician.

Most ambitious politicians experience rough patches in their climb to the top, but they always learn from their mistakes. Noem seems determined to double down on a style and attitude that wins friends but makes just as many enemies. She mistakes will for judgment and tries to plow through her missteps without regret or strategic retreat. Even Donald Trump, a legendary bull in a political china shop, adjusts his strategy more than Noem.

Noem in hindsight looks to be an American version of former British Prime Minister Liz Truss. Truss also displayed steely ambition in her career, switching from a college devotion to the Liberal Democrats to becoming a Conservative MP. She climbed the greasy pole as one does in a parliamentary regime, moving up the Cabinet ladder to positions of greater import until she became Foreign Secretary, one of the great offices of state.

She then made her move for the top. Aligning herself with the Thatcherite wing of the party, she overcame her colleagues’ preference for Rishi Sunak to win the Tory members’ support in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. Only 47 when she took office, she was the third youngest PM since the late 19th Century. The political world was her oyster.

Truss instead sank to the bottom faster than any PM in modern history. She quickly displayed an utter lack of political skill. Swerving to the hard Right, her mini budget unnerved markets and caused a run on the pound. She first held fast under pressure, then capitulated in stages so completely that she even fired her close friend, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, in a bid to keep her job. But it was not to be. Able neither to keep friends nor quiet foes, Truss resigned only 49 days after her installation, the shortest tenure in British history.

Media entrepreneur Ariana Huffington, nee Stassinopoulos, was once described as “the most upwardly mobile Greek since Icarus”. She maintained her influence for years as she swerved to the Left and Right with aplomb, making new friends even as she ditched old ones. Truss and Noem, on the other hand, lacked that necessary insight and flexibility. Like Icarus, they tried to fly too close to the sun on wax wings. Like him, they have now fallen into the sea, yet more warnings to other ambitious politicos that one can only soar so high as one’s abilities permit.

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