What A Day - DHS Dysfunction

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

It’s been about a week since the Department of Homeland Security entered a partial shutdown, with Democrats refusing to fund the agency until changes are made to federal immigration enforcement. According to the White House, we are still no closer to a deal. But Democrats are reluctant to budge, and polling shows that most Americans think ICE has gone too far with its enforcement operations. Recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal paints a chaotic picture of DHS under Secretary Kristi Noem. In her colleagues’ view, she’s prioritized getting photo ops for herself over getting results for the Trump Administration. So for more on DHS scandals and what the future holds for Noem, we spoke with Michelle Hackman, a reporter covering immigration for The Wall Street Journal.And in headlines, President Trump worries America’s 250th birthday might be soiled by the smell of feces emanating from the Potomac, former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor gets arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and the Trump administration alienates MAHA by ramping up pesticide production.Show Notes: Check out Michelle's reporting – https://tinyurl.com/3xfpycmd Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8 What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Friday, February 20th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is What Today? The show that knew that whatever former President Barack Obama said about aliens this week, President Donald Trump was going to say something even weirder. Here he is responding to Fox News reporter Peter Ducey on Air Force One on Thursday. It's not thinking of a lot of attention this week. Barack Obama said that aliens are real. Have you seen any evidence of non-human visitors to Earth? Well, he gave classified information.

He's not supposed to be doing that. So aliens are real. Well, I don't know if they're real or not. I can tell you. He gave classified information. He's not supposed to be doing that. He made it big mistake. He took it out of classified information.

No, I don't have an opinion on it. I never talk about it. A lot of people do. A lot of people believe it. Do you believe it, Peter? You can always bet on Trump being weird as hell. On today's show, President Trump for his America's 250th birthday might be soiled by the smell of feces emanating from the Potomac.

And former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Winzor's 66th birthday gets soiled by his arrest. But let's start with the Department of Homeland Security. It's been about a week since DHS entered a partial shutdown. Democrats are refusing to fund the agency until changes are made to federal immigration enforcement. And according to the White House, we are still no closer to a deal. That doesn't mean that immigration and customs enforcement is slowing down. If you'll recall, they got billions of dollars from Trump's big Republican spending law debacle disaster adventure. But the partial shutdown does mean that some DHS employees may soon be working without paychecks.

And at a briefing this week, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, unsurprisingly placed the blame entirely on the Democrats. Now we have FEMA workers, the men and women of the United States Coast Guard, men and women of TSA who keep our airports moving, who will be working without paychecks for no good reason other than the Democrats wanting to pick a fight with Donald Trump. And the president thinks that is irresponsible and despicable. He wants the government to be open. We've been engaged in good faith negotiations with Democrats. Last night they sent over a counterproposal that, frankly, was very unserious. And we hope they get serious very soon because Americans are going to be impacted by this.

But if you look at public opinion, Democrats aren't being so unserious after all. Most Americans think ICE has gone too far with its enforcement operations and believe that the agency is making the country less safe. And a poll from earlier this month found that most Americans also want DHS Secretary Christie Noam fired. Actually, a lot of people seem to want Noem out of her role, and that includes plenty of Trump administration personnel. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, the DHS under Noom has been, for lack of a better term, a total cluster. In her colleague's view, she's prioritized getting photo ups for herself over getting results. for the Trump administration. In my view, DHS has been running roughshod over the constitutional rights of undocumented immigrants and American citizens alike. So there's that. So for more on

DHS scandals and what the future holds for Noam, I spoke with Michelle Hackman. She's a reporter covering immigration for the Wall Street Journal. Michelle, welcome back to what today. Thanks for having me. Let's start with the ongoing DHS shutdown. The White House told reporters earlier this week that Democrats and the GOP are quote, still pretty far apart in terms of of making a deal to reopen DHS. Are you expecting to see any movement there before President Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday because it seems like nothing is happening?

Almost certainly not, no. And honestly, the Republicans have very little incentive to work with Democrats because through their one big, beautiful bill, their huge bill that they passed over the summer, they've given, you know, the immigration parts of DHS, roughly $170 billion to work with. and that money is unaffected by the shutdown. And so, you know, the things they care about, ice, the border patrol, building of the border wall, all that stuff is still going on.

And what Democrats have basically effectively done is kind of shut down FEMA and TSA. Yeah, to that point in a tweet this week, DHS Secretary Kristy Knoem blamed Maryland Democrats for the handling of the sewage spill in the Potomac River and said, quote, Democrats in Congress have shut down FEMA funding. So to your point, does FEMA not have access to disaster recovery funds? right now or what's going on there? So FEMA still does. FEMA has something called the disaster relief fund, which Congress sort of funds separately from the annual budget. And so FEMA does still have access to a lot of that money that they can use to disperse

to states. A lot of FEMA's sort of daily work, you know, their employee's salaries is on hold. And DHS, I think to increase the pain has purposefully been canceling. you know, staff visits to disaster sites, things like that. Are there other parts of DHS that are directly affected by the shutdown at the moment, like TSA or something like that? Because I think people don't get how big DHS is and what it includes. Yeah, I think people think of DHS as primarily the immigration agency, which, you know, that is one of its primary functions. But DHS, you know, is the TSA. It does cybersecurity. It does a whole host of things.

One of the main things that people are concerned about are TSA agents at airports are not getting paid. And so if this stretches a while, you know, I think DHS has an incentive not to try to move around money to pay TSA agents because they want it to hurt. And so eventually that could lead to understaffing, flight delays. Those are typically the types of things that make the American public actually really notice a government shut down. Understandably. Now, let's get back to my favorite person, Christy No. Earlier this month, you published extensive reporting on Secretary Nome's leadership of DHS, as well as her relationship with her top advisor, Corey Lewandowski, a real blast from the past for those of us to remember the 2016 election.

Both of them are married to other people and have denied that they are having an affair, but I digress. But what did you uncover in your reporting about their reputation within DHS? So we've been hearing for months that Christy Nome and Corey Lewandowski, who is her top advisor, have basically been running DHS as like their personal fiefdom. They fire people seemingly at random. They yell at people constantly. Their management style is what has really pissed people off and is all but driving people to sort of mass quit. Yeah. Reading the tea leaves in your reporting, it's pretty telling how many Trump administration people were willing to talk to you to talk about how much they hate Christy Noem and Kori Lewandowski. How popular or unpopular is Noem right now, even with her own colleagues?

Extremely unpopular. You know, without going into details about who spoke to us, people are frustrated. It's not, you know, this is not like a left-wing criticism of Christenome. These are people who really want to see President Trump's mass deportation happen and succeed and feel like Christenome is the wrong person to sort of do that job. Yeah, that's odd to me because Trump cares about very few things, but among the things he really cares about is public perception of himself. in a very specific, weird way that's complicated.

But considering Trump's immigration policies are unpopular right now, which he knows, which you saw what happened in Minneapolis. And Nome has been getting all of this bad press. Why is she still in charge of DHS? I think it comes down to loyalty. You know, Corey Lewandowski is Christy Noam's chief advisor. He's sort of her political booster. And he's very close to Donald Trump.

You know, we have reported that Donald Trump considers Lewandowski a friend. He considers him a loyal soldier. And we've reported in the past that he appointed Cristino partially as a favor to Corey Lewandowski. You know, they were, the pair of them thought that being DHS secretary would sort of be a stepping stone in her political career. It's interesting. I don't know if they still feel that way. But, you know, the other problem is that Trump has. gone around saying I appointed the perfect cabinet. And so that has created some hesitation on his

part to fire someone because that would almost prove himself wrong. You reported on an incident in which Lewandowski allegedly fired a Coast Guard pilot because a blanket of Gnomes was left behind on a plane. What do your sources say happened there? Isn't that crazy? What we were told happened, it's pretty much as crazy as it sounds. Basically, Gnome was on a a trip. They had to switch planes because her original plane had mechanical reasons. And the crew didn't bring over a prized blanket of hers. And so she, you know, she was so upset that Corey Lewandowski fired the pilot. But once they landed in their destination, they realized that they didn't have anyone to fly them home. So they had to reinstate the pilot. That gives me like zero percent

confidence in anything these people do, which actually, leads to my next question, which is that something you got in this reporting is how what Christy Noem wants are very flashy immigration raids. She wants to be photographed at that, you know, super prison in El Salvador. She wants

to be photographed wearing a flack jacket and holding a gun. She just wants to be photographed. And she's been pushing out people who want to do immigration in a more subtle way, kind of less ridiculous, to my view. Do we have a sense of what DHS is

planning right now as far as future ICE operations, knowing that Nome wants to get big, flashy press opportunities. Yeah. I think it's sort of, it's become a misnomer that like we're going to see less immigration enforcement. I think this administration and everyone there is still hell bent on doing numbers, right? They claim they want to arrest a million people in a year. That's sort of the number that they've come up with to do their mass deportation. But I think you should expect to see fewer of those huge flashy raids like sending 3,000 agents to Minneapolis. I think you should expect ICE to do more sort of methodical searches for people, going to people's homes, going to their workplaces, doing more workplace raids. And that's going to be happening all around the country. I don't

necessarily think it's going to look less aggressive per se, but it might lead to fewer huge media ops. What else will you be watching for next with DHS and Chrissy Knoam? I will be wondering if the president turns on her. You know, we've been hearing that he, even though he's not ready to fire her, that he's really upset about the press that she's been getting, about her management style. People at the White House are frustrated that she doesn't take direction from them. You know, this White House likes to prize itself on sort of running the cabinet agencies itself, not really giving people autonomy.

And so we're wondering sort of what happens to flip Trump to front. finally get him to the point where he appoints someone new. And if there is a new DHS secretary who's maybe more effective, does that mean we actually do see more immigrants getting arrested and deported? Michelle, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. That was my conversation with Michelle Hackman, immigration reporter for the Wall Street Journal. More news. Haza! If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Watch us on YouTube. and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration and coffee sponsor.

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Headalines. This is our first meeting. But every dollar spent is an investment in stability and the hope of new and harmonious. It's a region that's so important, it's so vibrant, it's so incredible. The people are so incredible. But we want to have a harmonious Middle East.

The Middle East is amazing. Donald Trump said, nine countries will pledge $7 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. It's a notable investment, but far short of the estimated $70 billion needed to revamp the war-torn territory. He added that the United States itself would be contributing $10 billion. Money from where? Who knows? Trump made that pledge announcement at the first meeting of the so-called Board of Peace, which includes very few of America's closest allies. But, as you might expect, the first meeting

did include a lot of sycophancy. World leader spent much of the event praising the president, President. Pakistan described him as the savior of South Asia. Indonesia said that, with the leadership of President Trump, this vision of real peace will be achieved. Kazakhstan proposed giving Trump an award to recognize his outstanding peace-building efforts and achievements. Reconstruction in Gaza won't begin until Hamas fully disarms, according to both American and Israeli officials. And there are no current plans in place to ensure that the militant organization does so. But that didn't slow Trump's hustle on Thursday, he ended the meeting by banging a golden gavel and blasting YMCA. This week, 250 years after Americans rebelled against a monarch, it's the British crown

that's looking like a bastion of democratic values and public accountability. The King's brother, former prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, was arrested Thursday over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew was arrested on his 66th birthday on suspicion of misconduct in public office in the most high-profile crackdown on Epstein's network of global elites yet. Its familial ties to Buckingham Palace didn't save him. King Charles III expressed his, quote, deepest concern over his brother's legal troubles

before throwing his full and whole-hearted support behind the police and investigation. It's the first time a member of the British royal family has been arrested since 1649 during the English Civil War. That arrest of then-King Charles I ended in his execution. So this definitely isn't a good thing. for Andrew. The split-screen comparison with Trump World couldn't be more stark. Here's Trump on Air Force One during that press gaggle Thursday. I got a question about something the overseas

day, the former Prince Andrew, arrested by the police there, related to something with Jeffrey Epstein. Do you think people in this country at some point, associates of Jeffrey Epstein, will wind up in handcuffs too? Well, you know, I'm the expert in a way because I've been totally exonerated. That's very nice. actually speak about it very nicely. I think it's a shame. I think it's very sad. I think it's so bad for the royal family. What a weird way to answer this question. The Lincoln Project and anti-Trump group wrote on social media, quote, Donald Trump has mentioned 37,750 times more than Prince Andrew in the Epstein Files, by the way. In its continued effort to make the people who supported it in

2024 looks stupid, the Trump administration has decided that what America needs most are pesticides. On Wednesday night, President Trump signed an executive order using the Defense Production Act to argue that glyphosate and phosphorus, chemicals used in the weed killer known as Roundup, are quote, critical to the national defense in order to ramp up domestic production of the pesticide. If you've heard of Roundup, it's probably because it's been the target of anti-pesticide campaigners. They argue that glyphosate has been linked to boosting one risk of developing a type of cancer that attacks the lymphatic system. In fact, on Tuesday, the agrochemical company Bayer, which produces Roundup, agreed to pay nearly

$8 billion in damages to resolve thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. from people alleging that the company didn't do enough to warn of Roundup's cancer risk. One of those anti-pesticide campaigners was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who won a $300 million jury verdict back in 2018 against the then-makers of Roundup, Monsanto, over the those cancer risks. When he was running for president back in 2024, RFK Jr. said that his USDA would quote, ban glyphosate. But that was then, and this is now. On Wednesday, the now Health and Human Services Secretary issued a statement that read in part, quote, Donald Trump's executive order puts America first where it matters most, our defense readiness and our food supply. Of course.

Donald Trump is worried that his big birthday bash this summer, might end up smelling like shit. Seriously. That's thanks to a historic sewage spill, which we mentioned earlier on the show in the Potomac River. The river flows right through Washington, D.C., and is prompting Trump, a notorious germaphobe, to fret that an evil stench might overshadow

his planned festivities for America's 250th anniversary, which just happened to fall around the time of Trump's 80th birthday. On Wednesday, a reporter asked White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, whether the president is concerned that downtown D.C. will smell during the summer when he plans to host a UFC fight on the White House lawn, an IndyCar street race through the nation's capital and other festivities. The president wants people from all over to come to the nation's capital. Is he worried that by the summer, the Potomac River will still smell like poop?

He is worried about that, which is why the federal government wants to fix it, and we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so. Local officials are taking steps to clean up the mess. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency and requested federal assistance. In short, Trump's anxiety is based on nothing but his own inordinate screamishness and disdain for local officials in big blue cities. In other words, the stench is coming from inside the house. And that's the news. Before we go, a brand new episode of Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer is out now for Friends of the Pod subscribers.

In this episode, Dan breaks down. CNN's poll on where voters would stand if the 2024 presidential election were held today. Spoiler, Kamala Harris leads by eight points. By subscribing, you also unlock access to Pod Save America. Only Friends are a new subscriber-exclusive show every other Thursday. And Open Dabs, the behind-the-scenes newsletter from Pod Save America editor, Read Sherlin. Why subscribe to Friends of the Pod? It supports independent progressive media, reduces dependence on tech platforms,

and you get a great community of fellow crooked listeners across the country. If you're listening, hit pause and subscribe to Friends of the Pod at crooked.com slash friends. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Enjoy the not at all terrifying sight of Donald Trump's giant face on a banner on the Department of Justice and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just about how the banner was unfurled on Thursday as the DOJ continues to investigate Trump's enemies, like me. What a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe. at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and in general, giant portraits of leaders on government

buildings has never led anywhere good. If it makes you feel any better, though, FBI director Cash Patel took the FBI plane to Milan on Thursday to watch the U.S. men's hockey team play. At least one member of the Trump administration is focused on the real issues. What a day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Four. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters and Matt Berg.

Our senior producer is Erica Morrison. And our senior vice president of news and politics is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.