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For President Trump - a man who values loyalty above all else - it was the moment he finally turned on Kristi Noem.
Appearing before Congress, his embattled homeland security secretary said the president had signed off on her spending $220 million of taxpayer money on a border security advertising campaign.
The campaign prominently featured Noem herself, including a scene of her on horseback at Mount Rushmore in her home state of South Dakota. It sparked rumors that she could be raising her profile ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run.
'I never knew anything about it,' Trump lamented on Thursday.
However, while that was the final straw for the president, the seeds of Noem's demise had been sown in the preceding months.
She had made herself a deeply polarizing figure, loathed on the left as 'Bloody Kristi,' and alienating independents.
As the midterm elections loom in November, Republican strategists have been alarmed at how what was previously Trump's strongest issue - immigration - has become an electoral liability with Noem at the fore.
A key moment in that damaging process came when she stepped to the microphones, just hours after the fatal shooting of activist Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on January 7.
Kristi Noem is now the former Homeland Security Secretary
Noem's controversies reported by the Daily MailIn such situations, federal officials typically say they will need to wait for the findings of an investigation before passing judgment. So, her response was highly unexpected and controversial.
Flanked by burly, stone-faced agency officials and wearing a black DHS hat pulled down over her eyes, Noem claimed that Ms Good had committed an act of 'domestic terrorism,' 'weaponized' her car and 'attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.' The officer, she declared, followed his training.
Her comments sent shockwaves through the law enforcement community and America at large. One former senior DHS official told the Daily Mail that Noem displayed 'profound ignorance' and a 'disturbing disregard for the proper way to investigate an officer-involved shooting' by not reserving her judgment.
Some Republicans in Congress echoed those sentiments and Democrats stepped up calls for Noem's impeachment.
Her handling of the shooting of Ms Good, and that of Alex Pretti, appeared to signal a possible turning point in her troubled tenure as secretary.
It brought to a head an internal agency struggle with Trump's hand-picked border czar Tom Homan.
Noem had strived to make herself the very public face of Trump's mass deportation program.
But it was a trial by fire for a woman labelled 'ICE Barbie' by detractors. She became a frequent target of ridicule for Democrats and late-night comedians - 'Why is Kristi Noem always in some sort of cosplay outfit?' smirked Stephen Colbert.
Even before her appointment to the post, Noem was widely derided over an admission in her book, released last year that while she was Governor of South Dakota (2019-2025), that she shot and killed her family's 14-month-old dog, which had bitten her and killed livestock.
The theriocide became a national story, which Noem eventually addressed in a public statement.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem films an ad at Mount Rushmore. The ad was a part of a $220 million campaign to recruit more DHS workers. Noem said Trump signed off on the expense, but the President refuted that
Recently, walking through the halls of Congress carrying her infant granddaughter, the extent of antipathy for Noem was evident.
She was accosted by a group of belligerent protesters. She was the 'Gestapo' and the new SS, they cried, even yelling that she was using the baby as a 'political prop'.
Within the Department of Homeland, sources told the Daily Mail that Noem had been in a fierce turf war with Homan.
She recently lost one of her key allies in the department as the deputy director of ICE, Madison Sheahan, 28, announced she was resigning to run for Congress.
Homan was said to want to prioritize deportation of the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens, while Noem wanted to deport as many as possible, often in high-profile operations featuring herself in law enforcement gear.
Her critics inside the agency said her approach inflamed the backlash against ICE, and the split reverberated through the rank and file, with insiders telling the Daily Mail the situation was a 'train wreck.'
Behind the scenes, at the Department of Homeland Security's imposing headquarters, also lurked Corey Lewandowski, Noem's trusted adviser and confidant.
Lewandowski is a former political adviser to President Trump and he officially serves in the administration as a temporary government employee. The Daily Mail has previously reported that Noem and Lewandowski are also secretly romantic partners.
Some in the department have found Lewandowski, to put it politely, abrasive.
Kristi Noem and Tom Homan (pictured) have been at odds on how to enforce immigration policy, according to sources
On Thursday, Noem lost one of her key allies in the department as the deputy director of ICE, Madison Sheahan (pictured) announced she was resigning to run for Congress.
In December, the Daily Mail reported that Lewandowski repeatedly encouraged DHS officials to issue him a federally approved gun, going so far as to make it a litmus test for a top candidate interviewing to become ICE director, according to multiple department sources.
Lewandowski denied the claims and alleged to the Daily Mail that Homan had planted the story, which elicited a rare rebuke of him from the White House.
'Tom Homan is an American patriot who does not leak to the media and is very respectful of the White House's press processes,' said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a direct response to Lewandowski's claim.
These ill-feelings and other within the department, which has a $100 billion budget and 260,000 employees, contributed to ongoing speculation that Noem would be fired by President Trump.
At one point, Noem was confronted with that assessment at a news conference in Tampa. She gave a wry smile and said she had 'no indication' she was on the chopping block.
In January, influential Trump advisor and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller publicly backed Noem.
He told the Daily Mail: 'On behalf of President Trump, Secretary Noem is returning America to the American People.
'She has demonstrated exceptional leadership in responding to the wide array of threats and challenges facing our nation – from foreign cartels to mass migration to natural disasters – and has been instrumental in delivering so many historic wins for the American People.'
Stephen Miller told the Daily Mail in January that Noem had displayed 'exceptional leadership'
Federal agents clash with rioters on the streets of Minneapolis
It has long been said that Trump has a particular loyalty to those who actively defend him in extremis and he notes who is on television fighting for him and his administration.
In the wake of the Minneapolis shooting, Noem was everywhere on the airwaves - and not just on safe ground. She ventured into the bear pit of CNN to face the network's chief inquisitor Jake Tapper.
That appeared to have helped prolong her tenure.
Asked at the time by the Daily Mail if Trump was satisfied with Noem's handling of the crisis, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. 'Yes, 100 percent.'
However, rank and file DHS officials told the Daily Mail that ICE agents appreciated more Homan's initial response to the shooting, viewing it as far more measured compared to Noem's provocative approach.
Renee Good was shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis on January 7
There is no doubt that some in the law enforcement community want to see the back of her.
Several DHS officials reached out the Daily Mail to express their disdain for a woman seen by some as unqualified for the position.
In October, the growing friction between the two camps – Noem on one side and Homan on the other – sparked a shakeup within at least eight ICE field offices.
As many as 12 senior leaders within the field offices were reportedly turfed out and replaced with Border Patrol officials, in a sign that Noem's allies were trying to assert more influence within ICE.
Noem's broader and more aggressive approach to boost the number of reportable deportations each day also led to pushback from some moderate Republicans.
According to one Republican strategist, immigration had been a 'huge political strength of the president - get bad hombres out of the country, people wanted to see drug lords, bad people snatched up. But '(the electorate) doesn't want to see people who are doing dry wall, sheet rock, gardeners, nannies, zip tied in a CVS parking lot.'
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem sits atop a horse with Border Patrol agents near the Rio Grande river
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in January that President Trump was '100 percent' satisfied with Noem's handling of the Minneapolis crisis
One former senior ICE official, whose son works for ICE and who maintains regular contact with officers in the field, claimed much of the rank and file lost confidence in Noem's leadership.
'Morale is in the toilet right now,' the source told the Daily Mail in January. 'This is a strategy to screw with blue states. It's all to get clips so the secretary can make cute statements.
'Kristi Noem is the stereotype of what Trump likes to have in leadership. They look good on camera, they provide you with good sound bites and videos, but that's about it.'
Another ICE insider, speaking before she was fired, said: 'It's a total train wreck. Lewandowski, Stephen Miller and Homan don't get along and always fight and bicker behind the scenes.
'Noem doesn't have a lot of people surrounding her who have real world experience, as far as law enforcement is concerned, and I think that's going to be here undoing.'