It was U.S. border agents themselves who came up with the perfect nickname for their boss, Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security who is now the first member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet to be fired. They called her “ICE Barbie” and the name has become ubiquitous.
A couple of years ago, Noem, the South Dakota cowgirl, was riding high. She had been a member of Congress. She was governor of her home state. She was talked about seriously as a possible running mate for Trump in his third run for the White House. She even had a newly published autobiography.
That book is where her troubles began, thanks to a passage in which Noem described shooting a family dog because the unruly mutt was “untrainable” and “less than worthless.” Now, the president has come to the same conclusion about her. As a consolation, Trump has shuffled Noem off to a made-up job in a powerless corner of his administration. Politically speaking, she might be happier if Trump had shot her like a dog.
Now, there’s no more fun for ICE Barbie. No more cosplaying in cowboy hats and tactical gear. No more millions of taxpayer dollars to spend on TV ads featuring her abundant hair and her face in full makeup. No more fancy jets with bedrooms provoking tabloid rumors about her relationship with “senior adviser” Corey Lewandowski. No chance she will ever fulfill her aspiration to be elected president (although, given the bizarre state of American politics, am I speaking too soon?).
To tell you the truth, it’s a sad day for us political cartoonists who had, in ICE Barbie, a fabulous target for our satire. Luckily for us (but not the country), Trump has other weird dolls in his cabinet of horrors.
Attorney General Pam Bondi may not wear as many colorful outfits as Noem, but she’s collecting just as many scandals as she turns the Justice Department into Trump’s private law firm and dissembles about her handling of the Epstein Files. Let’s call her “Cover-Up Barbie.”
Bondi is scheduled for a return appearance on Capitol Hill, not just for one more round of trading insults with lawmakers, but to be deposed by lawyers who actually know what they are doing (unlike so many of the incompetent attorneys at the top of Trump’s Justice Department). If that does not go well, Bondi could be the next cabinet member to suddenly find herself unemployed.
That would still leave us the scariest doll in the Trump toy shop, the president’s closest adviser, Steven Miller. Miller is the architect of everything from the draconian crackdown on immigrants to the belligerent threat to grab Greenland; a minor league Machiavelli, a repellant Rasputin, an anti-democratic ideologue who has made it clear he believes there is but one rule for the president to follow: might makes right.
Miller is the administration’s most worthy target for political cartoonists, at least those of us who think democracy and the rule of law are worth preserving. So, to follow the Barbie trope, let’s just call him “Mein Kampf Ken.”
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
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