As we discussed, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is a dog-killing psycho who brags about shooting her family’s 14-month-old puppy Cricket and leaving the body in a gravel pit. The tragedy of Cricket was not some dark tale uncovered by Noem’s political enemies. She told the story herself, in her dumbf–k memoir/political screed. One of the reasons why the story has gotten so much attention – besides the horror of it – is because Noem is generally considered a rising star in the MAGA political universe. So much so that Noem has reportedly been on Donald Trump’s VP shortlist for months already. Well, Trump’s people told Rolling Stone that they believe Noem’s dog-killing story just ruined her chances.
All dogs do to heaven, but South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s puppy-executing ways may have just cost her a chance at entering the promised land of the White House as Trump’s running mate.
Several Republicans close to Trump — who, admittedly, are aligned with others vying for the Trump VP slot, or who simply don’t like Noem — are using the MAGA governor’s story of shooting and killing an unruly puppy to try to help nuke the former president’s opinion of her. In the days since the story from Noem’s memoir went viral, multiple Trump allies and confidants flagged the dog-killing and press coverage of it directly to Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter and another source briefed on it, hoping it would cause him to view her as an out-of-touch buffoon.
Trump has been the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee for nearly two months now, which means the intra-party jockeying between the rival camps pushing different GOP veep picks has had plenty of time to get ugly. It wasn’t surprising that elite conservatives who are boosting non-Noem contenders could barely conceal their glee over the weekend, ecstatic that the governor essentially did their work for them and delivered such a uniquely awful self-inflicted wound. “She did oppo against herself,” one Trump adviser says, mockingly.
Another individual close to the Trump campaign told Semafor that Noem “just keeps proving over and over that she’s a lightweight.”
Here’s the thing – if you believe that Noem’s story hurt her chances to be chosen as Trump’s VP, you have to presuppose that Trump and his voters are rational people who value life and compassion. You have to presuppose that Trump would react with horror or at least political savvy regarding Noem’s puppy-execution. All of that would be false – I bet Trump loved her story of shooting and killing her family’s puppy. I bet the MAGA crowd loved it too, since cruelty, violence and stupidity seems to be the point of all of this. Far from ruining her chances, I bet Noem moved to the top of the shortlist.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover of Noem’s book.