Last Friday evening, Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota, gave her endorsement to Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential election.

Last Friday evening, Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota, officially became a sell out.

No, I am not talking about the crowd of 7,000 people that Noem and Trump attracted to the rally in Rapid City, SD. I am talking about the betrayal of her principles for political gain. I am talking about the betrayal of what she has purportedly stood for and fought for in exchange for the opportunity to hitch her wagon to the man that she thinks will help expand her own political horizons. I am talking, sadly, someone who revealed herself as a hypocrite—live, in front of 7,000 people, but, by extension, in front of the United States of America.

In her introduction of Trump, Noem said, “It is my honor to present to you the man in the arena. He is a man of significance. He is the leader, the fighter, that our country needs. He has my full and complete endorsement for President of the United States of America. I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country.”

Less than a year ago, following the atrocious outcome for Trump-endorsed candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, Noem told The New York Times that she did not believe that Trump offered the best chance for Republican victory in 2024. In June 2023, Noem commented that Doug Burgum, governor of neighboring North Dakota, had asked for her support. And while she called him a “good guy,” she said, when asked if she was going to endorse any candidate, “No, I don’t think so. President Trump is in the race and right now I don’t see a path to victory for anybody else with him in the race and the situation as it sits today.”

But just last month, doing an interview for the Fox News show “Breakfast with Friends,” she tried to get cute. First, when the interviewer commented that a lot of governors were running for president, she said, “Almost all of ‘em” before laughing at her own joke. It wasn’t really all that funny though—nor was the question all that astute—since there are exactly two governors running for the nomination—Ron DeSantis of Florida and Doug Burgum of North Dakota. There are twenty-six Republican governors right now. Saying that two of twenty-six is “almost all of ‘em” is, well, pitiful. Funnily enough, there are more GOP governors who have already endorsed Trump than there are running for president (Noem’s endorsement makes her at least the fourth sitting governor to endorse Trump).

Math difficulties and attempts at humor aside, though, Noem explained that no one else had a chance to win the nomination as long as Trump was running. She added that Trump “did some great things for our state and our country,” and stressed that he let her do her job as governor. Then she made another attempt at humor and this one was even worse, cracking that President Biden would be offended by some of the flags being flown at Sturgis. Some of the flags said “Let’s Go Brandon,” based on the next comment, but some, no doubt, had a more explicit sentiment. That Governor Noem would joke about such flags rather than condemn them is deeply disappointing. She was then asked if she would endorse Trump at the rally in September. She demurred, of course, saying that the tickets sold out in a day and that people always hear “something interesting” from Trump. No resounding endorsements there. When asked if she would consider being Trump’s VP, she said that he hadn’t asked her and she does not answer hypothetical questions. Apparently she has changed her position on that, because when Newsmax asked her last week if she would consider it she replied, “Oh, absolutely. I would in a heartbeat.”

Way back in January, Noem was asked by Robert Acosta of CBS News if she felt “a rush…to make a decision on 2024” to which she replied, “No, I think it’s important that people focus on governing rather than going out and making big, broad statements and going out and taking action for their own political futures.”

Oddly enough, then, Noem decided to do exactly that on Friday night. Equally as hypocritical, Kari Lake then took the opportunity to attack Noem’s obvious angling for the VP spot on a 2024 Trump ticket, saying, “Anyone who’s talking about a position and dreaming about a position in Trump’s second administration really needs to get off their high horse,” to which she added that the focus need to be working “in the grassroots and start making sure Trump has a second administration.” This came in the same conversation in which Lake stressed the fact that she had been supporting Trump even before he had entered the race.

Lake, of course, is not even remotely qualified to be VP, having never held any elected office. But then Trump wasn’t remotely qualified to be president in 2020, either. But Lake is bizarrely committed to Trump, a commitment revealed when she kissed a painting of Trump on the stage at the CPAC convention last March. Marjorie Taylor Greene is rumored to be under consideration for Trump’s running mate, too. I cannot imagine Kristi Noem would find it to her advantage to be mentioned in the same breath as Lake and Greene; they’re so extreme that they might accurately be described as wacko. Fortunately for Noem, Elise Stefanik, Nancy Mace and Nikki Haley have also been mentioned as possibilities, though I think it is safe to say that Haley would decline if asked. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also been rumored to be a possibility but, interestingly, she has declined to even endorse Trump so far, despite having been directly asked by Trump to do so according to The New York Times.

Which, actually, leads to another point. If Trump was so wonderful, why are Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Chris Christie running against him for the nomination? Pence was Trump’s VP, Haley was his UN Ambassador and Christie was one of his strongest supporters. Vivek Ramaswamy has said that he thinks Trump as the best president of the 21^st century to this point, yet he, too, is running against him! Really only once in American history has someone who had been the vice president run against the president under whom they served, and that was when Thomas Jefferson ran against John Adams. Given the way that vice presidents were selected then, that really doesn’t even count; Jefferson was only Adams’ vice president because Adams had received more electoral votes than Jefferson had when they were both running for president in 1796. The only other instance was John Nance Garner running against FDR in 1940—but Roosevelt was not an announced candidate when Garner announced his candidacy, or for most of the campaign season. And given that no president had ever served more than two terms before that point, and FDR was finishing his second term, it really isn’t fair to say that Garner was running against FDR, either. In other words, Mike Pence is really the first person who ever served as a vice president to knowingly and intentionally run against a president whom he willingly served.

Over a year and a half ago, James Downie, writing in The Washington Post, said that “the [Republican] party’s most prominent figures are willingly empty vessels in thrall to the GOP base. Until that changes, the GOP will stay the party of Trump.” He included Noem in that accusation. Until recently, I was a supporter of Noem. I voted for her governor twice. To be perfectly honest, I wrote her name when I cast my vote for president in 2022 despite the fact that I know that South Dakota does not count write-in votes. I could not vote for Trump. Or Biden. I have openly and publicly supported the way that she handled COVID as well as her general approach to governing. When she vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature dealing with transgender athletes because of some specific concerns, I thought she demonstrated a willingness to stand up to the GOP base and do something that was right rather than something that was politically popular. She did, of course, later sign a measure that corrected those concerns. But Noem has now shown that she would rather go along with the guy who is popular than do the right thing. She has shown that Downie may have been right. And she has certainly shown that she is no Nikki Haley, who has been willing to speak honestly about Trump and to stake realistic positions on issues such as abortion that do not cater to the fringe wing of the republican party.

I have made absolutely no secret of the fact that Donald Trump is not fit to serve as President of the Unted States—and that was all before the 2016 election, let alone the insurrection of January 6, 2021. So, Noem pretty well ruled out any future support from me when she endorsed Trump, a man who lacks every one of the character qualities that Noem has expressed are needed to be a true leader. Very early in her book Not My First Rodeo, Noem writes, of her decision to pursue public service, “I would not follow the glittery distractions of whatever was popular or convenient at any given moment.” Four sentences later she said, “…what matters is not how hard life is, but rather how hard you fight for what is right—and how tall you stand against what is wrong.”

Well, Governor, there is no greater “glittery distraction” in the Republican party these days than Donald Trump. It’s too bad that you have decided not to fight for what is right.

Image: Screen capture