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(NewsNation) — South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem not only blew up her (slim) shot at being Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick when she bragged about shooting a rambunctious puppy in her soon-to-be-released book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.” She also blew up any chance she had of being picked to serve on Trump’s cabinet or in another prestigious post, my insiders say.
“She’s done. Out,” a major Republican donor told me. “Trump doesn’t exactly like dogs, but he knows people love them and isn’t going to be associated with this. This is a dumber move than Mitt Romney’s dog story.”
In 2012, while running for President, Romney’s infamous story about a dog he tied to a car roof in a carrier while driving to Canada for 13 hours, came back to bite him.
(According to Business Insider: “Back in 1983, Mitt Romney traveled 12 hours to Canada with his Irish Setter, Seamus, strapped to the roof of the car in a kennel… Romney’s son noticed a brown liquid dripping down the back window. Romney hosed the dog off and stuffed the hound back into the crate. The dog allegedly ran away when the Romney family finally reached its vacation destination.”)
An advance copy of Noem’s book was obtained by The Guardian, and in it, Noem — in an attempt to show she was a woman who could make “difficult, messy and ugly” decisions if they needed to be done — wrote: “Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old.” Noem claimed the dog was “aggressive” and had to be trained for pheasant hunting — but instead attacked chickens.
According the Guardian: “I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket had proved herself “untrainable,” “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog.”
Noem shot the dog in a gravel pit — and then later shot a “nasty, mean” (and smelly!) goat in the same pit.
Noem’s admissions, which have caused a national uproar, also showed a lack of judgment.
“I’m not sure which thing she did was stupider: The fact that she murdered the dog, or the fact that she was stupid enough to publish it in a book,” Joan Payton, of the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America told the Associated Press. The club itself described the breed as “high-energy,” and said Noem was too impatient and her use of a shock collar for training was botched.
TikTok and Instagram influencer TheTruthfulG, who has over 227,000 followers on TikTok, railed on Noem, saying: “As someone with two wonderful German Wirehaired pointers just like poor Cricket I hope that breeder sues the shit out of her… Anyone who would shoot a puppy because it hasn’t figured out hunting yet shouldn’t be allowed to own a dog ever again, and certainly should never hold public office.” The influencer also pointed out that most reputable breeders have a clause in their contract where if, for any reason, the dog doesn’t work out, they would be returned to the breeder. Not shot.
Either way, Noem is out of a job come 2026 — when her term ends and, due to term limits, she can’t run again in her home state.