California Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over a hyped-up visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) base in Portland.
Noem—dubbed “ICE Barbie” for her cosplay photo ops—visited the Oregon city on Tuesday alongside MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson, who breathlessly praised Noem for staring down what he called an “army of antifa.” This is despite Johnson’s own video only showing two small groups of peaceful protesters at the ICE facility—plus a man in a chicken suit.
Newsom’s office, which frequently trolls MAGA figures online, shared an image of the modest gathering with the sarcastic caption: “PORTLAND’S WARZONE.”
The account also posted a ground-up photo of Noem looking down on protesters, adding in a Trumpy all-caps caption: “KOSPLAY KRISTI IS IN PORTLAND! HIDE YO DOGS!”
That post mocked revelations from Noem’s 2024 book No Going Back, in which she described shooting her 14-month-old wire-haired pointer, Cricket, for what she claimed was aggressive behavior. The backlash over the incident helped torpedo her chances of being named Trump’s 2024 running mate.
Protesters in Portland have for weeks appeared in costumes, including chickens and inflatable frog suits, while demonstrating against ICE.
The Trump administration has attempted to label these protesters “domestic terrorists,” using them as justification for the president’s crime crackdowns targeting Democratic-led cities.
In Johnson’s video, Noem is asked what she thinks of the demonstrators, “especially the man in the chicken outfit.” Noem concedes the protest is “peaceful,” but says the man in the costume “can do better,” while calling the rest of the protesters “uneducated and ill-informed.”
At one point, a man can be heard yelling through a megaphone, “Come on down, I’ve got a Subway sandwich for you!”—an apparent reference to an incident in which a man threw a sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C. The office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host, failed to bring federal assault charges in the case.
The man with the megaphone also shouts at Noem, “No dogs there! Woof woof woof woof!”
Noem’s Portland visit came shortly after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from deploying out-of-state National Guard troops into the city.
The ruling arrived one day after U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut also halted the administration’s attempt to deploy Oregon’s own National Guard into Portland, writing that the president’s justification for doing so was “untethered to facts.”
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
