South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has shared photos showing her hard at work to help Texas build barriers at the southern border.
The Republican governor has repeatedly deployed National Guard troops to Texas to support Texas Governor Greg Abbott‘s efforts to deter immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
She visited the border on Thursday, where photos show her dressed in jeans and a hard hat, helping to erect the barriers.
“I helped build the wall with the @SD_Guard—I’m proud of our soldiers who are carrying out this mission,” Noem wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
I helped build the wall with the @SD_Guard — I’m proud of our soldiers who are carrying out this mission pic.twitter.com/kDtrNBxHsU
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem)
The National Guard troops are “doing incredible work to help Texas build the barrier wall,” she said in another post.
“When I asked @gregabbott_tx what kind of help he needed, he requested BUILDERS. These men and women are some of the best.”
Newsweek has contacted Noem’s office for further comment via email.
Our @sd_guard soldiers are doing incredible work to help Texas build the barrier wall.
When I asked @gregabbott_tx what kind of help he needed, he requested BUILDERS. These men and women are some of the best. pic.twitter.com/dcDqppP1rp
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem)
In another post, she said that Border Patrol agents took her “on horseback to see some rougher areas along the border—areas where cartel control and illegal activity are much stronger than is being reported.”
It comes as Noem, among the contenders being considered by former President Donald Trump to be his vice presidential running mate, has been being banned from a number of tribal reservations in her state over comments she made about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels.
Noem doubled down at a press conference on Friday, and again cast blame on President Joe Biden‘s border policies.
“The drug cartels and their criminal activity have made all of our communities unsafe. But they’ve especially made our tribal reservations unsafe,” Noem said.
“The problem doesn’t start there—it starts thousands of miles from here. It starts at an open southern border that has become a warzone because of the neglect of President Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris.”
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem on May 7, 2024, in New York City. The governor has been pictured helping to build a wall at the Texas-Mexico border.
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Noem is continuing to face backlash after describing how she once shot and killed an “untrainable” dog in her new book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.
Noem wrote about killing 14-month-old Cricket after the dog attacked a family’s chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor.
She was also criticized for claiming that she met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the book. Noem has said that the anecdote “shouldn’t have been in the book.”
The book’s publisher said that at Noem’s request, the passage about Kim would be omitted in future print editions and removed from audiobook and e-book editions as soon as possible.
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