7 April: The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, has resigned after slightly more than a year in office. Although a hard line right-winger, unsurprisingly described by the Democrat Chair of the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security as “ a disaster from the start”, she was apparently not extreme enough for the Trump administration which had turned its back on her in recent weeks. President Trump has announced that he wants to get “tougher” and “meaner” on immigration and Nielsen’s resignation has not come as much of a surprise.
The departure leaves the leadership of Homeland Security in tatters following the departure of General John Kelly from the Department in 2017 and his resignation as White House Chief of Staff this January. The Border Protection Commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, has been appointed as a temporary replacement. This sort of chaos is, of course, just what Russia was hoping for when they backed the Trump presidency.