South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was in President-elect Donald Trump’s doghouse after she crowed in a memoir published last year about butchering a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket.
Despite his well-known dislike of pooches, Trump, now 78, understood the subsequent backlash against Noem, even making a joke of the situation with his eldest son, Don Jr. — known for his love of exotic hunting trips.
“’That’s not good at all,’ Trump told Don Jr., an avid hunter,” Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt reveals in his forthcoming book, “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power.”
“Even you wouldn’t kill a dog, and you kill everything,” added the elder Trump to his son, according to an excerpt of Isenstadt’s book shared with The Post Tuesday.
The furor quashed Noem’s chances of becoming Trump’s running mate after she had been considered a strong contender for the job, sources close to the then-candidate told The Post at the time.
“I hated that dog,” the governor wrote of Cricket in the book “No Going Back,” published this past May.
Noem, now 53, described Cricket as both “untrainable” with an “aggressive personality” and a bad hunting companion who was “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.”
The Department of Homeland Security secretary-designate, who is set to face a confirmation hearing Wednesday, has defended her killing of Cricket as an example of a tough decision of the type that leaders frequently have to make.
At one point in the book, the governor appeared to suggest that President Biden should have followed her example when dealing with Commander, his German shepherd who had bitten Secret Service agents and others.
“What would I do if I was president on the first day in office in 2025? Thanks for asking. I happen to have a list. The first thing I’d do is make sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds (‘Commander, say hello to Cricket for me’),” she wrote.
Ironically, Noem reportedly had attempted to mention the puppy-killing anecdote in her first book, 2022’s “Not My First Rodeo,” only to be overruled by her publisher.
Isenstadt’s book also reveals that the president-elect was both privy to and amused by gossip that Noem was having an extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first 2016 campaign manager and a longtime confidant.
“Lewandowski, Trump said, knew how to bat out of his league,” Isenstadt writes in the tome, adding that the New York-born real estate mogul dubbed Noem Lewandowski’s “girlfriend” and would “raise an eyebrow mischievously” when the topic came up within earshot.
In September 2023, The Post reported on accusations from inside Trump’s orbit that Noem and Lewandowski were having an “absurdly blatant and public” affair.
One source familiar with the matter told The Post they saw the couple making out at a hotel bar during the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla. Another recounted Noem sitting on Lewandowski’s lap and “playing grab-ass” at Mar-a-Lago back in December 2020.
Isenstadt recounts that the rumors didn’t help Noem’s vice presidential odds, writing the governor and Lewandowski “were together all the time, and Lewandowski followed the governor around like a puppy dog. Trump advisers had seen Lewandowski … slap her on the butt … Trump’s aides knew if Noem was picked, her relationship with Lewandowski would become one hell of a distraction.”
Lewandowski, who did a stint as a political aide to Noem and is now assisting her with the DHS transition effort, joined Trump’s orbit again for the final two months of the 2024 race as an adviser to the campaign’s senior leadership team.
“Aides noticed that shortly after [Lewandowski joined the campaign in September], he paraded Kristi Noem through headquarters. To staffers, it felt like he was showing off his woman,” the book explained.
The once and future president had still more concerns about the South Dakotan, according to the book.
In February 2024, the two Republicans met at Mar-a-Lago, where the then-candidate pressed the governor about her state’s abortion ban, which does not allow the procedure even in cases of rape or incest.
Noem claimed to Trump that she had inherited the law, which South Dakota voters have resisted loosening.
“Trump came away impressed by Noem,” Isenstadt wrote, “but remained concerned about how her state’s laws could be used against her by Democrats.”
“President Trump achieved a historic victory because he laid out a bold vision for this country after four disastrous years of Joe Biden,” Trump transition spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Post about the claims in the book.
“We will not dignify these type of salacious and unverified stories that have nothing to do with helping the American people or Making America Great Again.”
Lewandowski has repeatedly declined to comment on the record about his association with Noem.
When contacted by The Post, a spokesperson for Noem shared a statement they gave Isenstadt, which read: “This wouldn’t be the first time that you reported fake conversations that Governor Noem never had … As I have said many times, the allegation of an affair is completely false. She never had conversations with President Trump or his team about a nonexistent affair. I look forward to seeing your book on the ‘fiction’ shelves.”
“Revenge” is due to hit stores on March 18.
