Nielsen also spoke with Vice President Pence, who offered his support but whose comments revealed her overseas trip had been the subject of much internal discussion. “I’m glad you’re doing that,” Pence told her, then mentioned she could stay or return. “I’ll support you either way.”
Nielsen knew something wasn’t right. When her aides visited in her hotel suite, she told them, “Guys, I think we’ve got to get back.” She left her deputy to be her proxy in the G7 meetings and hastily conferred with Sajid Javid, the United Kingdom’s home secretary, to let him know the U.S. position on a few key issues.
In the days that followed, Nielsen returned stateside to become the public face of U.S. border enforcement amid a record-setting surge of migrants. She sped up the deployment of 750 Customs and Border Protection officers to support U.S. Border Patrol agents and arranged a series of emergency calls with other cabinet secretaries to engage their departments in support. Back in Washington the night of April 2, Nielsen appeared on set for an interview with Tucker Carlson, whose 9:00 p.m. Fox News show Trump watched religiously, to detail what her department was doing to address the crisis at the border—as well as to praise her boss.
“The president predicted this as a candidate,” Nielsen told Carlson. “He predicted this before he was a candidate. He continues to show leadership and to raise the alarm bells.”
Nielsen also said that Trump was prepared to close down the U.S.-Mexico border. “We have to stop the drugs, we have to stop the smuggling and trafficking,” she said. “I don’t think the president could be any clearer in his position. He will take every action within his authority to stop this flow.”
On April 3, Nielsen traveled to the border to inspect the situation firsthand and continue her media tour. In an April 4 interview with Chris Cuomo on his 9:00 p.m. CNN show, Nielsen said she had instituted an “emergency response posture” across the federal government to address the surge of migrants. She said she was treating the situation as if the United States had been hit by a “Cat 5 hurricane.”
The next day, April 5, Nielsen met up with Trump on the president’s tour of a section of new border wall in Calexico, California. Shortly before a pair of media appearances there, Trump told Nielsen, “Go tell them we’re full. We can’t take any more [migrants].”
Nielsen declined. “That’s not a legal reason,” she told the president. Being “full” didn’t justify denying people legal asylum.
Trump then pulled aside Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, for a chat out of Nielsen’s earshot. At a roundtable session with border security officials, Trump said himself what he had asked Nielsen to say: “The system is full. Can’t take you anymore. Whether it’s asylum, whether it’s anything you want, it’s illegal immigration. We can’t take you anymore. We can’t take you. Our country is full. Our area is full. The sector is full. Can’t take you anymore, I’m sorry. Can’t happen. So turn around. That’s the way it is.”
When Trump toured the border wall in Calexico for his second media appearance, he did not praise Nielsen.
Nielsen and McAleenan flew back to Washington that afternoon aboard a small Coast Guard jet. The two got along pretty well, and Nielsen had even talked Trump out of firing McAleenan when the president randomly threatened it a time or two. Nielsen didn’t fully realize it then, but something big was up. One of her senior staffers called her on the plane, and through the din of noise she heard him say that on April 4, while Nielsen had been at the border, Trump had vented frustration about her and the border situation in an Oval Office meeting. She would later learn that McAleenan had attended it.
Later the night of April 5, Nielsen called Trump, who had stayed in California to attend a political fund-raiser. “I know you’re frustrated,” she said. “Can I come in this weekend?”
Nielsen wanted to brief Trump on the new agreements she had just brokered with Northern Triangle countries designed to slow the flow of migrants into the United States by setting penalties for kidnappers, imposing blockades on travelers without visas, and establishing border checkpoints in southern Mexico. “I have seven or eight other ideas for what we can do,” she told him.
“It’s not your fault,” Trump said, adding something like “I know you’re doing your best.” Then he agreed to meet. “Sure, come to the residence this Sunday,” he told her.
When Nielsen showed up at the White House on April 7 to meet with Trump in the Yellow Oval Room, Mulvaney was there with the president. She started to explain a major agreement she had secured in private negotiations with Mexican authorities the previous week. Mexico had promised to stop 50 percent of the migrants flowing through its internal border checkpoints as they headed north. But Trump cut her off. Looking at Mulvaney, he said, “See, this is what’s wrong with her. It should be 100 percent.”
Things were off to a very bad start.
“Mr. President, we can’t stop 100 percent,” Nielsen said.
They went back and forth. Trump didn’t listen to Nielsen’s explanations about the Northern Triangle agreement, how important it was to have partners in those regions to discourage the migration from within.
“Sir, can we agree on what we are trying to accomplish?” she asked. But they couldn’t. He was tuning her out. The conversation escalated. Trump made it clear he wanted her gone.
“Sir, why don’t I give you my resignation,” Nielsen asked the president.
Trump accepted. He wanted a change. “But I want you to be in my administration elsewhere,” he added.
Nielsen didn’t respond to that offer, but returned to the substance. “Okay, but can I explain how you can fix this, whoever does it?” she asked.
Trump didn’t want to hear it.
“Why don’t we do a week of transition?” Nielsen offered.
Trump agreed and the meeting was over. Within minutes, as Nielsen was being driven home a few miles away in Alexandria, the president tweeted, “Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. . . . I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!”
So much for that week of transition, Nielsen figured. Trump’s announcement made it sound immediate. She finalized her resignation letter and made it effective that date, April 7. Just like some other secretaries who had departed before her, Nielsen did not directly thank Trump or celebrate his leadership in her letter. Rather, she singled out the men and women of her department. “I could not be prouder of and more humbled by their service, dedication, and commitment to keep our country safe from all threats and hazards,” she wrote.