The White House is reportedly discussing replacements for Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen

(Image credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

last updated 17 May 2018

President Trump is not happy with how Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is running the agency, and the White House is coming up with a list of possible replacements, two people with knowledge of the matter told Quartz.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and retiring Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan have all been mentioned as possibilities, Quartz reports.

Congress has declined to give Trump the funding to build the wall along the southern border that he promised supporters he'd deliver once in office, and he blames Nielsen for it. The New York Times reported last week that after he berated her in a meeting, she drafted a resignation letter but never sent it. Nielsen told lawmakers during a hearing this week that she never "threatened to resign," and today, Trump said Nielsen was doing "a good job, and it's not an easy job."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.