Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been criticized for a bizarre stunt during an official visit to the U.S.-Canada border.
On a trip to Derby, Vermont, in January following the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, ICE Barbie Noem visited a library which is directly bisected by the border with Quebec.
A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.
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Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”
“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director, who is Canadian, speaking to the Boston Globe.
Noem’s behavior mirrors President Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric towards the U.S.‘s northern neighbor.
The president has repeatedly threatened that he would like to annex the country, turn it into the 51st state and take its vast mineral resources.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was caught on a hot mic in February warning business leaders that Trump is serious about this plan.
The rhetoric took a more literal step forward on Monday as Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, prompting a retaliatory response from Trudeau.
Library volunteer Kathy Converse, who is a U.S. citizen, witnessed Noem’s performance which she said made her angry.
“Politics should not come into this, you know?” she said.
“I see the library as a little Switzerland,” said another volunteer, Sylvie Boudreau, speaking to the Globe. “Kind of a little neutral place, where we welcome.”
Stanstead’s Mayor Jody Stone said he was “disappointed to see somebody at such a high level of government using words like that... It’s kind of insulting to threaten your friends.”
The backlash has continued on social media. “This is not patriotism. It is an idiotic jingoism, unworthy of a great country,” tweeted Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor at conservative magazine National Review.
“Insulting, shameful, and unprofessional. But most of all... childish,” added Roland Paris, an international affairs professor at the University of Ottawa.
Meanwhile, Doug Sanders, a commentator for the Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, drew a comparison on Tuesday with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict back in 2014. “This is not too far from how it started in Donetsk,” he wrote on X.
