Politics

Insider Spills on Trump’s Panicked Call to ICE Barbie as Protests Raged

PANIC DIAL

The president spoke with the Department of Homeland Security secretary as protests ignited across the country over the administration’s immigration raids.

A photo illustration of Kristi Noem and President Donald Trump and a photo of ICE protests.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

A panicked President Donald Trump phoned Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to slam the brakes on a coast-to-coast surge of immigration raids after furious street protests erupted.

In late May, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller set a quota for 3,000 immigration arrests per day, following through on the president’s campaign pledge to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation” in United States history. The effort sparked nationwide protests in June, starting in Los Angeles, where Trump dispatched 4,000 members of the National Guard to quell demonstrations over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Amid the fallout and slumping poll numbers, Trump called Noem—dubbed “ICE Barbie” for her love of dolling up for the cameras at immigration raids and in front of detained migrants, among other bizarre publicity stunts—to pump the brakes.

“He said: ‘We’re going to do this targeted,’” one former official who heard the mid-June call told Reuters, describing the president’s concern that indiscriminate arrests of farmhands and hotel maids were becoming a political nightmare. Details of Trump’s call to Noem have not been previously reported.

A Waymo car burns in the street as smoke billows during protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025. Following a series of aggressive federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, tensions escalated when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a high-profile raid on a Home Depot location. The raid sparked widespread protests across the city, where demonstrators decried the targeting of immigrant communities and the separation of families. Clashes soon broke out between protesters and federal agents, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to the city, a move harshly criticized by California officials, including the governor, as "purposefully inflammatory." (Photo by David Pashaee / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DAVID PASHAEE/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles prompted President Donald Trump to tamp down his mass deportation push before quickly reversing course. DAVID PASHAEE/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly froze operations at farms, restaurants, and meat-packing plants within hours of the call, with Senior ICE official Tatum King telling field offices to ease up.

But the stand-down lasted only days before Miller and Noem rescinded the order, leaving agents—and activists—scrambling to work out what came next, according to Reuters.

The episode exposed a rare crack in the previously iron-clad alliance between Trump and Miller, Reuters reported.

Miller’s obsessive drive to purge the country of undocumented immigrants has become so notorious inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that officials assigned one unlucky staffer to field his constant calls to spare senior figures the daily tongue-lashings, a former colleague told Reuters.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem tags along on an ICE raid last month in New York City.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem—pictured here on an ICE raid last month in New York City—has earned the moniker "ICE Barbie" for her love of dolling up for for the cameras at immigration raids and in front of detainees, among other publicity stunts. Handout/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout

Ultimately, Trump’s flip-flopping did little to water down Miller’s crackdown. The administration has doubled overall arrests, slapped bans on travelers from 19 countries, and earmarked a staggering $170 billion for immigration enforcement under the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed in July.

The effort is also facing pushback from the courts. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, granted two emergency restraining orders Thursday—one to bar ICE and Border Patrol from “suspicion-less” street and workplace stops across Los Angeles County and another to guarantee detainees immediate access to lawyers.

The case—brought by the ACLU and other advocates on behalf of immigrants and two U.S. citizens who were allegedly held despite showing ID—argues that masked agents have terrorized Latino neighborhoods, making 2,700 arrests since June 6.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is the architect of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Frimpong blasted the government’s “very general” declarations and said she expects to issue a final order Friday.

Eight cities and L.A. County have moved to join the suit, calling the raids a political stunt aimed at blue enclaves.

Reuters reported a White House official saying there was “no daylight between Miller and Trump, and Miller’s approach to immigration enforcement had not made farms a primary target.”

Donald Trump and Kristi Noem
President Donald Trump told DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in June to hold off on raiding farms, restaurants, and meat-packing plants. The directive was short-lived. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty

They added that “the initial ICE directive pausing raids had not been authorized by top administration leaders.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and DHS for comment.

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