South Dakota Governor and ICE chief Kristi Noem is furious over her latest pop-culture skewering — this time at the hands of South Park. In a new episode, the long-running animated satire portrayed Noem as a heavily botoxed “ICE Barbie” raiding Heaven and shooting puppies.
Speaking on Glenn Beck’s show, Noem dismissed the episode as “lazy,” claiming “only liberals” make fun of women’s appearances.
“It never ends,” she complained. “If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that, but clearly they can’t, they just pick something petty like that.”
Her comments sparked a swift and pointed backlash. Critics noted that her political patron, Donald Trump, has made a career out of insulting women’s appearances — from calling Stormy Daniels “horseface” to mocking Carly Fiorina with “Look at that face” and labeling Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig.” Trump has also famously attacked Alicia Machado as “Miss Piggy,” fat-shamed Kim Kardashian while she was pregnant, and claimed MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a facelift.”
“Liberals always make fun of women for how they look?” one political commentator wrote. “Kristi, have you met Donald J. Trump?”
The parody also targeted Noem’s leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, depicting her presiding over brutal, cartoonish raids. In reality, ICE under her direction has been accused by advocacy groups of aggressively targeting undocumented immigrants in public spaces, separating families, and detaining individuals in harsh conditions.
The South Park depiction included a fictional detention facility called “Alligator Alcatraz,” mocking ICE’s controversial detention practices.
Adding fuel to the backlash was Noem’s claim she hadn’t watched the episode — something satirists and critics openly doubted.
Beyond her personal outrage, opponents pointed to her Senate testimony earlier this year, in which she claimed habeas corpus was the president’s power to deport people — a fundamental misstatement of the constitutional safeguard meant to protect against unlawful detention.
For South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the episode was just the latest in a long history of lampooning political figures of all stripes. But the reaction from Noem — and the reminder of Trump’s own rhetoric — ensured the satire hit a broader nerve.
The controversy also comes amid heightened tensions between the Trump administration and political satirists. Comedians, writers, and online commentators have accused the administration of creating an atmosphere hostile to dissent and mockery, with Trump himself repeatedly lashing out at critics in personal terms.
Whether the backlash changes Noem’s stance on South Park remains doubtful. But as one online critic quipped: “If you can’t handle cartoon puppies, maybe don’t run an agency accused of destroying real families.”
