Kristi Noem has ‘no shot’ as Trump’s VP pick after puppy-killing controversy: sources
South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has “no shot” at being Donald Trump’s running mate after revealing in a forthcoming book that she shot and killed her puppy, sources close to the 45th president tell The Post.
One ally of the presumptive Republican nominee said Trump’s team was “bewildered” to hear of Noem’s account in her tome “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.”
“She was already unlikely to be picked as VP, but had a shot,” the person said of Noem, who has been widely projected to be on Trump’s shortlist.
“After this, it’s just impossible.”
Noem writes, according to the Guardian, that she executed Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, after determining that the pooch’s “aggressive personality” made her “untrainable” as a hunting dog.
“It was not a pleasant job,” the 52-year-old recounts, “but it had to be done.”
The source who spoke to The Post noted that 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney is still remembered for sticking his dog in a crate set on top of the family’s station wagon for a 1983 trip from Boston to Canada.
“Trump isn’t a dog person necessarily,” this person said, “but I think he understands that you can’t choose a puppy killer as your pick, for blatantly obvious reasons.”
A second source told The Post that Trump “likes Kristi a lot,” but was “disappointed when hearing the ‘dog’ story.”
“It certainly has not enhanced her chances, but no decision has been made concerning any of the VP candidates,” this source added.
Noem, in her second term as South Dakota governor, recounted that the final straw for Cricket came when the dog jumped out of her truck while she was visiting some neighbors.
Unfettered, Cricket attacked the family’s chickens, “grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another,” according to the governor.
When Noem tried to restrain the dog, Cricket “whipped around to bite me,” and was “the picture of pure joy” during the fowl-killing spree.
In the same excerpt, Noem described in graphic detail her killing a male goat who was “nasty and mean” because it was uncastrated, and “loved to chase” her children around.
To kill the goat, she “dragged him to the gravel pit” where she disposed of Cricket and had to shoot him repeatedly to finish the job.
Noem writes that she tells the grisly stories to illustrate her willingness to do necessary things that are “difficult, messy and ugly” — but also admitted that “I guess if I were a better politician I wouldn’t tell the story here.”
The governor has since doubled down on her decisions in the face of outrage from animal lovers.
“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned,” Noem wrote on X Sunday.
“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did,” she added.
The animal-killing story is the latest controversy involving Noem.
In September, The Post and other outlets reported that Noem had engaged in a years-long affair with longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski.
Last month, the governor was accused in a lawsuit of “misleading and deceptive” advertising after she endorsed a Texas dental practice that had put in her new veneers.
Trump has yet to reveal whom he will ultimately choose as his No. 2 from his long list of possible picks, but had a close relationship with Noem, who previously said she would have taken the VP spot “in a heartbeat.”
The Trump campaign and Noem’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Post.
