Kristi Noem's Negative Reputation Led To Daughter Kassidy Losing Her Job

It looks like 2025 wasn't too kind to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. With the possibility of being removed from her position and a less-than-ideal approach from her husband, Byron Noem, on her birthday in November, the former Trump protegée isn't exactly in her prime. This isn't the first time that Noem has been in the eye of the storm, though. In 2021, the Republican was accused of using her influence to help her daughter obtain a real estate appraiser license — or so testified a former state employee before the South Dakota legislature's Joint Government Operations and Audit Committee, according to CNN. The scandal itself was enough to make Noem's daughter abandon her job entirely.

In July 2020, the former executive director of the South Dakota Appraiser Certification Program, Sherry Bren, was called to a meeting with Noem and her daughter, Kassidy Peters. At the time, Peters was in the process of applying to become a state-certified real estate appraiser. According to Bren, she was surprised that Peters was present in the meeting and that one of its topics was the difficulties of getting an appraiser license. 

Also, according to Bren, Peters' application had "serious deficiencies," but after applying two times, Peters was given a third chance to address and correct them. CNN revealed that applicants are usually given two chances only to apply.

The situation became even stranger when Sherry Bren was forced to retire months after the meeting. CNN also revealed that, during her testimony, the former government official stated that she "was very nervous and quite frankly intimidated" during the meeting with Kristi Noem, her daughter Kassidy Peters, and a slate of top state officials. Noem denies any relation between her daughter's attempt to get a license and Bren's forced retirement.

Four months after the meeting, Peters' license was approved. In 2021, there was an inquiry to find out whether or not Noem used her influence to give her daughter a leg up, but Peters did not wait for it all to end: she chose to quit real estate completely because the inquiry alone was enough to cause "irreparable damage" to her business, as Dakota News Now revealed by showing a copy of Peters' letter to the South Dakota Department of Labor & Regulation.

Noem's daughter also wrote in the letter: "I'm angry and I can acknowledge that this has successfully destroyed my business. My business is finished, and the years I spent working to become licensed amount to nothing. So, I've decided that I will no longer accept new appraisal orders and will wrap up the few pending orders I do have."

In 2022, it was determined that the South Dakota government had enough evidence to take "appropriate action" against Kristi Noem. However, it was never made clear what would happen to Noem and, as PBS reported, the South Dakota legislature's Joint Government Operations and Audit Committee ended up deciding to close the complaint. And as we all know, she ended up leaving the governor position mid-term after being selected to join Donald Trump's administration. This was, of course, before Trump learned what Noem is capable of doing with puppies.

Back when the scandal happened, Noem's daughter wrote she was aware that she was "always going to be in the public eye" due to her mother's position, but that it was her decision to choose whether to keep being hurt by the fallout or not. In 2022, Kassidy Peters went on the "Voice of Appraisal" podcast and told host Phil Crawford that she was pivoting to work as a Development Director in a nonprofit organization named Call to Freedom, which aids human trafficking victims.

On top of that, MS Now reported that Trump was considering removing Noem from his staff as of December 2025, and the DHS secretary's days at the White House could be numbered (though some say that her job is safe). According to insiders, Noem faced scrutiny over her immigration policy and how she's spending the billions of dollars allocated to her department to fulfill the mass deportation agenda. It looks like Noem's way of dealing with government business will make yet another victim — this time, herself.