Kristi Noem Faces Internet Ire After Donning Sombrero at Mexican Restaurant on Her Birthday

Homeland Security boss Kristi Noem is feeling the heat of the internet after posting a video of her donning a sombrero as Mexican restaurant workers sing to her on her birthday.

The video, posted on Noem’s Facebook page on November 29, shows a restaurant staffer removing Noem’s baseball cap and replacing it with a pink and yellow sombrero as others sing the “Happy Birthday” song in Spanish. They followed up by singing the song again, in English, as Noem clapped along.

Noem turned 54 on November 30.

Given Noem’s position in the Department of Homeland Security and the impact of ICE raids across the country, many on social media showed no mercy in response to the video.

On Facebook, the video was viewed over 143,000 times and included comments like “After the song she has them deported!” and “No dogs were harmed in the video,” a reference to Noem’s admission in her book that she shot and killed a puppy.

On Reddit, commenters made their fury known:

The restaurant that hosted Noem, Santo Tequila in Watertown, South Dakota, was additionally peppered with one-star Yelp reviews in the wake of Noem’s appearance there.

“This place has ZERO respect for the Hispanic community,” read one such review.

Another review said: “You hosted and praised Kristi Noem?! A dog-killing Racist and Fascist? Obviously you have no understanding of what actually makes America great… You love serving the Hispanic Food, but you hate the Hispanic People?”