Trump Official Disputes Kristi Noem’s Claim About ‘Cannibal’ Who ‘Tried to Eat Himself’ While in Custody 

Left: AP Photo Credit/Yuki Iwamura

A wild tale about an undocumented immigrant told by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “is completely false,” a senior federal law enforcement official told The Intercept for a story published on Monday.

Back in June, Noem went on Fox News and claimed that a U.S. marshal told her about a particularly bizarre deportation flight.

“I was talking to a U.S. marshal just yesterday, and he was talking about deporting a plane load of illegals, and one of them was a cannibal,” she said at the time. “He started to eat his own arms. He was such a deranged individual. This is the kind of people President Trump is getting off our streets.”

Noem later repeated the claim at a press conference with President Donald Trump.

“He started to eat himself and they had to get him off and get him medical attention,” Noem said.

Incredibly, Noem’s yarn about an undocumented cannibal eating himself is a fabrication, according to three federal officials. The Intercept reported:

Now, three officials from federal law enforcement agencies — including Noem’s own Department of Homeland Security — with knowledge of the allegations say the entire story was fabricated.

“It is completely false,” said one senior law enforcement official who is familiar with the allegation but not authorized to speak publicly on the subject.

Two other federal law enforcement officials echoed this, telling The Intercept that the claims were ludicrous and that there was no evidence corroborating the story.

When reached for comment, a Homeland Security spokesperson told The Intercept, “What ‘fabrication’ of the story of the cannibal? She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.”

While on the campaign trail in 2024, Trump repeatedly referenced Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic antagonist in The Silence of the Lambs. The president baselessly claimed on numerous occasions that other countries are freeing inmates from prisons and “insane asylums” and sending them to the U.S.

“[W]e have millions and millions of people, and they came from prisons and jails,” Trump said at a rally in February 2024. “They came from mental institutions and insane asylums. No, they’re not the same. An insane asylum is a mental institution on steroids, Ok? It’s Silence of the Lambs, ok? You know that. Hannibal Lecter! They’re all being deposited into our country.”

Trump often referred to “ the late, great Hannibal Lecter” and said he kept talking about the fictional character because “These are real stories.”

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