“One of the big MAGA heroes of the COVID-19 era was South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, who for many months more or less ignored the pandemic. Then, when her state’s caseload rose catastrophically after the Sturgis biker rally she avidly promoted, Noem kept arguing that COVID-19 didn’t justify business closures or mandatory public-health steps like mask-wearing and social distancing. More generally, Noem was very Trump-y, welcoming the 45th president to South Dakota for the July 4th fireworks commemoration he had chosen and presenting him with a bust of Mount Rushmore with his face added to the presidential edifice. It’s precisely the sort of sycophancy Trump loves, and soon in MAGA circles talk emerged of Noem succeeding him as the next Republican presidential nominee or replacing Mike Pence if he attempts a comeback.”

“But then Noem suddenly stumbled in her path along the far-right side of the political highway. After saying she was ‘excited’ to sign a bill banning the participation of transgender girls and women in female sports leagues – a favorite right-wing cause this year – she changed her mind, issuing a ‘style and form’ veto that allowed her to rewrite the legislation to exclude college sports and change some of the enforcement provisions. She was immediately accused of caving to pressure from the NCAA, which opposes such bans under its inclusion policies, and Amazon, which has its own LGBTQ policies and had a major new facility planned for South Dakota. As Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen noted, it then got worse for Noem: Her attempts at damage control have thus far not worked. Noem announced her own effort to defend women’s sports at a news conference on Monday. She also appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program Monday night and faced withering questioning from the populist host. Neither effort seems to have turned her image around” – New York Magazine.