policy
When Kristi L. Noem, secretary of the house protection, visited El Salvador's most notorious mega-prison on Wednesday, she carried a striking piece over her wrist, which experts have identified as an 18-carat-gold-Rolex cosmographer Daytona Watch, which is sold for around $ 50,000.
The high-end Switzerland Watch put a striking contrast to Noem's tour through the terrorism boundary center or Cecot, through which imprisoned men observed silently from a crowded cell when she recorded one video For a social media post warning and documented immigrants to not enter the United States.
“If you come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences with which you are confronted,” said Noem.
Noem's alternative of the clock began a race under the Internet to discover, and annoyed the immigration lawyers who said that the side by side was insensitive to the hard reality of mass liability and deportation.
“They are in front of all these people in a very poor country who are in the lower rooms for 10 or 20 percent of their country … and it looks as if they only show their wealth while showing their freedom,” said Adam Isacson, Analyst within the Washington office in Latin America, a human rights group.
“This is an administration that tries to be a populist, anti-elite, the simple man appeals,” he added. In the meantime there are “people who are stacked behind them like Cordwood.”
The deputy secretary of the Ministry of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughin, confirmed the guard in an announcement and said: “The governor Noem at the time decided to use the proceeds from her best -selling books in the New York Times to buy an article that she could carry and go on to her children for a day.”
Political personalities in recent a long time have largely avoided costly watches so as to not get in contact with on a regular basis Americans. President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush wore inexpensive Timex watches, while Barack Obama often trumpeted his 595 dollar -shinola of 595 US dollars and visited the Detroit showroom of the American brand.
When Joe Biden, a present from his wife, who was value around 7,000 US dollars, carried him to his inauguration, some conservatives criticized him for his alternative of an “elite” dogs.
“Politicians generally shy away from wearing expensive watches like this, as this can attract inappropriate and undesirable attention from the public,” said Eric Wind, a Rolex expert who examined the presidential watch.
But Noem's statement was approached by President Donald Trump, whose expensive watch collection, a Rolex day, a Patek Philippe Ellipse and a Vacheron Constantin Historiques 1968, all in gold. Trump even has its own licensed watch brand that accommodates pieces resembling the inauguration diamond commander, which is for 1,199 US dollars in retail retail.
Three Vintage Watch dealers contacted by the Washington Post said noems, which they either identified as a reference number 116528 or 126508 Daytona, gave the impression to be product of solid gold and possibly cost $ 40,000 to $ 60,000.
“In order for an official to wear it, it is quite a statement,” said Alan Bedwell, a vintage guardian and the owner of Foundwell in New York, who compared it to a “flag change exercise”.
“To wear this in El Salvador while he visited a prison of maximum security, he said:” It's like a giant case. “
Noem visited the prison on her trip to a few Latin American nations to debate crime, deportation and immigration. The Trump administration has sent quite a few Venezuelan migrants to Cecot without judicial hearings, although a judicial order returns them to the USA
During the tour of Noem, she passed a containment unit, the prison chamber and two overcrowded cell blocks, through which men are imagined to remove their facial masks and shirts in a cell almost packed on the ceiling and, in response to a press pool, are imagined to be within the shot.
Men in prison, where as much as 40,000 inmates may be accommodated, sleep on metal chicks without mattresses and should not allowed to go to lawyers or members of the family.
During her visit, Noem returned to the bars to record a selfie video. When no person left, the cell block broke out in non -divided chants in response to the pool report.
Noem earned 241,000 US dollars as governor of South Dakota, a position that she held until the Department of Homeland Security. The disclosure stated that she received about $ 180,000 US dollars and that her husband, who owns an insurance company, had a salary of around 1.1 million dollars.
Rolex makes all of his watches in Switzerland. Although the clocks are sometimes copied for Knockoffs, the three experts said that they believed that Noem was real. “I don't think that there is a convincing fake for this watch at all,” said Mike Nouveau, vintage guard.
Noems Rolex, said Wind, has a champagne dial and a black register and may very well be identified on the side of the watch through the characteristic chronograph pushers, the keys that start and stop the timing function of the watch.
The Daytona is legendary in Watch Circles as an ultra -hub. In 2017, a daytona, which once belonged to film star Paul Newman, sold for greater than 17 million US dollars.
Nobody was photographed for meetings on the Capitol Hill, the probabilities of the Oval Office photo and through a Ship Assault demonstration of the coast guard, where it fired a rifle.
“How can an official show this type of accessory?” Ed Espinoza, former President of the Liberal Advocacy Group Progress Texas, said about Noems. “This is the kind of things that we are used to see in other countries.”
In addition to her Rolex, Noem wore a blue baseball hat with immigration and inches, a white shirt and grey cord lane. In other photos and videos she is Posted in social media From immigration attacks and tours of the southern border, Noem has carried a bottle jacket and a cowboy hat.
On X, some said that the criticism was misled and that no person was free to indicate their wealth as they liked. “She is successful. I am sure that angry you” said Rob Schmitt, a television in the precise network Newsmax. Wrote Another user: “We take our country back stylishly.”
For other observers, Noem's Watch election remembered First Lady Melania Trump's decision in 2018 before visiting an animal shelter for migrant children in Texas, and wear green jacket which are decorated with the expression: “I really don't care, right?” Trump said in her youngest memoirs that the reason was directed towards the media.
According to the World Bank, El Salvador is one in all the poorest countries within the western hemisphere with an income of around 6 percent of the US average in 2023.
Under President Nayib Bukele, whose hard anti-gang policy triggered mass arrests, Salvadoranian prisons of Human Rights Watch were criticized, which have extreme overcrowding and “inhuman conditions”.
The human rights group said last month that the officials of the Salvadorical government officials would have allowed journalists and social media influencers to only attend prison under highly controlled circumstances. Noem's video contribution from prison was viewed greater than 4 million times on X.
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