It takes a special kind of person to believe that bragging in a book about shooting a dog would boost their political standing.

But those seeking affiliation with Donald Trump have long perceived debasement as a means to endear themselves to the former president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

This is evident in the likes of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum showing up at Trump’s trial in New York City. This week, they stood before reporters and acted as if Trump, who faces charges of trying to cover up hush money payments to a porn actor just before the 2016 election — is the greatest offense to the rule of law in American history.

Others, such as Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have gone on the Sunday talk shows to talk in circles about Trump’s long list of lies and alleged crimes.

They’re all behaving pathetically in pursuit of power. But in the case of Kristi Noem — the South Dakota governor who, like the aforementioned, so obviously wants to join Trump’s ticket — we are bearing witness to one of the most self-destructive political strategies employed in quite some time.

For weeks now, Noem has been taking hits over various claims made in her memoir, “No Going Back,” which was released May 7.

According to excerpts first reported by The Guardian, Noem wrote about her choice to kill one of her family’s dogs, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket. Noem claimed the dog possessed an “aggressive personality.”

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, describing Cricket as “untrainable,” “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog.”

After describing an incident that led to her concluding that she had “to put her down,” Noem described a male goat she felt was “nasty and mean” and that also had to go.

Noem is not the first person to ever tell a story about having to put an animal down, but rarely have I heard of anyone doing so with such glee and lack of remorse.

She even wrote that, after Noem sent Cricket to glory, her daughter arrived home and asked, “Hey, where’s Cricket?”

Noem believes that those anecdotes show how capable she........

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