‘We all have bad weeks’: Trump defends VP contender Kristi Noem over fury for shooting her dog and says she’s still ‘terrific’

Former President Donald Trump still thinks South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is “amazing” despite outrage over the revelation that she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog.

Appearing on Clay Travis and Buck Sexton’s podcast on Wednesday, Trump was asked about the controversy surrounding Noem’s book, which also included a fabricated meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Noem has long been considered someone who could be Trump’s vice presidential pick.

“I think she’s great,” the presumptive Republican nominee said. ‘Some rough stories, no doubt about it. And when it’s explained – the dog story – people hear it and people from different parts of the country probably feel a little differently, but that’s a difficult story.”

‘She had a bad week. We’re all having a bad week,” the ex-president added.

Former President Donald Trump (left) still thinks South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (right) is “great” despite outrage over the revelation that she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog

In the book, Noem explained how Cricket, a young wire-haired pointer, had an “aggressive personality,” killed several of her neighbor’s chickens and then bit her.

She then decided to shoot Cricket dead in the gravel pit on her family’s property, just before her children came home from school.

In another passage in the book, she claimed to have met Kim as a congresswoman — a section her spokesperson said was removed from future copies.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, spokesperson Ian Fury blamed her ghostwriter.

“It has been brought to our attention that the upcoming book ‘No Going Back’ contains two minor errors,” Fury said. ‘This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong Un was on a list of world leaders and should not have been.”

During the podcast interview, Trump indicated that he believed the ghostwriter’s excuse.

‘Until this week, she was doing incredibly well. And she was hit hard, and sometimes you do books, and you have a guy who writes a book and you might not read it very carefully, you know,” Trump said. ‘You also have ghostwriters. They helped you, and in this case they didn’t help that much.”

Trump supporters DailyMail.com interviewed at his Saturday rally in New Jersey said the dog shooting story and other factors about Noem disqualified as a vice presidential pick.

Jacki Ortiz, a 53-year-old from South Jersey, said she believed Noem’s chances of becoming Trump’s vice president were ruined.

“No, I’m fine with my dog,” Ortiz said.

Linda Donnelly, 80, of Long Island, New York, said she was “a very big dog person” but showed Noem some grace.

‘She shouldn’t have put it in the book. She shouldn’t have done it like that, if you want to get rid of a dog, give it to her [up] or put it to sleep,” Donnelly told DailyMail.com. “But she’s from another state. They do things differently there.’

Donnelly had another reason why she didn’t think Noem should be Trump’s choice.

“I think she’s beautiful,” said the supporter. “Look, if I were his wife, I wouldn’t want him to pick her.”

Nancy Martin, a 62-year-old esthetician from Baltimore, Maryland, had a similar opinion.

“I don’t think he can get a wife,” Martin told DailyMail.com.