Kristi Noem had to go.
Her vanity project is over.
It should have been easy for Kristi Noem to keep her job as Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. All it takes is a little self-restraint and discipline, a commitment to transparency and accountability, and a willingness to put your head down and do the hard work. A tougher task for some, I guess.
As you might have seen, Noem’s testimony before the Senate on Wednesday didn’t go well. Much of it was self-inflicted, with Noem being forced to defend her mistakes, her sloppy statements to the media, and very real concerns of corruption - or at least cronyism - within DHS.
Let’s start with the potential for corruption. There is a lot to unpack here. It has to do with a $240 million ad campaign that prominently featured Noem. The idea of the ad campaign was to curb illegal immigration - not the worst idea, though there is no telling how effective it might have been. But the issue wasn’t the purpose but the execution - specifically, how the awards were granted.
From the outset, DHS chose not to open bidding. There would be no full and open competition for the contract. Instead, DHS limited “competition to three contractors.”
About those three contractors. They were all politically connected. Here they are:
Safe America Media. This was a newly incorporated company that was awarded the largest contract worth $143 million. According to Bloomberg, the company had “no office, website or publicly listed phone number.”
Safe America Media hired two companies - Strategic Media Services Inc. (aka Strategy Group) and Smart Media Group LLC - as subcontractors to perform the work. These companies had worked on a number of past political campaigns with Corey Lewandowski (who serves as a special government employee under Noem) and other Trump allies.
Strategy Group, which is run by the husband of former DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McClaughlin, would receive just over $225,000 from Safe America Media for producing ads. McClaughlin previously ran the DHS Office of Public Affairs - the office that funded the ad contracts.
At this time, it is unknown how else Safe America Media doled out the $143 million.
People Who Think. A Louisiana company awarded $77.1 million. Their website is nothing more than a landing page. The company was co-founded by Jay Connaughton, a former media advisor for Trump who has been involved in a number of Republican causes. This company and Lewandowski were consultants for the 2024 campaign of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry.
Knox Strategies (identified by The Daily Wire). Its founder and president is Erika Knight, a former spokeswoman for FBI Director Kash Patel. It lost its bid.
The DHS rationale for choosing these companies for the bidding process isn’t convincing. It says that there was an “immediate urgent need” to limit bidding due to President Trump’s national emergency declaration to stop illegal immigration at the southern border, and that any delay in the advertising campaign would “allow illegal border crossings to continue to rise.” DHS further claimed that it had reviewed “industry publications” and evaluated vendors to determine that these few vendors would be able to “respond to this immediate need.”
No question that there was (and still is) a national emergency at the border. But it’s dubious - really laughable - that DHS discovered these firms through “industry publications” or through its general research. Safe America Media, for example, had zero footprint. Not even a phone number or office or website. It wasn’t incorporated in Delaware until 8 days before the contract was awarded. As of 2021, the company only had 5 employees. But it was founded by Republican operative Michael McElwain.
The Senate did not hold back when asking Noem about this cronyism - or about how the advertisements were a Kristi Noem vanity project that featured her prominently. Noem maintained that “career officials” at DHS picked the potential contractors for the bid. Is that believable?
She also said that Trump himself approved of spending $200+ million on the ads.
Trump then had to deny signing off on the huge expenditure, telling Reuters: “I never knew anything about it.” Shortly after those comments, Noem was fired and Trump announced she would be replaced by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin (R).
Noem and Lewandowski’s friends and associates may have received the windfall from the $240 million contract - and maybe Noem or Lewandowski will get something on the back-end - but it will be the Trump Administration that will pay the price. This issue isn’t going away.
Instead, it will become a subject of Democrat investigations. They’ve already promised a “reckoning”. It isn’t difficult to imagine that Noem wasn’t entirely accurate in describing how the contracts were awarded at DHS - specifically her claim that it was done by “career officials”. Expect hearings and subpoenas and the testimony of every contractor and every DHS employee with knowledge of the advertising contract and bidding process. And after all that, the Democrats will turn their focus on the White House with accusations of some type of cover-up. All thanks to Kristi Noem. The stupidity. Trump should give her what she deserves and send her packing for good. Instead, she will be special envoy to The Shield of the Americas, a new initiative to stop migration and the flow of illegal drugs. The exact specifics of her role have yet to be determined, but it looks like she will attend meetings with Trump leadership and work with foreign leaders on these issues. We assume she will report to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
It is reasonable to ask of Corey Lewandowski’s role in this mess. It seems he has her ear - if not the rest of her. Rumors of their affair have been ongoing for years now. Noem could have put that issue to rest under penalty of perjury but instead refused to answer the question of whether she slept with him during her tenure.
Noem’s blunders don’t stop there. She alleged that DHS needed to purchase a $70 million luxury Boeing 737 Max 8 - that included a bedroom, showers, a kitchen, a bar, and large TVs - for leadership travel and for “immigration deportation flights.” Look at the images below - obtained by NBC News - and ask whether any illegal immigrants will be flying on this plane. A bit obvious that they wouldn’t. But it would have allowed Noem to fly in style on the taxpayer’s dime.
Anways, back to another clip from the Noem hearing that caused contention with President Trump. Under questioning from Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, Noem was asked about her efforts to deflect blame for the DHS/CBP response to the death of Alex Pretti. (The armed Minnesota protester who was killed by federal agents.) Noem said: “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Stephen [Miller].”
The White House didn’t appreciate Noem’s deflection. How did that statement get to Axios? According to the publication: “Noem told a person who relayed her remarks to Axios.”
When Senator Kennedy directly asked Noem whether she said that, Noem was evasive, stating: “Sir, I’m not gonna speak to that situation that is relayed on anonymous sources that no one has heard me say that.”
Again, not a denial from Noem. Just an issue she refused to address.
We conclude with a matter of particular interest to us and perhaps to you. As of last week, CBP - under Noem’s leadership - had planned to build a wall through most of Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. (We had almost finished preparing a lengthy article on that issue before circumstances changed - see below.)
These are wild and beautiful areas that we love. We’ve lived for years on the border - a mile from an international bridge with a large CBP presence - and support a border wall in the necessary areas. But a wall through Big Bend never made sense. The area is remote and sparsely populated on both sides of the border, and the Park is exceedingly safe and rarely gets illegal crossings. Even the Republican Sheriff of Brewster County (where Big Bend is located) was opposed - as were the vast majority of the County, which voted Trump.
DHS and CBP had been curiously silent on explaining the proposed Big Bend wall or confirming that the wall was planned. A CBP press representative promised they were working on our request for comment on the wall last week - crickets since, even after we followed up. Adding to the issue, there were rumors (which we couldn’t yet confirm) that a firm with ties to Noem was going to win the award to build the wall. Wouldn’t be surprising.
Thankfully, not long after her firing, CBP changed its plan on its website and will only use detection technology through the parks. It’s the right decision.
Sounds like stuff the Dems have been doing. She’ll probably end up further sidelined in her new job. She certainly did Trump no favors. Too often when women try to be “tough” they miss the mark. The alleged affair is not good. Loyalty, discernment, and values are not occasional or surface traits. Dems may be able to get away with this kind of stuff, but Republicans…not a chance.
Techno, I love ya but Noem was not "fired." She was reassigned. It's an important technicality. Yes, a lot does smack of insider trading, but I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever give the Ds a scalp. If something was wrong, I'll delay until it was only a distraction.
My take is different, as I noted in my own substack. I think putting her face on the ads (which urged illegals to leave on their own power with a bonus) was the issue. The ads were fine, and apparently were effective, given the number of self-deporters. As Steve Bannon told me in 2017, though, "Trump doesn't like co-stars." It's ok if HE elevates you (see Marco Rubio), but you aren't permitted to elevate yourself.