Kristi Noem spends $220M in taxpayer money on ads starring herself

In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem awarded contracts totaling $220 million for a national ad campaign that began in February and prominently featured Noem, including an ad filmed at Mount Rushmore on October 2, the second day of a government shutdown. The department invoked the national emergency at the southern border to skip competitive bidding, saying delay would "increase the spread of misinformation." Safe America Media, a Delaware company created days before it won its deal and listed at the Virginia home of Republican operative Michael McElwain, received $143 million. People Who Think, a Louisiana Republican ad firm, received $77 million. Noem required her personal approval for any department payment over $100,000. The Strategy Group, a Republican consulting firm that ran the Mount Rushmore shoot, was paid through Safe America without appearing in public contract records; it later said it received $226,137 for five film shoots, 45 video ads and six radio ads. Its chief executive, Ben Yoho, is married to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, whose office was listed as funding the contracts; she said she recused herself and had no visibility into why firms were chosen. The firm ran advertising for Noem's 2022 campaign for governor, her top adviser Corey Lewandowski had worked extensively with it, and her American Resolve PAC paid it as late as February 2025. In 2023, Yoho's firm Go West Media won an $8.5 million South Dakota contract from Noem's administration and paid up to $25,000 to Madison Sheahan, then Noem's political director, who later became ICE's second-in-command. DHS said its contracting is done "by the book" by career officials and that it has no role in choosing subcontractors. In March 2026, Senators Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal asked the firms whether Noem, Lewandowski or other DHS staff had benefited financially. On March 5, 2026, Trump announced he was firing Noem; an administration official cited the ad campaign among the reasons. Trump said he "wasn't thrilled" with its price and "didn't know about it," though Noem had testified that he did.