Kristi Noem may no longer be homeland security secretary, but the revelations of her wild, self-aggrandizing spending while she held the post are the grifts—er, gifts that keep on giving.
A screenshot of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s ad.
Remember her horsey ad? The one that ultimately proved to be her downfall when she tried to shift some blame for the $220 million contract to President Donald Trump? Noem had near-complete authority to waste your tax dollars however she liked, but the cringe horse ad is what sealed her fate.
Getting a glamour shot in front of Mount Rushmore on a horsey did not come cheap! But money is really no object when you’re playing with house money, free to spend taxpayer dollars on whatever strikes your fancy. So, why not soak the taxpayers for as much as possible to get fancy horseys and flattering makeup?
And trust us, the horseys were very fancy—to the tune of $20,000 of taxpayer money for renting, transporting, and boarding three ponies for two days. And of course, these were not your ordinary horses. No, Noem rented horses from Jill Moody, a competitive barrel racer champion from South Dakota who just happens to be a longtime friend and backer of Noem.
The hair and makeup were also very fancy, costing all of us $3,800. Noem really spread the love around, hiring not one, not two, not three, but four separate stylists, three of whom were based in Washington, D.C. So presumably we got to pick up the tab for their travel to the glorious wonderland of Mount Rushmore. But the largest chunk of the makeup money—$2,070—went to Bombshell Beauty Makeup Studio in South Dakota.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears for an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3 in Washington.
Do we really even have to mention that Bombshell has been doing Noem’s makeup for years and is also a big Noem backer? Look, when you have this much money to waste, you can make sure that everyone gets a taste.
Poor Noem. Her new pretend job at the State Department as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas probably will not include a slush fund of hundreds of millions of dollars. No more cosplaying as a firefighter or an ICE agent. No zipping down to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison to do a media hit in front of dozens of incarcerated men crammed into one cell while rocking a $50,000 gold Rolex.
She does have enough juice, apparently, to bring 10 of her former staffers over to her participation ribbon job. However, it’s a pretty safe bet she will no longer have her own personal luxury private jet to travel wherever she pleases.
Noem’s alleged paramour, Corey Lewandowski, is also not going to be able to live as high on the hog any longer, particularly as he isn’t expected to land any administration job once Noem leaves DHS as of March 31. No more access to a flying luxury love palace, no more opportunities to shake down government contractors and demand a cut to keep those contracts going.
Related | Kristi Noem is the worst boss ever
Looking back, the entire ad campaign was utterly unhinged. Why did the ads need to be filmed in South Dakota, which is not exactly a hotbed of multiculturalism and border crossings? Why did she need to be on a horse? Why did she need to be a cowgirl? Does threatening immigrants from atop a steed convey more menace? Do undocumented immigrants turn up at Mount Rushmore in droves?
It was painfully obvious this was an ad designed to feature Kristi Noem—and that was the real problem, as far as Trump was concerned. Noem made herself the face of DHS, the face of deportations, the face of ICE. That was always going to be just fine with Trump as long as she didn’t use it as an opportunity to have her reputation eclipse his. But the $220 million ad campaign was clearly designed to be about Noem; not about ICE, and not about Trump.
And as far as Trump is concerned, that’s the most unforgivable sin of all.
Related | Firm tied to Kristi Noem secretly got money from $220 million DHS ad contracts
