Kristi Noem was removed from her position as Secretary of Homeland Security on March 5, 2026, after intense scrutiny over a $220 million Homeland Security advertisement campaign that featured Noem wearing a cowboy hat on horseback as a nod to classic patriotic imagery. Her 13-month tenure ended when President Trump announced her departure on his social media app, Truth Social, right before Noem took the stage at a law enforcement conference in Nashville, Tenn.
She will depart her position on March 31, 2026, and be shifted to a special envoy role within a new security initiative titled “The Shield of America.” Her nominated replacement is Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin.
Noem — most infamously known for shooting her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, Cricket, for being “untrainable,” “dangerous,” and “less than worthless” as a hunting dog — decided that using more than $200 million of taxpayer money for an advertisement campaign was an effective way to curb unauthorized immigration.
To whom did all this money go, you might ask? Let’s go down the list and tick some names off. The lion’s share of $143 million dollars was paid to Safe America Media, a company that was only incorporated in Delaware a week before the contract was awarded to them. Safe America Media subcontracted the Strategy Group, a consulting group that filmed the advertisement. $77 million was awarded to the Republican advertisement company People Who Think. Normally, the vast majority of money in contracts like these is spent on TV airtime, but there is something afoot here.
Digging a little deeper, we see how tightly knit the whole group is. Benjamin Yoho, the CEO of Strategy Group, is the husband of Tricia McLaughlin, former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. Safe America Media has its address listed as the home of Michael McElwain, a partner in the Republican media marketing firm Designated Media Market. In short, Noem’s department decided to skip the usual competitive bidding process it undergoes to award these contracts, and instead handed the money over to all their allies.
Politicians abusing taxpayer money is not remotely new, but this level of blatant thievery in broad daylight is certainly unsettling. The cherry on top of this fraudulent cupcake is that Noem claimed she had presidential approval in a Congressional hearing, possibly perjuring herself, as we would soon come to find out that President Trump had not, in fact, approved anything of this scale.
While her self-promotional campaign was an abject failure, a loyal dog still has its uses. Noem should be grateful that, unlike poor Cricket, Trump has chosen to retain a trusted ally, skimping on the administrative discipline and rewarding her with fewer constraints. Assigning her to a special envoy role in a multinational military cooperation initiative which will be combatting transnational criminal organizations will certainly not backfire in any way.
I look forward to hearing about what else Kristi Noem will be running into the ground.
