President Donald Trump’s recent firing of Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security has triggered a political firestorm, with new scrutiny now falling on longtime Trump ally Corey Lewandowski. At the heart of the controversy is a $220 million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advertising campaign that has drawn bipartisan criticism, allegations of favoritism, and questions about who ultimately benefited from the lucrative contracts.
According to reporting by NBC News, Trump has spent recent days pressing his aides about whether Lewandowski, a close adviser and political operative, personally profited from the massive ad blitz. The campaign, which prominently featured Noem herself—including one memorable ad filmed with her on horseback in front of Mount Rushmore—was the subject of heated congressional oversight hearings that ultimately fueled Trump’s decision to remove Noem from office on March 5, 2026.
“I didn’t know anything about that,” Trump told Reuters, referring to the $222 million campaign that Noem had testified he approved. The president went further, telling NBC he “wasn’t thrilled” with Noem’s expensive campaign but denied there was a specific “last straw” that led to her removal. The disconnect between Trump and Noem became a major political flashpoint, as the president’s denial essentially accused his former DHS secretary of misleading Congress about who signed off on the spending.
The ad campaign’s contracts were awarded through a limited competition process to firms with well-established Republican ties. Safe America Media, a little-known company incorporated in Delaware just a week before winning its DHS award, was handed a $143 million no-bid contract. People Who Think, a Louisiana-based firm run by a political operative with previous ties to Lewandowski, received a separate $77 million contract to work on the same campaign, according to Reuters. Both deals bypassed the standard open bid process, raising eyebrows among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican, voiced his discomfort during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: “It troubles me. A fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money, when we’re scratching for every penny, and we’re fighting over recision packages … I just can’t agree with it.”
The intrigue deepened when ProPublica reported on March 4, 2026, that Noem’s congressional testimony about Lewandowski’s role in contract approvals did not match internal DHS records and interviews with current and former officials. Noem had claimed before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Lewandowski had “no role” in approving contracts, insisting, “His role is as a special government employee, and special government employees work for the White House and the administration. There are thousands of them.” But internal documents, as well as staff accounts, told a different story. According to the records, Lewandowski’s signature routinely appeared as the last name before Noem’s on contracts above $100,000—a department-wide policy Noem herself had instituted. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal pressed the issue, asking Noem directly about Lewandowski’s involvement. She doubled down: “No.”
Blumenthal was unconvinced. He later sent a letter to Noem citing DHS records that showed Lewandowski personally approved several multi-million dollar deals. Senators Blumenthal and Peter Welch, both Democrats, have since demanded documents and answers from the companies involved in the ad campaign, citing potential corruption and conflicts of interest in “no-bid, taxpayer-funded contracts” awarded by DHS. The senators’ inquiry specifically referenced concerns about whether Lewandowski profited from the contracts and requested records from the firms involved in the production chain.
Safe America Media, the firm at the center of the contract controversy, subcontracted with the Strategy Group, whose CEO Ben Yoho is married to Noem’s now-former assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin. The Strategy Group stated in a release following the congressional hearings that it received only a small fraction of the millions DHS spent: “Safe America paid us $226,137.17 total for [five] film shoots, 45 produced video advertisements and [six] produced radio advertisements.” McLaughlin left DHS last month, adding another layer of intrigue to the unfolding saga.
Another contract, worth $250,000, was awarded to American Made Media Company, a political consulting firm with ties to Lewandowski. Federal procurement records show the request was published on September 26, with bids due the very next day—an unusually tight deadline for a government contract. The winning bidder was required to have “an established track record of promoting Trump administration policies in the media,” according to the contract’s language.
Amid the mounting questions, Lewandowski has denied profiting from any DHS contracts. In an interview with NBC, he insisted, “zero, not one penny,” when asked if he had personally benefited. He also said he spoke with Trump three times in the week before Noem was fired, including on the days she testified before Congress, but that contracts and DHS spending never came up. “Since I’ve known the guy for 11 years, I think it’s fair to say if he had a concern about something I was doing, he would raise it,” Lewandowski said.
Lewandowski’s influence within DHS has been significant, despite his status as an unpaid “special government employee” without congressional approval. He has remained within Trump’s political orbit for more than a decade, serving as a chief aide during Trump’s 2016 campaign and maintaining a close advisory role ever since. His tenure has not been without controversy—during the 2016 campaign, he was arrested for grabbing the arm of a female reporter, though those charges were later dropped.
Noem and Lewandowski have worked closely together through her term as governor of South Dakota and during her time at DHS, fueling rumors of a romantic relationship. Both are married, and Noem dismissed such speculation during her congressional testimony as “tabloid garbage.”
As the dust settles, the fallout from the DHS ad campaign remains a live issue in Washington. Lawmakers from both parties continue to demand transparency and accountability over the use of taxpayer funds, the awarding of no-bid contracts, and the roles played by political operatives within the administration. Noem, for her part, has maintained that the ads were “effective”—a point Republican Senator Kennedy rebuffed with a quip about her personal name recognition.
With the congressional investigations ongoing and new details emerging about the process behind the $220 million campaign, the episode has become a vivid example of the challenges facing federal procurement and political oversight in the current climate. Whether further revelations will emerge about Lewandowski’s involvement or others connected to the contracts remains to be seen, but for now, the controversy shows no sign of fading from the spotlight.
In the end, the saga underscores the enduring tensions between political loyalty, public accountability, and the stewardship of taxpayer dollars—an uneasy triangle that continues to shape the highest levels of American government.