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On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: \u201cBreak our laws, we\u2019ll punish you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the \u201cnational emergency\u201d at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with longstanding personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.<\/p>\n
No firm has closer ties to Noem\u2019s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company\u2019s CEO is married to Noem\u2019s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.<\/p>\n
The Strategy Group\u2019s ad work is the first known example of money flowing from Noem\u2019s agency to businesses controlled by her allies and friends.<\/p>\n
Government contracting experts said the depth of the ties between DHS leadership and the Strategy Group suggested major potential violations of ethics rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s corrupt, is the word,\u201d said Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that the Strategy Group\u2019s role should prompt investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer,\u201d Tiefer added.<\/p>\n
Federal regulations forbid conflicts of interest in contracting and require that the process be conducted \u201cwith complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias,\u201d said Scott Amey, a contracting expert and general counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight.<\/p>\n
The revelations come as the amount of money at Noem\u2019s disposal has skyrocketed. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill granted DHS more than $150 billion, and Noem has given herself an unusual degree of control over how that money is spent. This summer, she began requiring that she personally approve any payment over $100,000.<\/p>\n
Asked about the Strategy Group\u2019s work for DHS, McLaughlin, the agency spokesperson, said in an interview, \u201cWe don\u2019t have visibility into why they were chosen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know who they\u2019re a subcontractor with, but I don\u2019t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself,\u201d she said. \u201cMy marriage is one thing and work is another. I don\u2019t combine them.\u201d Her husband, Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho, didn\u2019t respond to questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy marriage is one thing and work is another. I don\u2019t combine them.\u201d said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin, who is married to Strategy Group CEO Ben Yoho.<\/span> Tricia McLaughlin via Instagram<\/span><\/p>\n In a written statement, DHS said, \u201cDHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.\u201d They added that the Strategy Group does not have a direct contract with the agency, saying \u201cDHS cannot and does not determine, control, or weigh in on who contractors hire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Contracting experts said that agencies can and do sometimes require that subcontractors be approved by officials. It\u2019s not clear how much the Strategy Group has been paid.<\/p>\n This is not the first time that the Strategy Group has gotten public money through a Noem contract. As governor of South Dakota in 2023, her administration set off a scandal by hiring the Ohio-based company to do a different ad campaign, paying it $8.5 million in state funds. While the state said the contract was done by the book, a former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem quietly intervened to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal. ProPublica granted some people anonymity to discuss the deals because of their sensitivity.<\/p>\n The firm also paid up to $25,000 to one of Noem\u2019s closest advisers in South Dakota, previously unreported records show. (The adviser, 28-year-old Madison Sheahan, now serves at DHS as the second-in-command of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sheahan didn\u2019t respond to questions about why she was paid.)<\/p>\n The DHS ad that the company filmed at Mount Rushmore has aired during \u201cFox & Friends\u201d in recent days. Executives from the Strategy Group traveled to the shoot and hired subcontractors to fill out the film crew, according to records and a person involved in the campaign. The ad\u2019s aesthetic sits somewhere between a political campaign ad and a Jeep commercial as Noem tells would-be immigrants to \u201ccome here the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the cowboys who tamed the West to the titans who built our cities,\u201d Noem says, as images of Trump Tower in Chicago and Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt last year flash on the screen, \u201cAmerica has always rewarded vision and grit.\u201d Noem continues: \u201cYou cross the border illegally, we\u2019ll find you.\u201d<\/p>\n Obtained by ProPublica<\/span>\n<\/p>\n The ad is the latest in a campaign that Noem debuted in February, just a few weeks after she took charge of DHS. \u201cAny delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers,\u201d the agency wrote, explaining why it was skipping the competitive bidding process normally required for government contracts. The initial ads featured Noem thanking Trump for securing the border.<\/p>\n The contracts total $220 million so far, leading the DHS ad budget to triple in the most recent fiscal year, according to Bloomberg. The lion\u2019s share of ad contracts is typically used to buy TV airtime or spots on social media. Advertising firms make money by taking an often-hefty commission. Federal records show the contracts have gone to two firms. One is a Republican ad company in Louisiana called People Who Think, which has been awarded $77 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the majority of the money \u2014 $143 million \u2014 has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.<\/p>\n Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain. McElwain has long had his own advertising company (separate from the Delaware one), but there\u2019s little evidence that firm could handle a nine-figure federal contract on its own: It reported just five employees when it received COVID-19 relief money a few years ago.<\/p>\n How, where and to whom Safe America Media doled out the $143 million is unknown. Any subcontractors hired to do work on the DHS ads are not disclosed in federal contracting databases.\u00a0<\/p>\n The office funding the ad contracts is listed as the DHS Office of Public Affairs, which is run by McLaughlin, contract records show. McLaughlin married Yoho, the Strategy Group CEO, earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n In its statement, DHS said the agency does its contracting \u201cby the book\u201d and the process is run by career officials. \u201cIt is very sad that Pro Publica would seek to defame these public servants,\u201d DHS added.<\/p>\n Asked about why the agency chose Safe America Media, DHS said, \u201cThe results speak for themselves: the most secure border in American history and over 2 million illegal aliens exiting the United States.\u201d McElwain and People Who Think didn\u2019t respond to questions.<\/p>\n Yoho was still in college when he first served as campaign manager for a U.S. congressman. Now, at 38 years old, he\u2019s a national player in the cutthroat industry of political advertising. Federal election records show tens of millions in payments to his firm during the 2024 election cycle, coming from dozens of Republican congressional candidates. And Noem has proved a particularly lucrative client.<\/p>\n Lewandowski brought Yoho into Noem\u2019s inner circle back in South Dakota, according to two people familiar with the matter, putting the young consultant in charge of the ad side of her 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign. Noem had a more than $5 million advertising budget for the race, records show. After she won in a landslide, Yoho, who has called Noem a friend, came to South Dakota to attend her inauguration ceremony. He sat off to the side of the stage, next to Lewandowski. (Lewandowski didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n Yoho shared a photo of himself with Noem and her husband, Bryon, at Noem\u2019s 2023 inauguration in South Dakota. <\/span> Benjamin Yoho via X<\/span><\/p>\n By then, Yoho\u2019s next big project with Noem was already in the works. In late 2022, Noem was quietly preparing to launch another sprawling ad campaign \u2014 only this time, the money would come from state coffers. The stated goal was to encourage workers to move to South Dakota. The upcoming contract opportunity wasn\u2019t public yet, but Yoho was already involved in planning the campaign, according to records first reported by Sioux Falls Live.<\/p>\n Then on Jan. 12, 2023, Yoho\u2019s company registered to do business in South Dakota under the name Go West Media. The next day, the contract opportunity went live.<\/p>\n Seven companies submitted proposals for the project. Then the pressure from above set in, according to a former Noem administration official involved in the process.<\/p>\n The former official said a top Noem aide told them the governor would be angry if Yoho\u2019s company didn\u2019t win the contract. \u201cHe was very direct: \u2018She wants to do it,\u2019\u201d they said. Contemporaneous text messages reviewed by ProPublica corroborate that senior Noem administration officials pushed for Yoho to get the contract. Eventually, he did. (In its statement, DHS denied that Noem influenced the process.)<\/p>\n Noem starred in Yoho\u2019s ads herself, dressing up as a dentist, a plumber and a state trooper as she touted her state\u2019s growing economy. Exactly how much Yoho and the Strategy Group made off the $8.5 million deal is unclear. Some of the money was used to purchase spots on Fox News, including one during a Republican presidential debate. Some of the money appears to have gone back to South Dakota \u2014 into the bank account of another of Noem\u2019s top advisers.<\/p>\n Noem in costume in ads she starred in that were produced by the Strategy Group, funded with public money in South Dakota.<\/span> South Dakota Governor\u2019s Office of Economic Development via YouTube<\/span><\/p>\n Sheahan, now the second-in-command at ICE, was paid up to $25,000 by Go West in 2023 for \u201cconsulting,\u201d according to a financial disclosure document Sheahan later filed. At the time, Sheahan was serving as both the operations director for Noem as governor and the political director for Noem\u2019s campaign work, according to a copy of her 2023 resume obtained by ProPublica. Her responsibilities included coordinating \u201cdaily logistics and operations\u201d for Noem and her team, the resume said. She also managed the \u201crelationship with high level donors\u201d to American Resolve, Noem\u2019s network of outside political groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n As his firm received millions from the South Dakota state government, Yoho separately continued to work for Noem in other capacities. He worked under Lewandowski on the publicity campaign for Noem\u2019s 2024 memoir, according to a person familiar with the matter. (The book became famous for including an anecdote about Noem shooting her dog.)<\/p>\n The Strategy Group also received a stream of payments for social media consulting and media production work over the last few years from Noem\u2019s American Resolve PAC. Federal election records show the PAC made its last payment to Yoho\u2019s company this February, a couple weeks after Noem took her post as the head of DHS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Oct. 2, the second day of the government shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: \u201cBreak our laws, we\u2019ll punish you.\u201d\u00a0 Noem has hailed the more than<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1972,2167,1466,14607,1305,19195,1125,247,8190],"class_list":{"0":"post-33511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-campaign","9":"tag-dhs","10":"tag-firm","11":"tag-kristi","12":"tag-million","13":"tag-noemtied","14":"tag-piece","15":"tag-propublica","16":"tag-secretly"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Watch the DHS Ad Filmed at Mount Rushmore<\/h3>\n