Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s latest border campaign — a $220 million, taxpayer-funded media blitz — was supposed to be about cracking down on illegal immigration. But new records show that some of that money quietly flowed back to a Republican consulting firm with deep personal and political ties to Noem herself.

Noem Has Major Ties To Strategy Group

According to internal documents and interviews reviewed by reporters, a GOP ad agency called the Strategy Group, which ran Noem’s own 2022 gubernatorial campaign in South Dakota, was secretly working on the Department of Homeland Security’s ad campaign — including the now-infamous Mount Rushmore commercial where Noem, dressed in cowboy gear, warned immigrants that “if you break our laws, we’ll punish you.”

A Group Within A Group

The firm’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in public records for the contract. Instead, the $143 million DHS agreement is registered to a newly created Delaware company called Safe America Media, which appeared just days before the deal was finalized. Federal databases list no subcontractors. But interviews, invoices, and travel logs confirm that Strategy Group executives attended the Mount Rushmore shoot and helped manage the production.

It’s Who You Know

The overlap between Noem’s public office and her private political allies is striking. The Strategy Group’s CEO, Ben Yoho, is married to Tricia McLaughlin, DHS’s chief spokesperson — who reports directly to Noem. Yoho’s company has also worked closely with Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s longtime adviser and a senior official at the agency. And the firm has already profited from previous Noem-connected government contracts, including an $8.5 million ad campaign funded by South Dakota taxpayers in 2023. “It’s corrupt, is the word,” said Charles Tiefer, a former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting and one of the country’s foremost experts on federal procurement law. “Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer.”

DHS Is Spending Big Money

The revelations come as Noem’s control over DHS spending has expanded dramatically. Under the $150 billion “Big Beautiful Bill” passed earlier this year, she has final approval over any department payment exceeding $100,000 — a level of direct control unusual for a Cabinet secretary. Asked about the Strategy Group’s involvement, McLaughlin told reporters she had recused herself from any decisions involving her husband. “My marriage is one thing and work is another,” she said. “I don’t combine them.” DHS said in a written statement that the agency “does its contracting by the book,” adding that “career officials” oversee all procurement decisions and that the department “has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.”

Where Is The Money Going?

Contracting experts point out that agencies can — and often do — require subcontractor disclosure or approval to prevent conflicts of interest. “The public has a right to know who’s getting this money,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight. “When family, political allies, and advisers overlap like this, it raises serious questions about whether the process was impartial. The main Delaware contractor, Safe America Media, is registered to the home of Republican consultant Michael McElwain, who has previously run small ad firms but none with the staffing or infrastructure to manage nine-figure federal contracts. McElwain did not respond to requests for comment. The Mount Rushmore spot — which began airing on “Fox & Friends” earlier this fall — carries Noem’s unmistakable fingerprints. Its tone and visuals mirror the campaign-style ads she produced as South Dakota governor. And like her state-level campaigns, it was overseen by Yoho’s team at the Strategy Group, who have earned tens of millions from Republican clients since 2020.

Noem Is Known For Working With Strategy Group

This is not the first time the company has found itself at the center of a Noem-related spending controversy. While she was governor, her office faced scrutiny for allegedly steering state contracts toward Yoho’s firm. Former staffers have since said that Noem personally intervened to make sure the Strategy Group won those deals — an allegation she denied at the time. In that 2023 campaign, Yoho’s firm not only produced ads featuring Noem dressed as a dentist, plumber, and trooper — it also paid up to $25,000 to another of her top aides, Madison Sheahan, who now serves as deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Currently There’s No Investigation Into Noem’s Ties

Federal watchdogs say the pattern — political allies repeatedly winning lucrative contracts through opaque arrangements — deserves formal investigation. “At a minimum,” Tiefer said, “the inspector general and the House Oversight Committee should be asking how a firm tied to the secretary, her spokesman, and her advisers is now profiting from a federal emergency contract that never went through open bidding.” For now, the DHS campaign continues to run, with Noem at its center — on horseback, against the carved stone faces of past presidents, warning that “America rewards grit.” What she doesn’t mention is that the grit, at least this time, may be coming at the taxpayers’ expense.