A firm owned by a long-term friend of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and who is married to her senior communications advisor secretly won work on a $220 million border TV advertising blitz in a “corrupt” arrangement, according to a bombshell report.
Benjamin Yoho, 38, has worked and socialized with Noem and Corey Lewandowski, her closest adviser and alleged lover, for many years. He is also the husband of Noem’s loyal Assistant Secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, 31.
Now Yoho’s Strategy Group is alleged to have helped film a DHS TV commercial for the government’s “Stronger Border, Stronger America” campaign, per an investigation published Friday by ProPublica—even though the firm’s name isn’t listed on any public documents.
Instead, the main recipient listed is a shell company, Safe America Media, which had been created only days before it was awarded more than $143 million by DHS, after the department invoked a “national emergency” to bypass competitive bidding.
In the TV commercial, which has aired on Fox & Friends, Noem, 53—nicknamed ICE Barbie for her love of dressing up for PR opportunities—is seen riding in chaps and a cowboy hat as she declares: “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”
But Charles Tiefer, a federal contract law expert, said it was DHS and the Strategy Group which should be investigated, by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee. “It’s corrupt, is the word,” he told ProPublica.
DHS said Strategy Group is a subcontractor for Safe America Media, and it played no role in who it employed. But Tiefer added: “Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer.”
Federal rules require procurement “with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none,” and Scott Amey, general counsel at watchdog POGO, said the relationships are “worthy of an investigation” to determine whether choices “were made legally and without bias.”
ProPublica notes that no company is “closer” to Noem’s political machine than the Strategy Group—of which Yoho is CEO—while Lewandowski has also “worked extensively” with the firm for many years, the outlet says.
The Strategy Group has received public money from Noem on multiple occasions. It ran the ad side of Noem’s 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial race. And in 2023 and 2024, during Noem’s South Dakota governorship, the company was paid $8.5 million for a workforce-recruitment blitz.
A former official said that Noem’s team had pushed for Yoho’s company to win, despite the Strategy Group having been based out-of-state in Ohio, and having created a subsidiary in South Dakota just a few days after Noem’s inauguration.
At the time, Lewandowski was a senior adviser to Noem, and then went with her to DHS as ‘de-facto chief of staff.’ As a senior Republican, he and Yoho have reportedly known one another for more than a decade.
Yoho and McLaughlin—who wed in August—have also both been in Noem’s inner circle for years, their work regularly intertwined.
The Daily Mail reported they became lovers when Yoho served as the CEO of Vivek Ramaswamy’s failed 2024 presidential bid, at the same time as McLaughlin was Ramaswamy’s Senior Advisor and Communications Director. Like Ramaswamy, both Yoho and McLaughlin are Ohio natives.
Lewandowski also reportedly “flirted with joining” a pro-Vivek super PAC in 2023, the paper said.
The couple were revealed by the outlet to have got engaged in Trump’s hometown of Palm Beach, Florida. McLaughlin also announced it on Mornings with Maria, a Fox Business show.
They wed in Cincinnati on Aug. 23 followed by a honeymoon in France.
Despite her young age and relative inexperience, McLaughlin was one of Noem’s first picks after she was made Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary at the start of the year.
The Strategy Group has also paid up to $25,000 to Madison Sheahan, 28—now deputy director at ICE—while she held senior roles in Noem’s office and political operation, ProPublica reported.
Yoho’s latest alleged secret arrangement with DHS was paid out of a wider $220 contract for “Stronger Border, Stronger America” ad buys, which has also seen $77 million handed to GOP firm People Who Think, as reported in August by the Daily Beast.
The bulk of the money has flowed through Safe America Media, which lists an address at veteran GOP operative Michael McElwain’s Virginia home, according to the ProPublica investigation.
DHS justified skipping full competition in awarding the cash on grounds that delay would “increase the spread of misinformation, especially by smugglers.”
People Who Think co-founder, Louisiana consultant Jay Connaughton, also worked alongside Lewandowski, on Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s campaign in 2024, according to Semafor.
DHS said at the time that the money had been issued “following a competitive process with multiple companies competing to deliver the best service, product,” and that the campaign was not related to coverage of Noem.
But the latest TV ad, which was filmed at Mount Rushmore on Oct. 2, day two of the shutdown, features her front and center.
Her horse-rinding is spliced with footage that includes Donald Trump raising his fist after the 2024 assassination attempt, as well as DHS immigration operations.
Inside DHS, Noem reportedly reserved personal sign-off power over payments above $100,000, raising complaints from Republican critics that it is slowing down processes.
That control comes amid a historic cash infusion—more than $150 billion for DHS under the GOP’s border spending measure—fueling an unprecedented expansion of immigration enforcement.
However, DHS denies Noem has influenced contracting.
Yoho did not respond to requests from the Daily Beast or ProPublica, which could not determine how much Strategy Group has been paid as a subcontractor.
In response to a request for comment by the Beast, DHS sent a lengthy and unusually detailed response in which it said the department and Noem have “no involvement with the selection of subcontractors” and stressed that the Strategy Group lacks a direct contract.
McLaughlin told ProPublica she recused herself from any decisions because of her marriage to Yoho and denied steering decisions: “My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them.”
As one of the Trump administration’s most outspoken communications officials and Noem’s fiercest public defenders, she has drawn repeated fact-checks for false claims.
Through September and October, the Daily Beast documented multiple instances where McLaughlin’s statements about ICE and Border Patrol operations were contradicted by police and public records.
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