Deportation Chief’s Plane Trip: Double Bed Controversy

Knives have begun to be raised against Homeland Security Minister Kristi Noem, who supervises the work of the American Immigration Service (ICE) within the Trump administration. Senior White House officials have long been frustrated by the leadership style of Noem and his unofficial chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski, widely billed as his lover. Their situation was finally shaken by the Minneapolis operation of the immigration police, during which ICE and Border Patrol agents shot dead two protesting American citizens.

In the middle of February, long articles referring to anonymous government and ministry sources appeared in the American press about how chaos reigned under Noem’s leadership and what scandals he had. Also, there were more and more whispers about his romantic relationship with Lewandowski, as well as about the luxury plane that the ministry wants to buy for 70 million dollars to transport Noem and Lewandowski, who travels everywhere with him. Trump’s critics began to refer to the plane, which according to the official justification was also intended for deportations, as the couple’s plane after it was revealed that

there is a separate private part at the back with a double bed and a bathroom.

Senior administration officials have already told the Wall Street Journal that nothing in Trump’s second presidency has caused as many headaches as the Department of Homeland Security, and that the White House is increasingly angry about the leadership style of Noem and Lewandowski. According to the anonymous leakers, they were only able to stay in their places until now because Trump likes them and even forgives them that there is more to them than a simple working relationship. Now, however, their position is no longer certain. The Democrats have been demanding Noem’s firing for weeks, and after the killing of Alex Pretti, even on the Republican side, the voices demanding his removal grew louder, while fewer and fewer people publicly defended him.

He became a minister with zero experience

Former Republican representative Kristi Noem, now 54, was already governor of South Dakota when she met Lewandowski, who initially managed Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2019, and hired him as a political adviser. Lewandowski intended for Noem to play a bigger, national role, and tried to sell the politician, who confidently won his gubernatorial re-election, as a rising star of the Republican Party. He twisted the story so skillfully that in the campaign for the 2024 presidential election, Noem was already mentioned as one of Trump’s vice presidential candidates.

In the end, Trump chose something else – South Dakota is a staunchly Republican state, Ohio, where JD Vance, who was eventually chosen as his vice president, came from, provides more electors and is traditionally considered a bigger battleground. Thus, after Trump’s victory, Levandowski began to lobby for the president to appoint Noem, who has no experience in immigration matters, to head the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the immigration police. Trump’s main campaign promise was to deport one million illegal immigrants every year, which means that it was certain that whoever controls this will immediately become one of the most influential members of the government with the most financial resources.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lewandowski saw this position as the best springboard for Noem to run for president in 2028. He wanted to get himself the position of chief of staff of the ministry, but in the end he did not get it because of the articles in the tabloid press about the romantic relationship between them, sources familiar with the president’s thinking told the Wall Street Journal. Regardless, Lewandowski referred to himself as unofficial chief of staff and effectively remained Noem’s closest adviser.

Very close. In 2023, articles were first published in the tabloids about the fact that there is more to Noem and Lewandowski than a simple work relationship. According to reports in the Daily Mail and the New York Post, it had been known for years in Republican political circles that they were lovers, and they didn’t even try to hide it. At several political events, they admitted their relationship so openly that some people thought they were married. As one Post source bluntly put it: “One hundred percent they’re screwing up.” Noem and Lewandowski are both married and have both denied being lovers.

According to one of the New York Post’s sources at the time, the reason why the relationship came to light and appeared in the tabloids of press magnate Rupert Murdoch, who is otherwise friendly with Trump, was because Noem was being mentioned as one of Trump’s possible vice-presidential candidates. “It was a widely known, open thing, and we were waiting for it to explode,” said another of their sources.

Last fall, the topic broke out of Murdoch’s tabloid empire. At that time, the highly prestigious New York Magazine already wrote about their relationship as an open secret. “Everybody knows they are together. Can I prove it? No, but they are together,” a government official told the paper. And in February of this year, the Wall Street Journal, which also belongs to Murdoch’s media empire but jealously guards its editorial independence, wrote that Noem and Lewandowski do not hide their relationship within the ministry at all.

Alex Isenstadt is a journalist Revenge In his book (Revenge), he wrote that Noem did not become Trump’s running mate because of this relationship. Of course, the story written in his second autobiography to illustrate his toughness didn’t help either. According to Noem, he once shot dead one of his 14-month-old dogs in a gravel pit because it was unruly and aggressive. To put it mildly, this did not achieve the desired effect. Although, according to the CNN article, he was no longer on the shortlist for the vice presidential nomination, Trump’s entourage was finally able to convince him that it was a good idea to reject his nomination.

The ICE Barbie Scandal Train

Kristi Noem became one of the most featured members of the Trump administration after her inauguration. He went everywhere with his own video crew, which took turns filming his anti-immigration actions. On the left, she soon began to be referred to simply as ICE Barbie, because she always appeared in the footage with perfect makeup and hair, dressed as a member of the Coast Guard, Border Guard or ICE. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, at the beginning of 2025, he even hooked Trump with a two hundred million dollar advertising campaign, with which, according to the official explanation, he promoted the president’s immigration policy, but in the White House they saw that it was more about Noem and his presidential plans than about the policies of the Trump administration.

The American press already wrote about the chaos in the ministry last year. Noem and Lewandowski reportedly created an atmosphere of fear. There was constant shouting, they fired their subordinates who disagreed with them one by one, and even those who wholeheartedly support Trump’s mass deportation goals began to complain about them.

Lewandowski, who officially works in the ministry as a “special government employee” only temporarily, 130 days a year, but circumvents this rule, practically manages the ministry as chief of staff. Every decision goes through him, he is there at every meeting and accompanies Noem everywhere. He is Noem’s bulldog. As one government official told New York Magazine, “everyone is fed up with Corey.”

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, NBC News and Reuters, Noem’s plane malfunctioned last May. They had to transfer to another plane, and it was only after takeoff that it was discovered that some of Noem’s personal items, including his favorite warm blanket, had been left on the other plane. Lewandowski then started screaming and demanding the plane’s crew to immediately turn back for the blanket. According to NBC News, when the pilot refused, Lewandowski told him he was fired. The pilot then explained that according to the rules, in this case, he must land immediately and find another pilot. The sources of the Wall Street Journal and Reuters presented the events a little differently, according to them, Lewandowski fired the pilot, only then it turned out that there was no one else who could take them back to Washington, so he was immediately reinstated.

They also had scandals. Last summer, after the Daily Mail published a series of photos showing how suspiciously many times Lewandowski appears at Noem’s residence, the minister moved into the residence of the commander-in-chief of the coast guard, who was fired last year. Which is on a military base, that is, in an area closed to the press. According to the Daily Mail’s source, he chose it precisely so that photographers could not take photos of Lewandowski’s frequent visits.

Then came the spending. In Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Law” domestic policy salad law, $190 billion was allocated to the Department of Homeland Security. Of this, two Gulfstream private jets were purchased for Noem and high-ranking executives for $172 million. According to the Washington Post, Noem also uses a Coast Guard plane for private trips. And this year, it turned out that the ministry even wanted to buy a luxury Boeing 737 Max 8 plane. This plane had already been leased for weeks for Noem and Lewandowski’s travels.

According to the ministry’s rationale, the plane would be used for deportations, but as first reported by the military technology magazine The War Zone, its design suggests otherwise. According to the presentation brochure, the plane is equipped with leather armchairs, the cabin is covered with wood inlaid walls, it has a bar, a kitchen, and a separate cabin with a double bed and a shower in the back of the plane. According to the NBC News article, the plane is advertised with the fact that no expense was spared in its design, its equipment was designed by “the famous New York designer, Peter Marino”. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is referred to in the ministry as Noem’s “big beautiful plane.”

According to NBC News sources, Noem kicked up the dust with the leadership of the Coast Guard under his ministry in his first days as minister. When the Coast Guard launched a search-and-rescue operation to rescue a 23-year-old sailor who had fallen overboard in the Pacific Ocean, Noem ordered that the C-130 involved in the operation be pulled out immediately because it was to transport detained immigrants from California to Texas. According to NBC News, the morale at the headquarters of the coast guard is in ruins due to the fact that the organization, which until now mainly carried out rescue operations, began to be used more and more to deport migrants.

In the meantime, Lewandowski upset the mood in the ministry by wanting to get a service badge and a service weapon. According to the Wall Street Journal, he first asked Tom Feeley, who appeared to be the director of ICE, for his service weapon. Feeley didn’t give his permission, so no, he didn’t end up being the director of ICE. Lewandowski then tried to get ICE senior counsel Ken Padilla, but he also said no. According to the MS Now article, she was then escorted out of the building, suspended, demoted and transferred to another agency. Lewandowski eventually got other lawyers in the department to give him permission to use the weapon, but when several newspapers began asking about the story, the process stalled, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Would Noem flee to the Senate?

According to the New York Magazine article, Trump invited Noem and Lewandowski to the Oval Office in September of last year because he was concerned about the flood of complaints about their leadership style. Then they managed to explain themselves. According to reports published in the American press, among others, Tom Homan, the president’s special representative for immigration, and Rodney Scott, the head of Customs and Border Protection, went after the couple because they saw that the violent immigration enforcement actions they supported did more harm than good. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Noems retaliated by firing Scott’s close associates and replacing them with their own people. Scott could not be fired, because his appointment was approved by the Senate, so even the minister does not have the right to do so, but they tried to force his resignation with the inconvenience.

The next time they appeared with Trump was after the death of Alex Pretti, a protester who was killed in Minneapolis. After several hours of discussion, they were finally able to leave with their jobs still intact, reportedly because Trump likes Lewandowski. The reason they cannot feel completely safe is because, according to the news, Susie Wiles, Trump’s powerful chief of staff, is watching Lewandowski with suspicion.

According to the Atlantic, government officials are increasingly strained by Noem’s poor performance, and his position is not all that secure, except that the president has yet to step in. Noem owes the fact that he still has his job to the Democrats who demanded his firing. Trump does not want it to appear that he has given in, the paper wrote, according to which there are already rumors in South Dakota that Noem may resign from the ministry and run for one of the state’s senatorial posts. According to their reports, Trump’s advisers can wait for the deadline of the end of March, until Noem has to submit the supporting signatures for the Senate nomination, after which they can decide on the change of ministers.