DHS Hired Firm With Deep Ties to Noem for Border Ads, Masking Its Role Through Shell Company: Report

The Department of Homeland Security directed millions of dollars from a $220 million border advertising campaign to a Republican consulting firm closely linked to Secretary Kristi Noem and her senior aides, while concealing the firm's involvement behind a newly formed shell company, according to a ProPublica investigation.

Records show that the Strategy Group — a firm central to Noem's 2022 gubernatorial campaign and run by the husband of Noem's current DHS spokesperson — produced the agency's Mount Rushmore ad in October, despite not appearing anywhere in public contracting disclosures.

Instead, the contracts list a Delaware-based company created just days before the deal as the primary recipient.

Contracting experts told ProPublica the arrangement raises serious concerns about conflicts of interest and potential violations of federal procurement rules. "It's corrupt, is the word," said Charles Tiefer, a former member of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting. He added that hiding subcontractors with personal ties to senior officials was "like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer."

Another contracting specialist, Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight, said the matter "is worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias."

The ad campaign was authorized after DHS invoked a "national emergency" at the border to bypass competitive bidding rules. The department's contracting budget has tripled to unprecedented levels, accelerated by the recent "Big Beautiful Bill," which granted DHS more than $150 billion. Noem has required personal approval for any payment above $100,000.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, whose husband runs the Strategy Group, said she recused herself from involvement with the firm. "My marriage is one thing and work is another," she said. DHS stated that it "has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors" and that contracts are handled by career officials.

This is not the Strategy Group's first publicly funded contract linked to Noem. As governor of South Dakota, Noem directed an $8.5 million state advertising project to the same firm after senior aides pressured internal staff to ensure it won the bid, according to ProPublica's reporting.

The revelations echo another recent ethics controversy at DHS involving border czar Tom Homan. A separate ProPublica investigation found that Homan and a senior adviser met with companies seeking DHS contracts despite their prior paid consulting relationships with those same firms.

The Campaign Legal Center has called for an inspector general investigation, warning that such ties "raise serious questions about whether government decision making is impartial."

DHS has rejected the allegations in both cases, saying contracting processes are being carried out "by the book" and dismissing criticism as unfounded. The Strategy Group's exact compensation from the federal ads remains unknown, as subcontractors are not publicly disclosed.