DHS's Kristi Noem Further Strains Relationship With Coast Guard Over Use of Resources, Report Says

A new NBC News report has revealed that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard has become strained over early decisions that frustrated Coast Guard officials, including a verbal directive to redirect resources away from a search-and-rescue mission for a missing service member, according to a current Coast Guard official and a former official who spoke to the outlet.

According to the report, Noem's tenure at the agency has created divisions within the Coast Guard, the only branch of the U.S. military overseen by DHS. While many frontline members supported her approach, some senior officials viewed it as diverting the service from its traditional missions. The relationship between the DHS secretary and senior Coast Guard leadership has deteriorated further in recent months as Noem oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of Coast Guard aircraft for immigrant deportations, straining already limited resources, the sources said.

"It puts so much stress on the wing," the Coast Guard official said, referring to the branch's aviation units.

The new directives lowered the priority of search-and-rescue operations, long considered the Coast Guard's core mission, officials familiar with the orders said. They added that counternarcotics efforts and Coast Guard training are now prioritized above search-and-rescue missions.

Concerns among senior Coast Guard officials are expected to intensify as Noem continues prioritizing the Trump administration's deportation targets. According to the NBC News report, Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento has designated the domestic transport of detained immigrants on its C-27 aircraft as its top priority, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the orders.

In a December 2025 report by Human Rights First, the watchdog group found that removal flights conducted on U.S. military aircraft totaled 88 between January and September 2025, primarily using C-17 Air Force cargo planes to carry out Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation operations. The report noted that using military aircraft for removals is significantly more expensive than standard ICE Air charter operations, with costs reported at $28,500 per flight hour.

Noem's efforts to comply with Trump administration directives and deploy Coast Guard resources toward those priorities have created a tense internal environment. According to the report, tensions have at times escalated into verbal confrontations.

In one such incident in May, Corey Lewandowski, Noem's top adviser, berated Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them after a flight departed without one of the secretary's personal items, which was a heated blanket, on board, according to current and former Coast Guard officials.

"There is a general atmosphere of 'keep your head down, you don't want to be on the firing line,'" the former Coast Guard official said.