The biggest bombshells about Kristi Noem and her top aide Corey Lewandowski from the Wall Street Journal’s expose

Newspaper describes ‘constant chaos’ at Department of Homeland Security under Noem’s leadership

A bombshell report has alleged that the Department of Homeland Security is in a state of “constant chaos” under the leadership of Secretary Kristi Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski.

The Wall Street Journal cites sources within the department who are highly critical of Noem’s reign and paints an unflattering portrait of the secretary as a politician who has sought to “burnish her personal stardom at every turn.”

Noem has “staged a headline grabbing immigration crackdown while sidelining rivals and dissenters,” the newspaper states, noting the secretary’s penchant for posing in agency-branded flak jackets and caps and bearing guns as props “all with an eye to her style, with TV-ready hair and makeup.”

It reports that President Donald Trump has entertained calls to fire Noem and Lewandowski amid discontent about their management of the department, although he has so far refrained from doing so.

Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent: “Mr Lewandowski serves as an advisor to the secretary. The secretary, like all previous secretaries, has various senior advisors. This department doesn’t waste time with salacious, baseless gossip – we have actual work to do keeping the American homeland and its citizens safe. Something the last administration failed to do for four years.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is accused of seeking to ‘burnish her personal stardom at every turn’ (Getty)

A departmental spokesperson previously challenged a number of the points raised by the WSJ. Here’s a look at some of the key claims made against the secretary in its report.

Trump ‘uncomfortable’ with Noem and Lewandowski’s relationship

It has long been rumored that the secretary and her top adviser, both of whom are married, have engaged in an extramarital affair. They have repeatedly denied the allegations and the secretary has called them a “disgusting lie.”

The WSJ nevertheless revives them and reports that “the close relationship had already made Trump and his top advisers uncomfortable,” adding that the president had rejected the idea of Lewandowski serving as Noem’s chief of staff “due to reports of a romantic relationship between the two – which he has continued to bring up, officials say.”

The newspaper reports that Noem moved into a government-owned waterfront house on a military base in Washington, D.C., provided for the head of the Coast Guard, after tabloid photos of Lewandowski “showed him going back and forth between his apartment and Noem’s across the street last year.”

A DHS spokesperson told the WSJ that Noem had moved into the house for security reasons and said she pays rent at the property.

Rivalry with Tom Homan over air time

The report also alleges a heated personal rivalry between Noem and Trump’s border czar, who was sent in to Minnesota late last month to take charge of Operation Metro Surge following public uproar over the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. He has sent 700 agents home and is now winding it down entirely.

“Noem routinely berated staff if she saw Homan on TV and kept track of both their appearances to make sure she was on TV more than him,” the WSJ reports.

“On at least one occasion, she asked aides to ensure she drew a bigger crowd at a conference than Homan, who was speaking on a different day.”

A DHS spokesperson told the WSJ the claim was false.

The newspaper adds that Noem and Homan rarely speak and that he has complained to the White House about her leadership of DHS.

Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt has insisted, however, that the president retains full confidence in Noem, saying recently: “President Trump and Secretary Noem have ensured the most secure border in our nation’s history, and our homeland is undoubtedly safer today than it was when the president took office last year.”

Tom Homan, the Trump administration border czar, who was drafted into Minnesota last month after Operation Metro Surge became the focus of public uproar (Getty)

Fallout from Minneapolis shooting videos

The WSJ observes that Noem and Lewandowski have been on a “rehabilitation tour” since the killing of Pretti on January 24, holding crisis talks with Trump in the Oval Office and staging non-ICE-related events in Florida and Miami, focusing on airport security and the U.S.-Mexico border wall respectively.

It also reports that the duo “berated” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons last month over the deluge of social media videos pouring out of Minneapolis in response to the fatal shooting of the ICU nurse.

That came despite their having previously pushed for agents to film dramatic arrests of alleged undocumented migrants on the city’s streets with one eye on generating exciting online content.

“The president hated the continued stream of videos,” Lyons was reportedly told. “They demanded that he draw up a new plan for ICE to carry out targeted enforcement, an approach Lyons had been advocating all along, according to ICE officials, but that the pair had previously eschewed.”

Posters in Minneapolis remember Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two protesters who were shot dead by federal immigration agents in January (AFP/Getty)

A lost blanket gets a Coast Guard pilot fired

Among the stranger controversies alleged is one claiming that Noem had ordered a Coast Guard pilot to be fired after she was forced to switch from one plane to another because of a maintenance issue, which caused a favorite blanket to be left behind amid the confusion.

The pilot was abruptly told he had been dismissed over the blunder and ordered to take a commercial flight home, only to then be advised that he had, in fact, been reinstated because no one else was available to continue the journey, according to the WSJ.

The DHS spokesperson did not address the incident but claimed instead that the secretary has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.”

Lewandowski’s dreams of owning a gun and a badge

Another bizarre claim made in the report is that Noem’s top adviser “made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law enforcement badge and a federally-issued gun,” despite his not having undertaken the necessary training to merit them.

When the administration was preparing to bring in Tom Feeley, a former top ICE official in New York, as its new director, he was asked by Lewandowski if he would be willing to issue him with the props, the newspaper writes. Feeley said no and was subsequently overlooked for the role.

ICE lawyer Ken Padilla, in turn, reportedly refused the same request and was placed on administrative leave before being demoted to a role with FEMA.

Lewandowski ultimately got his gun, the WSJ reports, but only after it was allegedly signed off by an ICE director’s autopen – an ironic detail given Trump’s mockery and conspiracy theorizing over his predecessor Joe Biden’s use of such a device.

The DHS spokesperson denied the newspaper’s version of events, saying Lewandowski made no such efforts to secure a gun or signed paperwork and said that he did not speak to Feeley and that Padilla was put on leave for other reasons.

But similar retaliatory tactics were also reported in the case of Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, whom Noem and Lewandowski allegedly attempted to force out by reassigning his chief of staff and pressuring his deputy to resign.

Scott himself is a Senate appointee and thus out of the secretary’s jurisdiction.