According to a new report on Tuesday, President Donald Trump has reportedly been pressing aides about whether longtime adviser Corey Lewandowski personally benefited from the Department of Homeland Security's controversial $220 million advertising campaign.
NBC News reported that Trump has been asking aides in recent days about Lewandowski's role in the campaign and whether he may have profited from it. The questions come after days of scrutiny over the DHS ad blitz, which prominently featured then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and drew bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill. An anonymous "senior White House official" told NBC that "[Trump] has mentioned the ads several times."
Reuters reported March 5 that Trump said he had not signed off on the campaign, despite Noem's testimony to lawmakers that he had approved the spending. "I never knew anything about it," Trump told Reuters. The disconnect between the two became one of the major political flashpoints surrounding the ads, as the president was essentially accusing Noem of perjury. Trump told NBC that he "wasn't thrilled" with Noem's expensive campaign but denied a "last straw" that led to her removal from the position.
The spending itself had already attracted sharp questions from both Republicans and Democrats. Reuters reported that lawmakers challenged the contracting process after learning the work had been steered through a limited competition rather than a standard open bid. Two firms with ties to Republican operatives received the contracts. According to Reuters, Safe America Media got $143 million, and People Who Think received $77 million. Reuters also noted that Safe America Media was incorporated in Delaware just a week before winning its DHS award.
Lewandowski's name became central to the controversy after ProPublica reported that Noem's congressional testimony about his authority inside DHS did not match internal records and interviews with current and former officials. According to that March 4 report, Noem told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Lewandowski had no role in approving contracts, but ProPublica said agency records and staff accounts contradicted that claim. Both Noem and Lewandowski have long been rumored to
Congressional Democrats have since moved to widen the pressure. On March 6, Sens. Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal said they were demanding answers from the companies tied to the ad campaign, calling attention to what they described as potential corruption and conflicts of interest in "no-bid, taxpayer-funded contracts" awarded by DHS. In the materials released by Welch's office, the senators specifically referenced questions about whether Lewandowski profited from taxpayer-funded DHS contracts and sought documents from firms involved in the campaign's production chain.
Reuters also reported that Noem was removed as homeland security secretary shortly after the ad controversy and related congressional hearings intensified.
