Kristi Noem was ousted from her role as Homeland Security secretary in March 2026, but her final moments as the agency’s head are under renewed scrutiny due to airplanes she purchased for DHS. These transactions are especially controversial because they were reportedly made through one of Noem’s political donors.
What did Noem do?
Noem purchased the vehicles on her last morning as DHS secretary, paying at least $304 million for five airplanes from the Daedalus Aviation Corporation, according to a report by The New York Times. The prices that Daedalus sold the planes for were “millions of dollars higher than the typical market value for jets of that age,” said the Times, including a Gulfstream jet purchased by Daedalus for $83 million but resold to DHS for $106 million. In all, Noem acquired 10 airplanes throughout her 14 months at the department.
One of the agency’s purchases included a Boeing 737 that was “converted into a massive private jet, complete with a stand-up bar, two bedrooms, marble showers and a table covered in manta ray skin,” said the Times. The purchases are coming under additional fire because the head of Daedalus, William Walters, is one of Noem’s donors and gave “$10,000 to political action committee American Resolve, which supported Noem,” said NewsNation.
What has the fallout been?
Many have criticized Noem for the purchases. The deal “smacks of Noem making money for a former donor and saddling American taxpayers with the cost, without any benefit to them or the government,” said The New Republic. Some were especially angry that Walters was essentially “given a no-bid contract to acquire planes for deportation flights, acting as a middleman by buying planes from elsewhere and reselling them to the government.”
Noem has denied any wrongdoing regarding the plane purchases. The Times’ report was “dishonest” and “factually incorrect,” she said on X. While not disputing that the planes were bought, Noem rejected the characterization of Walters as a donor because he “did not personally make political contributions to Secretary Noem.”
The Times “stands by the characterization of the political donor and his firm,” the outlet’s public relations department said in a response on X. Walters’ donation was given to a “group that existed to support Ms. Noem.”