Noem faces GOP heat over $220M ad that boosted 'your name recognition' [View all]

Source: The Hill

03/03/26 11:46 AM ET


Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday was met with skepticism from Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who argued during a hearing that a more than $200 million ad campaign was primarily “effective in your name recognition.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last February announced the ad campaign, which features Noem telling migrants to go home or face deportation. A firm with ties to Noem and her former spokeswoman received the contract, which was awarded after skirting the competitive bidding process. The exchange Tuesday marked unusual pushback from a member of the president’s party against the spending of a Cabinet official, with Kennedy suggesting the video was done to promote Noem rather than the Trump agenda and put the president “in a terribly awkward spot.”

“The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?” Kennedy asked. Noem told the audience at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference that President Trump had asked her to craft the ad to thank him for his work at the border. “He said, ‘I want the first ad, I want you to thank me. I want you to thank me for closing the border.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir. I will thank you for closing the border,’” Noem said last year.

“To me, it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth,” Kennedy said during the questioning. “It’s just hard for me to believe, knowing the president as I do, that you said, ‘Mr. President, here’s some ads I’ve cut, and I’m going to spend $220 million running them’ that he would have agreed to that.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5764784-kristi-noem-kennedy-ad-campaign/