Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
By now, you have probably heard about Corey Lewandowski, Kristi Noem’s top political adviser and the guy who’s reportedly in charge of carrying out the havoc she wreaks at the Department of Homeland Security. Lewandowski — who is said to have met Noem on a multimillionaire GOP donor’s fishing trip in 2019 and first began advising her while she was still governor of South Dakota — has been serving as her de facto chief of staff since at least September. They’re also rumored to be romantically involved — Intelligencer reported last year that Lewandowski and Noem, both of whom are married, are “widely understood” by the people who work with them to be attached (they have both denied this). According to a new Wall Street Journal story, however, it seems like Noem and Lewandowski may be even messier than that sounds.
Lewandowski has an unusual role in the Trump administration — per the Journal, he wanted to serve as Noem’s chief of staff when she joined DHS, but Trump allegedly shot that down due to discomfort over their purportedly romantic relationship. Instead, he serves as a “special government employee,” a designation that has raised concerns over possible ethics violations.
Even without the murky ethics, the ship Lewandowski and Noem are running together sounds like an absolute wreck. According to the report, they “frequently berate senior level staff” and fire employees at a staggering rate. At one point, Lewandowski allegedly fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem had to switch planes due to a maintenance issue and Noem’s blanket got left behind on the first plane. Unfortunately, it sounds like they may have been a little too hasty — apparently no one else was available to fly Noem and Lewandowski home, so they had to rehire the pilot after telling him to book a commercial flight home.
In a statement that was also sent to the Journal, the DHS told The Cut that the department “doesn’t waste time with salacious, baseless gossip” when asked about the report. A spokesperson for DHS did not confirm or deny the incident to the Journal but did say Noem has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.” Sounds like it.
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