{"id":133275,"date":"2026-02-14T03:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133275\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T03:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:17:23","slug":"corey-lewandowski-fired-pilot-for-leaving-kristi-noems-blanket-on-plane-as-sources-say-pair-spending-nights-regularly-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/133275\/","title":{"rendered":"Corey Lewandowski fired pilot for leaving Kristi Noem’s blanket on plane as sources say pair ‘spending nights regularly’ together"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Corey Lewandowski fired a Coast Guard pilot for leaving\u00a0Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0blanket on a plane \u2014 but was forced to rehire them upon realizing there was nobody else to fly\u00a0the party home, according to a stunning new report.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski, an unpaid special government employee who unofficially acts as chief of staff for Noem \u2014\u00a0with whom he\u2019s had a years-long affair<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 has overseen a reign of terror over department\u00a0workers\u00a0since President Trump took office last year.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/a>, Noem had to switch planes during an official trip due to a maintenance issue, but her blanket was not moved to the replacement aircraft.<\/p>\n

Corey Lewandowski reportedly fired the Coast Guard pilot \u2014 but rehired him upon realizing there was nobody else to fly the plane. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Lewandowski fired the pilot and told them to find a commercial flight home when they reached their destination, only to reinstate them due to the lack of a backup.<\/p>\n

The report did not specify when or where the incident occurred.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for DHS did not deny the story to the Journal, but said Noem has \u201cmade personnel decisions to deliver excellence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The account was one of a number of anecdotes of vicious in-fighting involving Noem and Lewandowski, who briefly appeared on thin ice with President Trump after the fatal shooting last month of two anti-deportation activists in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Lewandowski have had a years-long affair. DHS photo by Tia Dufour<\/p>\n

That led Trump to send Noem\u2019s great rival, border czar Tom Homan, to Minnesota to restore order. On Thursday, Homan\u00a0announced the end of the immigration enforcement surge<\/a>\u00a0in the Twin Cities, citing improved cooperation with local officials.<\/p>\n

As a special government employee, Lewandowski technically is capped at working 130 days per year, but has managed to creatively stretch that timeframe by avoiding being logged arriving at headquarters \u2014 including by hitching rides in Noem\u2019s motorcade, for which campus gates open without badge checks.<\/p>\n

Noem lives in the former Coast Guard Commandant\u2019s residence in Southwest Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for DHS did not deny the story to the Journal, but said Noem has \u201cmade personnel decisions to deliver excellence.\u201d\u00a0 DHS photo by Tia Dufour<\/p>\n

While the Journal reported that Lewandowski \u201cspends time at the house,\u201d multiple sources inside and close to the administration tell The Post it\u2019s understood that Lewandowski lives with Noem \u2014 \u201cif living means spending nights regularly,\u201d as one source put it.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski apparently is not shy about referring to Noem in intimate terms, as another source recalled him speaking last year about the need to find apparel for the secretary that would flatter a woman with, in Lewandowski\u2019s words, \u201cbig tits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noem and Lewandowski have reacted to prior negative stories by vowing in social media statements to find, fire, and prosecute subordinates, including those who recently brought attention to the slow pace of new border wall construction.<\/p>\n

Noem\u2019s husband, Bryon, sells crop insurance in their home state of South Dakota, while Lewandowski\u2019s wife, Alison, who lost her first husband in the 9\/11 attacks, lives with their four children in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski\u2019s special government employee status also allows him to bypass financial disclosure laws, raising eyebrows due to his role in steering federal contract funds.<\/p>\n

He claimed in August 2025 that he had logged\u00a0just 69 days<\/a>\u00a0of work under Noem \u2014 and was able to stretch the remaining 61 through the end of 2025. (The 130-day rule resets each calendar year.)<\/p>\n

US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott also told Lewandowski last year that he would no longer take orders from him because his 130-day window was up \u2014 prompting the ouster of Scott\u2019s chief of staff and forced resignation of his deputy in apparent retaliation, the Journal reported.<\/p>\n

Trump is well-known for enjoying presiding over a team of rivals competing for his approval, and sources told The Post they believe Noem is likely to remain in her position at least through the midterm elections \u2014 after which she might get \u201cpromoted\u201d elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Several sources say the president knows about the affair between Noem and Lewandowski, with one person close to Trump saying he \u201cfrequently\u201d tells a story about seeing the two take sips from the same can of soda.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do that, it\u2019s pretty obvious! You can\u2019t do that, everyone\u2019s going to know!\u201d\u00a0 the germophobic president is quoted as mockingly saying as he entertains listeners with the account.<\/p>\n

Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski in October 2020
\n Eric Held\/Facebook<\/p>\n

The account was one of a number of anecdotes of vicious in-fighting involving Noem and Lewandowski, according to reports. @Sec_Noem\/X<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s his go-to story,\u201d this source said. \u201cHe says that frequently about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why the relationship \u2014 or the couple\u2019s brutal treatment of internal rivals \u2014 has been tolerated remains a mystery, though Trump has repeatedly expressed a soft spot for Lewandowski, whom he fired from his 2016 campaign for manhandling then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields during a press scrum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised that they\u2019ve kind of let this fester as long as it has,\u201d wondered one person close to the administration.<\/p>\n

Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski are giving thumbs up at a dinner together. Josh Sines\/Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump and Secretary Noem have ensured the most secure border in our Nation\u2019s history, and our homeland is undoubtedly safer today than it was when the president took office last year,\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. \u201cThe president continues to have full confidence in the secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Corey Lewandowski fired a Coast Guard pilot for leaving\u00a0Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s\u00a0blanket on a plane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27688,33683,2036,9,11,10,87,58],"class_list":["post-133275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-coast-guard","tag-corey-lewandowski","tag-kristi-noem","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}