{"id":182887,"date":"2026-04-01T23:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182887\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:51:12","slug":"kristi-noems-husbands-cross-dressing-fetish-leak-sparks-wild-dc-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/182887\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristi Noem’s husband’s cross-dressing fetish leak sparks wild DC theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The shocking pictures of Kristi Noem\u2019s cross-dressing husband<\/a> sporting comically large fake breasts have prompted a new parlor game in Washington \u2014 who was behind the story and why did they do it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

One theory among Republican strategists who know Noem is that she may have had a hand in the leak to the Daily Mail as part of a cynical play to rehabilitate her image after President Trump fired her as Homeland Security Secretary.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI do think she could have leaked it,\u201d one insider told The Post. Three others said they are not ruling out the possibility.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of a comeback tour that she and her longtime adviser and lover Corey Lewandowski are plotting with one possible goal: winning the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think she could have leaked it,\u201d one insider told The Post of Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem\/Facebook<\/p>\n

The shocking accusation that Byron Noem cross-dresses and<\/a> chats online with fetish models was seen by some strategists as a ploy to help the duo overcome a series of controversies after their careers crashed and burned following a disastrous Senate hearing on March 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t help but think that Corey Lewandowski is trying to divert attention away from one scandal and set the stage for the Secretary to get a divorce and them to live happily ever after,\u201d a source familiar with the pair told The Post.<\/p>\n

Noem and Lewandowski<\/a> did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Noem\u2019s response to the story about her husband \u2014 who lives in South Dakota while she and Lewandowski reportedly co-habitate in the Coast Guard commandant\u2019s residence on a Washington, DC, military base \u2014 was swift and succinct shortly after the news broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Noem is devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,\u201d her spokesperson told The Post.<\/p>\n

Kristi Noem has long carried presidential ambitions. NICOLE HESTER \/ THE TENNESSEAN \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Noems have been married for 34 years and have three grown children. Lewandowski has been married to Alison Hardy Lewandowski since 2005, and they share four kids. <\/p>\n

But many Washington insiders are dubious that Noem \u2014 who was briefly in the conversation to be President Trump\u2019s 2024 running-mate \u2014 has enough goodwill left with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure that the \u2018My husband is a cross dresser with a freaky fetish\u2019 card is enough to garner the needed empathy,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say this would be a great story for the next \u2018Love Story\u2019 series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos of Byron Noem were published Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Noem and Lewandowski<\/a> have long eyed the Oval Office, multiple Republican sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

The salacious allegations about her husband Bryon\u2019s double life\u00a0could help that ambition by recasting Noem as the sympathetic, wronged wife, in the same mode of Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin, according to pals.<\/p>\n

Both of Clinton and Abedin survived embarrassing revelations about their husbands\u2019 love lives and went on to thrive.<\/p>\n

(Notably, Noem has been battling reports she was stepping out on her husband since 2021.)<\/p>\n

The former South Dakota governor\u2019s aspiration for the highest office in the land goes back years and has an unlikely starting point: Kanye West.<\/p>\n

The rapper called Noem personally to ask her to be his 2020 running-mate for his independent run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Lewandowski pushed her to say yes, sources said.<\/p>\n

Kristi Noem spent her final days as DHS secretary on a trip to South America, with Corey Lewandowski by her side. Office of the President<\/p>\n

While she ultimately turned him down, Noem would spend the next six years working to burnish her national profile and forming ties to Trump\u2019s powerful MAGA base \u2014 trying to lay the foundation for a presidential bid of her own.<\/p>\n

Others warn the ploy could backfire. Hillary Clinton, for instance, successfully pivoted into the Senate, but the baggage she carried made her so unpopular that she lost the presidential election in 2016 \u2014 to Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chicken has officially flown the coop on Kristi Noem ever being able to rehabilitate her reputation after this,\u201d one insider who knows her said.<\/p>\n

The person went on to say Noem\u2019s \u201coriginal sin\u201d was the affair with Lewandowski, who is despised by many in the GOP establishment. <\/p>\n

His saving grace has been his strong relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n

President Trump fired Kristi Noem last month. X \/ @KristiNoem<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that she cheated on her husband and in such a public fashion, but she did it with someone who is universally reviled,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lewandowski is standing by her side.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on Kristi Noem\u2019s husband\u2019s bizarre \u2018bimbofication\u2019 fetish scandal<\/p>\n

He\u2019s playing the behind-the-scenes puppet master in negotiating the public relations nightmare for the politically ambitious Noem, sources tell The Post.<\/p>\n

Publicly he was last seen with her last week when Noem ended her tenure at DHS on a defiant note, traveling to South America<\/a> on a luxury government jet.<\/p>\n

Kristi Noem on patrol with ICE. X\/SecNoem<\/p>\n

On that trip, she put away her \u201cICE Barbie\u201d image of vests, guns, and heavy makeup, swapping it out for professional suits as she traveled to Dominican Republic, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guyana and Ecuador, where she was awarded the order of merit.<\/p>\n

It was a familiar supporting role for Lewandowski, who occupied an unpaid but powerful role in the Department of Homeland Security when she served as secretary.<\/p>\n

He lost the gig when Trump fired her, but that hasn\u2019t driven the two apart, insiders say.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a survivor,\u201d a top Republican strategist who knows them both well told The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The shocking pictures of Kristi Noem\u2019s cross-dressing husband sporting comically large fake breasts have prompted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33683,153,19344,2036,9,11,10,2134,23690,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-182887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-corey-lewandowski","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-kanye-west","11":"tag-kristi-noem","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-republicans","16":"tag-scandals","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182887","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=182887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}