Thousands in taxpayer funds spent on horse, hair and makeup expenses for Kristi Noem’s Mount Rushmore ad

By Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — Tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent on expenses for hair and makeup artists and a horse for the advertisement showcasing outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in front of Mount Rushmore, according to invoices seen by CNN.

Invoices to the Strategy Group, a DHS subcontractor that produced the advertisement, show taxpayers footed a $20,000 bill to a South Dakota-based barrel racer, along with nearly $4,000 for hair and makeup services. The invoices were sent by the subcontractor in response to a request from Sens. Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal and shared with CNN on Monday.

Upon becoming DHS secretary last year, Noem pledged to root out wasteful spending from her agency. The secretary instituted strict cost-control efforts and tightened her grip on the purse strings of the country’s federal disaster management agency.

But at the same time, DHS spent exorbitant amounts of money on advertising campaigns that featured Noem prominently, part of a broader advertising effort by the department that cost more than $200 million. That spending was the basis of several questions she received from lawmakers during a pair of congressional hearings earlier this month.

Under questioning from Republican Sen. John Kennedy, Noem said President Donald Trump approved the spending. Trump denied doing so, and shortly after Noem made that claim, the president announced she would leave DHS by the end of this month. Trump selected Markwayne Mullin to replace Noem, and the Oklahoma senator is headed toward an expected Senate confirmation vote as soon as Monday evening.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Invoices shared with CNN showed that the Strategy Group — whose CEO is the husband of Noem’s former top spokesperson — accrued more than $100,000 in labor costs, along with a $60,000 “signing bonus” to produce the ad. About $50,000 was spent on videography, photography and production vendors.

“This looks like waste, fraud, and abuse to me,” Welch said in a statement. “While leading the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and her senior team allowed tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to be spent on wasteful production costs, a shady signing bonus, and a very expensive horse — and that’s just what we know so far.”

CNN has reached out to the Strategy Group for comment. The company has previously pushed back on the efforts of Welch and Blumenthal and accused them of mischaracterizing the spending on the ad.

The 60-second ad, which was filmed in October, shows Noem riding a chestnut-colored horse while wearing a cowboy hat and chaps in front of Mount Rushmore. “Why do I love these wide-open spaces? They remind me of why our forefathers came here. Not just for its beauty, but for the freedom only America provides,” the former South Dakota governor says in the ad.

The ad intersperses pivotal moments in American history with images of Trump, including after his July 2024 assassination attempt. In a voiceover, Noem vows to protect Americans’ freedom and to arrest undocumented immigrants.

“But if you come here the right way,” she says toward the end of the ad, “your American dream can be as big as these endless skies.”

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