Taxpayers shelled out more than $200,000 in production costs for an ad featuring fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem riding around Mount Rushmore on horseback, Democratic lawmakers revealed Monday.
The payments were made under a subcontract issued to The Strategy Group Company, as part of the controversial $220 million advertising campaign authorized by Noem that urged illegal migrants to leave the US.
“This looks like waste, fraud, and abuse to me,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said after reviewing the breakdown of the ad’s production costs.
A partial invoice provided to Welch and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) showed The Strategy Group Company spent $20,000 on horse rentals for the ad; $3,781 on hair and makeup; $52,599 on videography, photography and production vendors; $41,852 on “other vendors.”
The Strategy Group Company billed $107,405 for labor costs, and $60,000 for a “signing bonus,” according to the senators.
A South Dakota magic store was also paid $500 by the subcontractor.
“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 rental — and that’s just what we know so far,” Welch said.
Blumenthal called the spending “completely unacceptable” and an “absurd waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds.”
“I will continue to demand the answers the American people deserve about how these funds were used and whether any federal officials profited from DHS contracts,” the senator said.
Safe America Media secured a $143 million no-bid contract from the Department of Homeland Security in February 2025 to produce and place the spots.
The company incorporated in Delaware around a week before inking the contract, ProPublica first reported in November.
A subcontract worth more than $286,000 went to The Strategy Group Company to shoot Noem’s Mount Rushmore ad, which promised an “American dream … as big as these endless skies” to immigrants entering the US legally — and deportation for those coming illegally.
The political consulting firm is run by Ben Yoho, the husband of ex-DHS chief spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
The Strategy Group Company has noted it never contracted directly with DHS. McLaughlin has similarly said her “husband doesn’t own Safe America and is not a part of it.”
On March 3, Noem told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee that DHS always abided by agency rules for contracts and denied being involved with the award process.
She further testified that President Trump personally approved the publicity blitz.
However, in an interview with Reuters, Trump declared, “I never knew anything about it” when asked if he approved the ad campaign. He fired Noem shortly thereafter from her DHS post.
