A top advisor to President Donald Trump was denied a role as Homeland Security chief of staff out of “concern” of his relationship with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem amid longstanding rumors of the two having an affair, Axios reported Thursday.
That top advisor is Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee in the Trump administration currently under investigation by the White House for undercounting work hours and skirting federal law.
“Concerns about their relationship led President Trump to nix the idea of allowing Noem to make Lewandowski her chief of staff and instead have him become an (special government employee),” Axios’ Brittany Gibson and Marc Caputo wrote Thursday, citing reports from The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal verified by the publication.
By all accounts, however, Lewandowski has acted much like Noem’s chief of staff, even introducing himself as such in April before DHS issued a correcting statement, saying that he was merely an advisor to DHS.
Lewandowski is frequently seen accompanying Noem, and has been alleged to have gotten “handsy” with Noem in public, and on multiple occasions. This follows another allegation of the Trump advisor having gotten “handsy” with someone in public, though a previous instance landed him a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly groping a GOP donor’s wife during a charity dinner in 2021.
Both Lewandowski and Noem have denied the allegations of having an affair.