During her final days as Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem “delivered a windfall to one of her political donors” by authorizing the purchase of five airplanes at what experts said were significant markups, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The purchase of luxury jets by the Homeland Security Department (DHS) has been previously reported, but Noem and current DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin have both pointed fingers at each other regarding the purchases. According to newly obtained documents, however, the Times concluded that “the records made clear” the jet purchases were “one of the last acts of Ms. Noem’s turbulent 14-month tenure.”
“Hours before Kristi Noem left her job as D.H.S. secretary, her agency bought 5 planes from a donor at a big markup, records show,” wrote Times journalist Nicholas Nehamas, one of the authors of the report, in a social media post on X. “They were supposed to fly deportees but have largely sat idle — a striking symbol of gov. waste under President Trump.”
According to the Times, the planes in question — one of which was outfitted with a “stand-up bar, two bedrooms, marble showers and a table covered in manta ray skin” — were purchased from Daedalus Aviation Corporation, chaired by William Walters, who in 2024 gave $10,000 to American Resolve, a political action committee (PAC) created to support Noem.
Daedalus Aviation Corporation told the Times that Walters was unaware of the PAC’s affiliation with Noem, despite the PAC’s website “prominently” displaying a photo of Noem’s face.
The newly obtained records also revealed that DHS purchased the planes far above market value, leading Daedalus Aviation Corporation to net as much as $100 million in profit.
“I hope they came with buckets of caviar each, otherwise it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” said Richard Aboulafia, an expert on aircraft markets and managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, speaking with the Times about the DHS plane purchases. “This does not resemble any aspect of an airline marketplace.”