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ProPublica published an investigation revealing that The Strategy Group, an Ohio-based Republican consulting firm with deep personal and financial ties to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, secretly received payments as a subcontractor on DHS's $220 million "Stronger Border, Stronger America" advertising campaign. The agency bypassed normal competitive bidding processes by invoking the "national emergency" at the border.
The investigation uncovered extensive conflicts of interest: The Strategy Group's CEO, Ben Yoho, is married to Tricia McLaughlin, Noem's chief spokesperson and DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs—the official whose office funds these contracts. McLaughlin claimed she "fully recused herself" from decisions involving the Strategy Group, though her office manages the contracting process.
The firm's connections to Noem run deep. Corey Lewandowski, Noem's top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with The Strategy Group for years and brought Yoho into Noem's inner circle, putting him in charge of advertising for her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial reelection campaign. The Strategy Group also received payments from Noem's American Resolve PAC over several years, with the last payment occurring in February 2025, shortly after Noem became DHS Secretary.
Financial disclosures reveal that Madison Sheahan, now second-in-command at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and one of Noem's closest advisers, received up to $25,000 from Yoho's South Dakota entity (Go West Media) in 2023 for "consulting" work while simultaneously serving as Noem's operations director and campaign political director.
The Strategy Group's involvement remained hidden from public contract documents. Instead, the majority of funds—$143 million—went to Safe America Media, a Delaware LLC created just days before receiving the award. A second firm, People Who Think (Louisiana), received $77 million. The Strategy Group worked as a subcontractor, and DHS stated it "cannot and does not determine, control, or weigh in on who contractors hire."
This pattern of favoritism has precedent. As governor of South Dakota in 2023, Noem's administration awarded The Strategy Group an $8.5 million state contract for a "Freedom Works Here" workforce recruitment campaign. A former Noem administration official told ProPublica that Noem "quietly intervened to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal," though state officials claimed proper procedures were followed.
The DHS ad campaign included a television commercial filmed at Mount Rushmore on October 2, 2025—the second day of the government shutdown. In the ad, Noem appeared on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, delivering a stern message to immigrants: "Break our laws, we'll punish you." The commercial has aired during "Fox & Friends" in recent days.
Government contracting experts strongly condemned the arrangement. Charles Tiefer, a leading authority on federal contract law and former member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, stated bluntly: "It's corrupt, is the word." He described hiding friends as subcontractors as "playing hide the salami with the taxpayer" and said the Strategy Group's role should prompt investigations by both the DHS inspector general and the House Oversight Committee.
Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight added: "It's worthy of an investigation to ferret out how these decisions were made, and whether they were made legally and without bias."
DHS defended its contracting process, stating the agency conducts business "by the book" and that the process is run by career officials. However, the department invoked the border "national emergency" to bypass standard competitive bidding procedures, claiming: "Any delay in providing these critical communications to the public will increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers."
The revelation adds to mounting ethics concerns surrounding Noem's tenure at DHS. In June 2025, ProPublica reported that Noem's personal LLC received $80,000 from a dark money nonprofit while she was South Dakota governor, which she failed to disclose on federal ethics forms before her DHS confirmation.