The $240 Million Ad Campaign That Helped Get Kristi Noem Fired

Summary

The Big Take (Bloomberg and iHeartPodcasts)

Episode: "The $240 Million Ad Campaign That Helped Get Kristi Noem Fired"
Aired: March 7, 2026

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode explores the downfall of Kristi Noem, the former Secretary of Homeland Security, tracing how a record-breaking $240 million advertising campaign became central to her ouster. Bloomberg reporters dive into the origins, operations, and consequences of the campaign—intended to encourage self-deportation and recruit ICE officers—and reveal new findings about its political entanglements, effectiveness, and humanitarian fallout. The show also examines why this campaign became a political lightning rod and the role it played in Noem's abrupt firing by President Trump.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Kristi Noem’s Abrupt Removal from DHS

• Announcement & Immediate Aftermath

  • President Trump announced Noem’s ouster via Truth Social without warning (01:45).
  • Noem was replaced by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, who was surprised by the move:
    • “I’ve got to be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting the call today.” — Markwayne Mullin (02:05)
  • Noem was at a public event as the news broke but made no mention of her dismissal (02:13–02:25).

• Underlying Tensions

  • Noem had faced two days of intense congressional grilling on allegations of DHS misconduct and specifically on the controversial ad campaign (02:28).

Details & Purpose of the Ad Campaign

• Structure and Messaging
  • Two categories of ads:
    1. Self-deportation ads
       • Urged undocumented immigrants to leave, featuring stark language and imagery, primarily showing Latino immigrants (04:50–05:06).
         • “President Trump has a clear message ... leave now. If you don’t, we will find you and we will deport you.” — Kristi Noem, in ad (04:57)
    2. ICE recruitment ads
       • Urged law enforcement and viewers to join ICE, offering bonuses (05:28).
         • “In too many cities, dangerous illegals walk free ... join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst.” — Voiceover from ad (05:28)
  • Total allocated funds: $240 million, the largest ever for DHS and one of the biggest federal ad campaigns outside defense and COVID (06:05).

The Procurement Controversy

• Non-Competitive Bidding

  • Instead of the usual open bid process, DHS under Noem hand-picked four companies, citing Trump’s border emergency declaration to bypass standard rules (06:57–07:34).
  • Only three companies bid; two won contracts. All had close ties to DHS officials or Trump campaign advisors (07:51).
    • “All three companies are very tightly connected to either DHS officials or Trump campaign advisors.” — Eric Fan (07:51)
  • The process was fast tracked—first ads launched just a month after Trump’s inauguration.

• Companies Involved & Connections

  • Safe American Media: Awarded over $142 million; incorporated only eight days before the contract (08:26–08:48).
    • Lacked public contact info; investigation found only a consultant’s residential address and no response to inquiries (11:40–12:10).
  • People Who Think LLC: Received smaller international contract; links to Corey Lewandowski (Trump campaign), co-founded by Trump advisor (09:14–09:37).
  • Other Players: Entities tied to families of DHS officials; all connections lacked transparency.

• Justifications from DHS

  • DHS defended contractor choices by boasting of campaign “success” but offered no real explanations and confirmed Noem and the OMB approved contracts directly (10:58).

Ad Placement & Effectiveness

• Distribution Analysis

  • Over 92,000 ads aired nationwide—targeted to border states and “sanctuary cities,” but with inconsistencies (15:49).
    • E.g., Georgia, despite a large undocumented population, got few deportation ads but many ICE recruitment ads; certain ads wrongly labeled Atlanta a sanctuary city (17:17).
      • “It’s unclear to us why this ad ... said Atlanta was a sanctuary city even after the administration’s own Justice Department had removed the city from the list.” — Eric Fan (17:17)

• Results of Recruitment Push

  • Police departments contacted (Miami, Denver, etc.) reported no significant loss of officers to ICE; effectiveness of recruitment campaigns is unclear (18:38).
  • ICE claimed their workforce doubled, but impact attribution is unproven. Notably, recruitment ads largely avoided Spanish-language stations, a break from past policy (19:25).

• Impact on Immigrant Communities

  • DHS claimed “over 2 million illegal aliens left the country,” but experts dispute this, placing real numbers closer to 200,000–400,000—and attribute most attrition to reduced visa flows, not self-deportation from ads (20:27).
  • Immigrant counselors and families report increased fear, anxiety, and stigma—particularly among children (21:46).
    • “We know that it’s creating fear, anxiety. Not sure, you know, if many people combine to leave, but ... at least they’re really suffering from the content of this campaign.” — Irena Sanchez Casado (21:46)

Political Fallout: Hearings and Noem’s Prominence

• Congressional Oversight & Unanswered Questions

  • Lawmakers repeatedly requested documentation from DHS, which never produced records on campaign selections or effectiveness (23:08).
  • During March hearings, Noem’s leadership and the decision-making behind the ads drew sharp bipartisan scrutiny—particularly her heavy self-promotion in the ads.
    • “How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?” — Sen. John Kennedy (24:32)

• Self-promotion Allegations

  • Ads heavily featured Noem: She narrated, appeared on horseback at Mount Rushmore, and thanked Trump in almost every spot (25:13).
    • “She was heavily featured ... in front of camera most of the ad at Mount Rushmore ... thanked Trump or complimented the president’s immigration policy.” — Eric Fan (25:13)

• Disputed Claims of Presidential Approval

  • Noem told Congress she had Trump’s approval. Trump later denied giving her those instructions (26:41).
  • According to Sen. Kennedy, Trump reportedly told an associate: “Noem is dead as a fried chicken.” (26:50)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On sudden removal of Noem:
  • “At the time of the post, Noem was at a law enforcement event in Nashville to deliver a keynote address.” — Sarah Holder (02:07)
• On ad messaging:
  • “President Trump has a clear message ... leave now.” — Kristi Noem ad (04:57)
• On lack of competitive process:
  • “All three companies are very tightly connected to either DHS officials or Trump campaign advisors.” — Eric Fan (07:51)
• On impact to communities:
  • “We know that it’s creating fear, anxiety ... at least they’re really suffering from the content of this campaign.” — Irena Sanchez Casado (21:46)
• On Trump’s reaction post-firing:
  • “Noem is dead as a fried chicken.” — Attributed to Trump via Sen. Kennedy (26:50)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:45 — Trump announces Kristi Noem’s firing
• 02:28 — The ad campaign controversy surfaces in congressional committees
• 04:50 — Explanation of ad campaign content and strategy
• 06:05 — Discussion of record ad spend
• 06:57 — Unusual contracting process revealed
• 08:26 — Details on main companies and their connections
• 15:49 — Ad placement and targeting analysis
• 18:38 — ICE recruitment campaign’s (in)effectiveness
• 21:46 — Testimony of fear/anxiety in immigrant communities
• 23:08 — Congress requests (and is denied) campaign documentation
• 24:32 — Senator Kennedy’s key grilling of Noem
• 25:13 — Discussion of Kristi Noem’s personal prominence in ads
• 26:41 — Trump disputes Noem’s account of presidential approval

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Summary Flow & Tone

The episode is factual, investigative, and at times bluntly critical—mirroring the Bloomberg reporting style. The hosts and guests maintain a tone of measured skepticism while probing deeply into the mechanics and consequences of the campaign. The discussion is peppered with direct citations from congressional proceedings and interviews, giving listeners both the policy context and the human impact behind a political story that gained national prominence.

Transcript

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[Sarah Holder]

announced on Truth Social yesterday that Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, wasn't going to be running DHS anymore.

[Kristi Noem]

President Trump has just announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is out of a job.

[Sarah Holder]

The news seemed to catch many by surprise, including Trump's pick to replace Noem, Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen.

[Eric Fan]

I've got to be honest with you, I wasn't expecting the call today.

[Sarah Holder]

At the time of the post, Noem was at a law enforcement event in Nashville to deliver a keynote address.

[Kristi Noem]

Good afternoon, everybody. How are you?

[Sarah Holder]

Her presentation came and went without a single mention of the news that she had been fired and was getting another role as special envoy for a new security initiative.

[Kristi Noem]

God bless you, and may God continue to bless our great country.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

Have a great day.

[Sarah Holder]

The shakeup didn't come entirely out of the blue. Earlier in the week, Noem faced two intense days of grilling before the House and Senate Judiciary committees about alleged misconduct during her tenure at dhs. There was a lot that lawmakers from both parties wanted to Discuss including the killing of two American citizens by immigration enforcement in Minnesota. But there was one issue that really got Trump's attention, an ad campaign.

[Kristi Noem]

I'm Kristi Noem, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Thank you, President Donald J. Trump, for securing our border, for deporting criminal illegal immigrants, and for putting America first.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

President Trump, I mean, Trump didn't explain why he fired her, but we know that she was all over the news about how he was handling the agency. And both sides were not happy with her answers.

[Eric Fan]

Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana singled this ad campaign out, grilled her about why she initiated the campaign, how the contracts were awarded, whether she actually received consent and approval from the president before she heavily featured herself.

[Sarah Holder]

Irena Sanchez Casado and Eric Fan worked together to report new details of this ad campaign.

[Eric Fan]

And I remember her answer at the time was, the campaign has been very effective. We did everything by the books, and President Trump asked me to do this. And after that, there were reports that Trump denied having instructed her to conduct the campaign this way. And that seemed to be one of the core reasons that she was fired.

[Sarah Holder]

I'm Sarah Holder and this is the big take from Bloomberg News today. On the show, Bloomberg's investigation into the $240 million ad campaign that helped cost Kristi Noem her job at dhs and what impacts the ads, actually. So I want to go back in time to about a year ago when this ad campaign actually kicked off. What did these ads look and sound like? Can you describe them for me?

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

Sure. We have two types of ads, right? Like ones that are actually pushing people to self deport.

[Kristi Noem]

President Trump has a clear message for those that are in our country illegally, leave now. If you don't, we will find you and we will deport you.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

These ads are saying, like, if you leave this country, we're going to give you this statement that is going to help you to relocate. If not, we're going to chase you. You're not going to be able to come back. And the images show mostly Latino immigrants. And then we have another set of ads that are focused on ICE recruitment.

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[Irena Sanchez Casado]

So we have two very distinct self deportation and ICE recruitment.

[Sarah Holder]

And there's been a lot of talk about how much DHS was committing to spend on that ad campaign. $240 million, though not all of that has been spent yet. How does that amount of Funding compare to other ad campaigns that have been run by the federal government.

[Eric Fan]

It is by far the largest ad marketing campaign in DHS history and among the largest across all federal agencies. If you look at the numbers, it's only behind the DoD, so the military and the COVID ads.

[Sarah Holder]

And so the government was spending a massive amount of money on these ads that were pushing immigrants in the US to leave the country to that were trying to get new ICE agents to join the agency. I want to talk about how these ads ended up on the air, and I want to break this down into two parts. First, how a government ad campaign would normally work, and next, how this campaign worked. So, of course, DHS doesn't make these ads in house. They work with private companies. How do they pick which companies they work with? What processes do they have to go through?

[Eric Fan]

So usually when you have a federal contract, you have a standard procurement process where you open up the bid, you have some requirements, you have some project to do, and you welcome the private contractors to come in and submit their proposals. And whoever can do the job the cheapest and the best will receive the work. So that's a full and open competitive process. That was not what happened in this case because the DHS under Kristi Noem hand picked four companies that this is, according to their own document, to bid on this process.

[Sarah Holder]

This is a public document released by DHS which used this border emergency declared by Trump to justify the agency's move to bypass full and open competition.

[Eric Fan]

And only three of them actually made the bid, and two of them were selected.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

But.

[Eric Fan]

But according to public records, all three companies are very tightly connected to either DHS officials or Trump campaign advisors. So the entire process also happened very, very quickly. The first ad was aired just about a month after Trump's inauguration. And everything was justified because Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, which allows these contracts to bypass full competitive bidding.

[Sarah Holder]

Tell us a little bit about the companies that they chose.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

So we have two main companies that appear on federal procurement records. One is people who think, and the other is Safe American Media. Safe American Media got more than $142 million. And what is very interesting is like this company didn't exist eight days before getting this huge contract.

[Eric Fan]

And what we, our investigation reviews is they then subcontract most of the work to other more established companies.

[Sarah Holder]

Right? Safe America Media subcontracts with these media buyers who then place the TV ads. Let's talk about the other main company that was contracting with dhs, People who Think llc. What did you find out about them?

[Eric Fan]

So people who Think received a slightly smaller contract compared to Safe American Media to execute an international version of the deportation ads campaign. This company is linked to Corey Lewandowski, Christine Ohm's top eight. It was co founded by a former Trump campaign media advisor who worked on his 2016 campaign.

[Sarah Holder]

Lewandowski had overlaps with both of these companies. Right? You reported that in the past, Lewandowski had worked on the same political ad campaigns as People who Think, and he'd worked on political ad campaigns with media buyers that were hired by Safe America Media. And there's also been reporting about this other company involved in the DHS ad campaign, which was run by Ben Yoho, the husband of former DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Why do all these linkages matter? What's significant about all these ties?

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

What seems very problematic here is like the agency bypassed a full competitive bid process, right? It was DHS who decide the companies that will be able to work on this all without any kind of transparency of why they choose those companies, why they were better than others.

[Sarah Holder]

Was there anything that they said that explained what went into their choice of contractors?

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

They didn't really explain why they choose those contractors, but they seem very happy with their results in one of the phrases that we got from them is like, it's pretty clear that we have made a good selection because this campaign has been widely successful. That's how they somehow justify the companies working on this campaign.

[Eric Fan]

They also said they did everything by the book. They said career officials managed the process. But when we asked them, did Kristi Noem personally approve those contracts? Because they had a press release last year that Noem personally approves everything, about $100,000 to save taxpayer money. They confirmed that NOAM and the White House Budget Office approved the contracts. Of course, when we asked them about the connections to Lewandowski to, to other Trump advisors, they didn't respond.

[Sarah Holder]

And how did the companies involved respond to your reporting?

[Eric Fan]

Save America Media, the lead winner of the contract? We couldn't find them. A lot of our colleagues have tried. Other news outlets have tried, but it appears that they don't have an office, don't have a website, don't have an email address, don't have a phone number. The only clue we had was this residential home owned by this Republican media consultant. And we went to that home. You knocked on the door, we knocked on the door. We slipped our letters, you know, in.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

We got actually finally a phone number and an email for this consultant. We sent our questions. He never answered. And same for people who think we sent a letter, we sent an email, we called them multiple times and we never got a response.

[Sarah Holder]

So what kind of impact did this pricey DHS ad campaign have? That's next.

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[Sarah Holder]

Irena, Eric, in addition to looking at which companies were being paid to make and place these ads for the Department of Homeland Security, you also looked at where these ads were running and who might have been seeing them. So Eric, what data did you look at to figure this out?

[Eric Fan]

So to figure out where the ads are running, how they're being targeted at different populations and audiences, we look at, we used AdImpact data, which is a ad tracking company. In total, we found over 92,000 ads air across the country in all 50 states, over a thousand TV stations. And this is only broadcast. There are also digital tv, there's cable tv, there are other formats. And these ads are absolutely everywhere. And the deportation ads, they are mostly targeted at the border states in the south and sanctuary cities in the north. And what we found was the targeting was not always consistent. For example, Georgia has a lot more undocumented immigrants compared to Nevada and Arizona. This is according to the DHS own estimates. However, the two western states were bombarded by deportation acts where Georgia was largely ignored.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

I think what those numbers show is like there is a disconnection between where those ads were erred and where DHS own estimates said that they're more illegal undocumented immigrants. Right.

[Eric Fan]

If you look at the market, the media market that they target, the recruitment versus deportation, Georgia is a prime example that they are under targeted by deportation ads, but over targeted by ICE Recubin commercials. One commercial that specifically called out Atlanta police officers ran over a thousand times between September 29th and October 13th proclaiming, quote, you took an oath to protect and serve. But in sanctuary cities, you're ordered to stand down where dangerous illegals walk free. And it's worth noting that there is a Georgia law that mandates local police officers to cooperate with ice. And in fact, Trump's own Justice Department removed Atlanta from their list of sanctuary cities. So it's unclear to us why this ad that's super targeted at recruiting Atlanta police officers still said Atlanta was a sanctuary city even after the administration's own Justice Department had removed the city from the list.

[Sarah Holder]

What does your analysis say about how effective they've been according to the metrics that the administration laid out? Let's start by talking about the ICE recruitment ads.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

So in order to better understand what was the impact of this campaign that is specifically targeting local police officers, we asked every police department at the top of our list. And what we heard from Miami, for instance, like they haven't been affected. Denver said the same to us, like we are not losing officers that are leaving to join ice. And then the three other police agencies didn't respond. Or they said, we don't know if our officers that are actually leaving are leaving to join ICE forces. So it's unclear how effective is this campaign that is trying to convince local officers to join ice.

[Eric Fan]

The department does put out a press release saying that the recruitment campaign went above expectation, they doubled the ICE officers workforce, that it's been wildly successful. They did not respond to our question how much of that success can be attributed to the ad campaign. What's interesting about the ICE recruitment ads is it seems to have avoided all the Spanish speaking TV stations. And what former police chiefs and other experts have told us was historically, both ICE and CBP had made intentional efforts to recruit Spanish speaking officers. Given their work and the need to interact with undocumented immigrants, a lot of whom speak Spanish.

[Sarah Holder]

I want to talk about the self deportation ads as well. What impact have these ads had on immigrants who might be considering leaving the country and on their communities who are seeing these ads?

[Eric Fan]

The DHS claims over 2 million, quote, unquote, illegal aliens had left the country last year. But experts said that that number is likely a misinterpretation of survey data, that the real figures likely sit between 200,000 to 400,000. So we're talking about undocumented immigrants who are leaving as a result of this marketing campaign. And it's actually very hard to estimate that precise number. What the experts are saying is there are two factors at work here. It is possible that a lot of immigrants get scared and they hear this message and they are persuaded to leave. It's equally likely that a lot of them are persuaded to stay because they figure it will be harder to return once they leave under the current environment. What the experts told us was the vast majority of reduction in immigration that took place last year was the result of reduced inflow, meaning that much fewer people received visas to come in across the border because they were discouraged under the administration policies.

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

We have done a lot of reporting, talking with immigration counselors, organizations, but also immigrants, both documented and undocumented. And what we have here is like this campaign has created a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety. They have been feeling targeted. They thought that this is racist. The way that this is framed and what we have here is that this is especially problematic for kids that have been exposed to this kind of content. And they ask their parents, are you illegal? Are you a criminal? We have hear also about instances where children have been harassed because of this campaign. So we know that it's creating fear, anxiety. Not sure, you know, if many people combine to leave, but what we know is, like, at least they're really suffering from the content of this campaign.

[Sarah Holder]

So in that way, these ads could have had a profound impact on some families. When did these ads get on the radar of lawmakers and in what context did this issue come up in? In the congressional hearings back in March

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

2025, Bennie Thompson, ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked Kristin Noem office to provide all documentation and exchanges about this campaign. DHS never replied to Bennie Thompson, who sent another request back in November asking for the same documents, any kind of communication related to the campaign. DHS didn't reply. In November. Also, we saw a couple of letters from senators. We have, like a set of different Congress people, lawmakers asking about the campaign multiple times. And DHS never responded to their questions about how this campaign started, how DHS picked the companies, how effective it was, and what was the involvement of some of Trump administration officials on picking the companies running those campaigns. We know that for the last couple of days, she was really being the center of attention during those hearings. I think her leadership was being questioned. I think she didn't provide the answers that confines, you know, even Trump, especially

[Eric Fan]

Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana, that exchange where he singled this ad campaign out. How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?

[Kristi Noem]

Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from with putting commercials

[Eric Fan]

out that told them, he quibbled, that the campaign was effective in promoting your own image. Krissy Noem personally, she was heavily featured. All the deportation ads were narrated by Noem herself. She was very prominent. She was in front of camera most of the ad at Mount Rushmore. One of them at Mount Rushmore, she was on a horse. And in almost all the deportation ads, she thanked Trump or complimented the president's immigration policy. And so you have Kristi Noem personally, very prominent in them. You have TV footage of aggressive ICE tactics on the street, and you have President Trump signing bills, walking to meetings, saluting to officers, with Noem complimenting and thanking the president for his leadership.

[Sarah Holder]

So, Eric, what you're saying is, you know, these ads were not only effective in raising Kristi Noem's profile, but perhaps they were effective in raising Trump's as well?

[Eric Fan]

Yes. I mean, that was Noem's argument at the hearing. She said, the president wanted me to do these ads and thank him in these ads. And that's what, that's exactly what she did. She thanked the president in pretty much every one of the deportation ads.

[Sarah Holder]

What do we know about how the president reacted to to her claim that he had signed off?

[Irena Sanchez Casado]

What we know is apparently he denied, or at least he didn't recall that happening, the same way that Kristi Noem described it.

[Eric Fan]

You know, allegedly Senator Kennedy had this conversation with the President, after which he said, noem is dead as a fried chicken.

[Sarah Holder]

This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by me, David Gura and Wan Ha. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Paddy Hirsch, Rachel Lewis, Christie, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alex Sugiura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang and Taka Yasuzawa. To get more from the Big Take and unlimited access to all of bloomberg.com, subscribe [e-mail] podcastoffer thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

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