Kristi Noem has hired longtime Trump operative Corey Lewandowski, her alleged former lover, to work for her at the Department of Homeland Security.
The hiring decision was reported by Politico, which said Lewandowski is a "special government employee" at the federal agency tasked with overseeing President Trump's mass deportations policy.
"Like Elon Musk and so many other patriots, Mr. Lewandowski volunteers his time as a special government employee (SGE) to help President Trump Make America Great Again," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
Lewandowski was Trump's first campaign manager in 2016, famously coining the mantra "Let Trump Be Trump." After several years out of the spotlight, the Trump ally made a surprising return last year, joining Trump's historic re-election campaign as a senior adviser in August.
Rumors of Noem's connection with Lewandowski were first reported during Biden's presidency, with the pair reportedly traveling together and showing affection in public.
According to an upcoming book from journalist Alex Isenstadt, Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return To Power, the affair was an open secret by the time Trump sought re-election in 2020. When Trump ran again in 2024, Noem's ties to Lewandowski became a concern as she auditioned to be Trump's vice president.
"Within Trumpworld, people had long gossiped that Noem had been having a prolonged extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski," Isenstadt wrote.
"They were together all the time, and Lewandowski followed the governor around like a puppy dog."
Indeed, Trump was aware of the relationship and would joke that Lewandowski had a "girlfriend" who was "out of his league."
Whatever the truth of the affair rumors, Noem's continued close involvement with an alleged paramour could raise more questions about her judgment after she killed her VP hopes with comments about shooting an "untrainable" dog.
According to Isenstadt, Noem's remarks bothered Trump, who told his son Donald Jr., an avid hunter, "Even you wouldn’t kill a dog, and you kill everything."
As the public face of Trump's immigration crackdown, Noem is already in the spotlight, and any distractions from her mission are sure to be unwelcome at the White House.
But Noem maintains her innocence, dismissing Isenstadt's reporting as nothing but "fiction."
"As I have said many times, the allegation of an affair is completely false. She never had conversations with President Trump or his team about a nonexistent affair," her spokesperson said in a statement.
