How taxpayers are still getting screwed on Kristi Noem’s Big Beautiful Jet

Kristi Noem is out as Homeland Security Secretary, but a luxury 737 she has traveled on remains in government hands. That plane, reportedly dubbed the “Big, Beautiful Jet” by DHS staffers, has been quietly leased to the department by a company linked to William Walters, a former State Department official who donated thousands of dollars to a pro-Noem political action committee. Walters owns a constellation of businesses that—despite a dearth of prior experience working for the government—won lucrative contracts with Noem’s DHS over the past year.

One Walters company is selling half a dozen planes to DHS, in a deal that has raised questions within the department and on Capitol Hill about the cost of the aircraft. Another firm owned by Walters landed a contract worth up to $915 million last year, through a procurement process that one DHS official said was flawed and “created an appearance of favoritism,” according to previously unreported court documents.

President Donald Trump fired Noem Thursday, announcing via social media that Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) will replace her at the end of the month. But her exit doesn’t undo the massive deals that DHS struck with a vast array of contractors, many with close ties to Noem, her adviser Corey Lewandowski, and other top administration officials.

The 737 jet gained extensive attention in February when the Wall Street Journal reported that Noem and Lewandowski were traveling together on the plane. DHS is reportedly using money meant for the Trump administration’s self-deportations program to lease the plane and is in the process of buying it outright for $70 million. The taxpayer-funded aircraft, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) noted Wednesday, has “a queen-size bedroom” and a “deluxe” bar. “A big, beautiful jet paid for by the Big, Beautiful Bill,” Raskin remarked.

During the same congressional oversight hearing, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) referenced “reports of a romantic relationship between” Noem and Lewandowski and asked Noem if she had “sexual relations” with Lewandowski during her time at DHS. Noem called the allegation “tabloid garbage”; she and Lewandowski, who are both married, have previously denied being romantically involved with each other. Public tittering over the situation reached a crescendo last month when the Daily Show dubbed the 737 “a taxpayer-funded fuck plane,” though no evidence has emerged of anyone actually having sex on the jet.

Noem told lawmakers last week that she had only been on the plane “once.” And she said the plane was being used by other administration officials, though she didn’t name them.

On Friday, Axios reported that Noem and Lewandowski loaned the jet to First Lady Melania Trump, “who used it on several flights from D.C. to New York.” The plane last flew from DC to New York City on March 1, and Melania Trump spoke to the United Nations Security Council the next day. The White House did not respond to questions about the First Lady’s reported use of the plane.

Noem has also asserted that the plane is being “refurbished” to transport detainees.

That claim has drawn derision. A sales brochure says the aircraft—a Boeing BBJ Max 8—“caters to the most discerning of travelers, offering an exquisite flying experience like no other,” and notes that in addition to the bedroom and bar, it includes showers, a kitchen, and four large flat-screen TVs. That would create an unusually sumptuous set-up for deportees who DHS has sometimes shackled on flights. 

“What kind of deportee justifies being flown out of the country in a luxury jet with a bedroom?” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asked Noem last Tuesday.

Typical 737 Max 8s have between 162 and 178 seats, according to Boeing’s technical specs. The brochure for the 737 Max 8 Boeing Business Jet that Noem has used says the aircraft has a passenger capacity of just 17 people. The department has said it plans to add seats by eliminating “at least one of the bedrooms.” On the evening of March 4, after Noem testified before the Senate, the luxury jet flew from New York City to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where there is a facility for modifying jets.

“Wouldn’t it have been cheaper just to buy a deportation plane in the first place?” Raskin asked at the House hearing. “It’s like buying a Rolls-Royce to turn into a Metro bus.”

Other details suggest the plane is primarily intended for high-level passengers. Last year, it received a new registration number: N471US—note the 47. (The Federal Aviation Administration allows aircraft owners to pick their own registration number.) The plane also got a new paint job and design scheme similar to the 47th president’s proposal for Air Force One.

DHS did not respond to a question about when Noem or other DHS employees used the plane. But Mother Jones and Project On Government Oversight found that the jet flew to Amman, Jordan, on December 15 and left the next day. Noem was in Amman meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on December 16, according to his office. 

The plane flew to Bermuda on January 14 and to the Dominican Republic on January 15. Other flight records since December show it going to the closest major airport to Mar-a-Lago, and to various other domestic locations. It’s not clear if Noem or any other administration officials were on those flights.

Walters—the former head of a State Department unit called the Bureau of Medical Services that helped to evacuate personnel in emergencies—left government service in 2021 and later emerged as a vocal Trump supporter. In the fall of 2024, he spoke out in support of Trump’s immigration agenda and received an award from the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank. 

After leaving the State Department, Walters launched a series of businesses. Following Trump’s election, his firms began seeking federal contracts to help implement the president’s plan to deport millions of people.

Those contractors all seem to be headquartered in a few suites alongside a cluster of other related firms in a nondescript office building in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington. We found over two dozen companies there that list either Walters or two of his former State Department colleagues—with whom he now works—as registered agents.

One company in that building is Valkyrie Aviation Holdings Group, which owns the luxury 737 being leased to DHS. That firm, incorporated last August in Delaware, does not list its ownership or the people who run it. But the FAA’s website shows that the company shares an office suite with Soterex Financial Services, a Walters-run company. Journalist Gillian Brockell previously reported that Valkyrie Aviation is in the same building as the Walters-linked companies, among other ties.

None of the companies responded to queries, and we were unable to access the offices when we attempted to visit the Arlington building.

DHS agreed to pay one of the firms in the building, Daedalus Aviation, $140 million for six 737s, the Washington Post reported in December. Though legally separate from Valkyrie, Daedalus, according to its website, is hiring pilots and a mechanic to work on a 737 MAX 8—specifically one designated “BBJ,” for Boeing Business Jet. In other words, a luxury plane that matches the description of the one owned by Valkyrie. The solicitation contains no suggestion the plane will be used for deportations. Instead, Daedalus states that the pilots will be “executing global flight operations on behalf of a senior executive or government official.” 

Federal Aviation Administration records show Daedalus acquiring five 737s to date, none of which is a Max 8 Boeing Business Jet, like the one owned by Valkyrie. Tricia McLaughlin, a former DHS spokeswoman, has claimed that the planes being acquired via Daedalus will save the government money, in part by allowing “more efficient flight patterns.” 

But DHS has not provided details to bolster that claim, which has drawn broad skepticism.

“For months, we’ve requested a briefing from DHS about its purchase of these aircraft because we have serious concerns about the cost to the American taxpayer,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. “DHS has refused to provide basic transparency and continues to stonewall the Committee.”

An agency official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, raised concerns about the cost of the planes. That official said that former acting DHS Under Secretary Christopher Pratt was involved in arranging to buy the jets. Pratt—who overlapped with Walters at the State Department—recently left DHS, according to two DHS officials. Pratt did not respond to inquiries.

Two other companies linked to Walters appear to have quietly provided even more planes to DHS. Vigilant Aviation Holdings and Transnational Aviation Holdings—which were both registered in Delaware on the same day as Valkyrie—own business-class jets operated by DHS, according to flight tracking data. Both of these Gulfstream G650 jets have Trump-themed tail numbers that are strikingly similar to that of the luxury 737: N472US and N473US. FAA records show Transnational has the same business address and suite number as Daedalus Aviation. And the tail number for the Gulfstream jet owned by Vigilant was initially registered to Valkyrie, according to the FAA. As with its luxury 737 job posting, Daedalus is seeking a pilot to fly a Gulfstream 650 for a senior government official.

Walters’ biggest piece of DHS business appears to have come through a contract the department awarded last year to yet another firm he owns. That company, Salus Worldwide Solutions, is also located at the Arlington address, though apparently one floor up from Valkyrie. Under that contract, which is worth up to $915 million, Salus is supposed to arrange free flights for immigrants who agree to self-deport; it is also tasked with processing $1,000 exit bonuses for individuals and $2,500 stipends for unaccompanied minor children who take part in the program. Additionally, the company provides DHS with “diplomatic engagement” support to boost work by foreign governments to persuade their citizens to leave the United States. 

Mother Jones and the Project On Government Oversight previously reported that DHS awarded the contract to Salus through a “limited competition,” following extensive contacts between company employees and top DHS officials, among them Pratt.

A rival contractor, CSI Aviation, sued the federal government last August over the Salus deal, calling the award “a sham competition with a predetermined outcome.” CSI’s suit notes that Salus had no previous record of contracting directly with the federal government—though a court filing states that a $113 million State Department subcontract Salus was awarded a few weeks after Trump’s inauguration “was a significant factor in DHS’s award decision.”

In a December court filing, federal officials, even as they opposed CSI’s lawsuit, made striking admissions about flaws in the procurement process.

The government said that Salus won its DHS contract after contacting the department with an unsolicited proposal to provide services on January 23, 2025, just days after Trump’s inauguration. That’s a legal but unusual inversion of a standard solicitation, in which the government determines a need and then seeks bids from contractors to fill it. Salus’ pitch, according to DHS’s own account, led to extensive contacts between DHS and company officials about a potential contract.

A DHS contracting officer found that Salus had “appeared” to shape the government’s requirements for the contract that the firm was trying to win, which suggested “biased ground rules,” the filing says. The officer, according to the filing, also found that DHS officials “shared high-level budget and task information with Salus that was not available to the public, suggesting an unequal access to information.” All of this “created an appearance of favoritism toward Salus,” the officer found.

But, according to the court filing, the contracting officer recommended waiving restrictions meant to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety, citing steps DHS said it took to mitigate Salus’ advantages. A higher-level official concurred, noting the contract’s supposed urgency and “national security considerations.” And then Salus got the contract.

“I can’t think of any legitimate reason there could not have been a full and open competition for this work, and it’s not as though the government hasn’t contracted for charter flights before,” said Don Fox, a former acting head and general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics.

Noem and other DHS officials have touted their voluntary deportation program, which they call Project Homecoming, as a success. DHS said last fall that “tens of thousands of illegal aliens” had used the Customs and Border Protection app to assist with self-deportation.

However another court document in the Salus case suggests the program is failing to meet the administration’s hopes. Taundria Cappel, Salus’ chief financial officer, revealed that, as of December 1, Salus had paid out more than 17,000 stipends to voluntary deportees and had contacted tens of thousands of immigrants. But Cappel said the company, since receiving the contract in May 2025, had provided just “9 chartered aircraft flights” which supported “917 voluntary departures.” At that pace, Salus’ performance will fall far short of what, according to a CSI court filing, was the department’s stated goal of “1480 charter flights over three years.” Neither Cappel nor DHS responded to questions about those figures.

Other Walters-run companies are also involved in DHS’s effort to facilitate self-deportations. Soterex Financial Services, the company that shares an office suite with Valkyrie, appears to be handling payments made to people who agree to voluntarily deport, according to payment records on DHS letterhead listing Soterex as the sender reviewed by Mother Jones and POGO. 

Soterex, which was formed just days after Trump announced the launch of Project Homecoming, does not itself appear to hold a federal contract. That suggests the company is working under the contract held by Salus, in effect as a subcontractor for a company run by the same person. A government procurement website does not show any federal contracts or subcontracts held by Soterex Financial, although subcontracting data is often missing.

Noem told lawmakers last week that neither she nor other political appointees at the department have influenced who receives contracts. But Noem has also touted a policy under which her office must personally approve any significant DHS spending, including contracts. In Senate testimony last Tuesday, Noem said she had personally evaluated all contracts worth more than $5 million. That gave her an undeniable role in the department’s procurement decisions. 

And there’s another link she has to Walters. 

In October 2024, Walters donated $10,000 to a political action committee tied to Noem, who at the time was the governor of South Dakota and widely seen as angling for a cabinet post if Trump won. That super PAC, American Resolve, is part of a network of groups that support Noem. Another, American Resolve Policy Fund, a nonprofit, paid Noem’s personal company $137,842 that year for “fundraising consulting,” the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported in January. American Resolve Policy Fund also paid $265,500 to a Lewandowski company, according to its tax filing.

Noem did not reveal those payments to her South Dakota constituents or in the financial disclosure form she filed after her nomination as DHS secretary. They remained secret until Propublica last year reported that the group had paid Noem $80,000 in 2023.

Noem was not asked about those payments at last week’s hearings. Much of her testimony involved defending her statements falsely accusing Alex Pretti and Renee Good, Minneapolis residents killed by DHS agents, of domestic terrorism. (Prior to her firing last week, POGO called for Noem’s removal, in part because of how she responded to the shootings of Pretti and Good.)

Noem also said about 650 DHS agents remain in the Twin Cities “to get to the bottom” of widespread social services fraud in Minnesota. Noem has suggested DHS would look into public officials there who, she implied, had profited from their positions. Just after Good’s death, Noem said she was sending more agents to Minneapolis “to uncover the true corruption and theft that has happened.”

This story was reported with POGO Investigates, the news reporting division of the Project On Government Oversight.