In her last hours as Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem’s agency entered into lucrative contracts with one of her political donors’ firms to buy five overpriced, luxury airplanes, The New York Times reported Monday, citing documents on the sale.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to pay Daedalus Aviation Corporation $108 million for a Boeing 737 airliner that had been converted into a luxury jet outfitted with a bar, two bedrooms, marble showers, and a table covered in manta ray skin, the outlet reported. A few months earlier, the firm bought the same plane from a seller who asked for less than $90 million.
William Walters, the chairman of Daedalus, gave $10,000 to Noem’s American Resolve political action committee in 2024, The Times reported. The company claimed Walters did not know the PAC was tied to Noem when he donated.
The agency, under Noem, also agreed to purchase two smaller Gulfstream luxury jets for $106 million, according to the outlet. Daedalus spent roughly $83 million when they bought the jets.
Additionally, DHS bought two 17-year-old Boeing 737 passenger planes from Daedalus for $45 million each, millions of dollars above the typical market value for such jets, six aviation experts told The Times.
“I hope they came with buckets of caviar each, otherwise it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm, said. “This does not resemble any aspect of an airline marketplace.”
When Markwayne Mullin took the helm at DHS, he looked into ways to pull out of the deal his predecessor set in motion on her final day, but was fearful there would be financial penalties, two White House officials told The Times. Mullin consulted White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who was also concerned about possible financial repercussions.
Wiles ultimately advised Mullin against blocking the purchase, so he let it proceed, according to the outlet.
“These planes were purchased prior to Secretary Mullin’s arrival at D.H.S.,” Mullin’s team told The Times.
DHS bought 10 airplanes from Daedalus for $464 million while Noem was secretary, the outlet reported in August.
The agency said the planes were needed urgently for deportation flights, but lacked the crews to fly them, according to The Times. DHS leased one of the planes to the FBI, leaving the rest to largely collect dust.
They were purchased on Noem’s last morning as secretary, but did not formally change hands until April, when Mullin took the reins at DHS.
Noem, who is now a special envoy at the State Department, told The Times that the “purchase of these planes was not completed during” her tenure at DHS.
“Funding for the 10-aircraft acquisition was made available during the leadership transition, and the acquisition process continued, and the purchase was finalized under Secretary Mullin’s leadership,” she said.
Following the publication of The Times’ story, Noem requested a retraction of the article, calling it “dishonest” and “factually incorrect.”
“The article’s characterization of the individual as a ‘donor’ (confirmed not to be the case) is materially misleading and, as unsupported by the factual record, conveys a false implication of a direct financial relationship obviously intended to influence official action,” Noem said.
“Accuracy is fundamental to responsible journalism,” she said. “If the individual did not personally make political contributions to Secretary Noem, or if the term ‘donor’ instead refers indirectly to unrelated entities or legally distinct contributions, the article simply fails to meet the standards of precision expected of The New York Times. Numerous times clarifications were made to the journalists responsible for this libelous story. Such wording unfairly prejudices readers and creates an inference of impropriety that is not supported by the underlying facts.”
Daedalus defended its prices, telling The Times they reflected a market with a limited inventory of suitable planes.
“Daedalus Aviation is proud to have delivered aircraft of the highest available value under very tight time constraints in an incredibly competitive market for aircraft acquisition,” the firm said, adding that it believed the contract was already final when Mullin took office.
Under Noem’s watch, DHS awarded more than $900 million in contracts to companies led by Walters, according to the NYT. The agency hired Walters’ company Salus Worldwide Solutions to encourage illegal immigrants to self-deport, while also flying Noem and her aides on chartered jets.
DHS also gave Daedalus a no-bid contract for deportation planes, according to The Times. Under the agreement, Daedalus was allowed to buy the planes from others before reselling them to the federal government.
President Donald Trump fired Noem in early March after she said he approved questionable contracts worth over $200 million for deportation ads, which raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
Days before her firing, Noem testified to Congress that the contracts “went out to a competitive bid and career officials at the department chose who would do those advertising commercials.”
Records obtained by The Daily Wire showed that the contracts were awarded using “other than full and open competition” to a company formed days before. That company subcontracted some of the work to a group run by the husband of Noem’s then-chief spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
In the same testimony, Noem said that buying the planes would save taxpayer money by reducing the department’s reliance on chartered aircraft.
Just hours before leaving her post, Noem approved a significant change to the contract with Daedalus to buy the luxury private jets Walters’ companies had been using to transport government officials, according to The Times.
The agency previously bought aging Boeing airliners from the company.
“There are aircraft being purchased that will be utilized for executive air travel and for deportations,” Noem said.
The department was already paying another vendor to deport illegal immigrants on charter planes, according to The Times. In some cases, the agency used smaller planes like the Gulfstream jets.
During the previous congressional hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) pressed Noem about why a luxury 737 would be used for deportations.
“In the past, we have used jets of this size, in this configuration, for deportations,” Noem said, adding that she believed the bedroom was being removed.
The federal government paid to replace one of the two bedrooms on the luxury 737 with a conference room, but left the bar and manta ray skin table, Daedalus said.
Noem’s DHS hired Walters’ other company, Salus Worldwide Solutions, to maintain the first five planes the agency purchased from Daedalus, according to The Times. The deal has continued under Mullin’s leadership, putting new planes under Salus Worldwide’s watch.
DHS paid the company more than $2 million in both May and June, The Times reported, citing contracting records.
The agency hired contractor Eastern Air Express, which has no connections to Walters, in August to look after most of the planes, according to the outlet. Meanwhile, DHS has sought to hand over the 737 luxury jet to the Pentagon.
Four of the 737 airliners will be used to fly government leaders and members of Congress on overseas trips and will not be used for deportation flights, DHS officials told The Times.
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