- Financial disclosures reveal taxpayers funded nearly $4,000 for hair and makeup services for Kristi Noem, along with over $40,000 in other vendor costs, for an anti-immigration ad filmed in South Dakota.
- The ad, part of a larger campaign costing over $200 million, featured Noem on horseback in front of Mount Rushmore, warning illegal migrants to stay away.
- The Strategy Group Company, subcontracted by Safe America Media, produced the ad, also accruing $100,000 in labor costs and a $60,000 signing bonus.
- Democratic Senators Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal criticized the spending as "waste, fraud, and abuse," leading to a congressional grilling of Noem.
- Noem is set to step down from her Homeland Security Secretary post, with Donald Trump denying approval of the campaign, and has been referred to the Department of Justice for a perjury investigation.
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