Peter Welch

An anti-immigration ad featuring then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cost taxpayers more $286,000.

A subcontractor received a $60,000 signing bonus and spent $20,000 on horse rentals used for the ad.

Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut are investigating the spending as potential "waste, fraud, and abuse."

Following the controversy, President Trump removed Noem from her Homeland Security post and said he didn't know about the ad campaign costs.

U.S. taxpayer dollars covered more than $286,000 on production costs for an anti-immigration ad featuring then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to expenses revealed by two lawmakers.

Also, The Strategy Group, a Trump-allied subcontractor that created the $220 million commercial, spent more than $107,000 on labor costs, received a $60,000 "signing bonus" to produce the ad, and another $20,000 on horse rentals, Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut disclosed on March 23 as part of their ongoing investigation into the no-bid contract ad campaign.

In the spot filmed in October 2025, Noem, a former South Dakota governor, appears on horseback at Mount Rushmore, strongly pleading with undocumented immigrants to leave the United States. The senators said the subcontractor also spent more than $52,000 on videography, photography and production vendors and nearly $4,000 on hair and makeup.

"This looks like waste, fraud, and abuse to me," Welch said in a statement the senators released as they provided initial financial breakdowns of Noem's ad. "While leading the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and her senior team allowed tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to be spent on wasteful production costs, a shady signing bonus, and a very expensive horse rental – and that’s just what we know so far."

President Donald Trump removed Noem from her Homeland Security post on March 5, in the wake of the controversial ad, which she said during a combative Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 3 Trump had authorized. Trump later said he didn't know about the ad campaign.

Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin was sworn in on March 24 as Homeland Security head. Trump named Noem as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, an agency focused on fighting organized crime, drug cartels and trafficking networks.

What started the Noem commercial controversy?

DHS awarded Delaware-based Safe America Media a $143 million contract for Noem's ad, which was then subcontracted to The Strategy Group for production, according to Reuters.

The Strategy Group had prior ties with Noem as it was involved in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial race, and the company’s CEO, Ben Yoho, is married to former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who has fired back on social media, saying that her husband's company has been "dragged through the mud."

The Strategy Group wrote a March 12 letter it sent to the senators and posted on X, saying that the company received "$226,137.17 total for 5 film shoots, 45 produced video advertisements, and 6 produced radio advertisements" as a subcontractor for Safe America.

"I have a feeling that you can agree that we were very fair with what we charged Safe America, considering the amount of product we supplied them," the company wrote.

The Strategy Group did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

Blumenthal said in a March 23 statement that the "abuse of taxpayer funds" is completely unacceptable.

"I will continue to demand the answers the American people deserve about how these funds were used and whether any federal officials profited from DHS contracts," Blumenthal said.