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Home » Law In Travel » DHS Spends $172M On Luxury Gulfstream Jets For Kristi Noem, Citing “Safety” Concerns
Department of Homeland SecurityLaw In Travel

DHS Spends $172M On Luxury Gulfstream Jets For Kristi Noem, Citing “Safety” Concerns

Matthew Klint Posted onOctober 20, 2025October 20, 2025 39 Comments

a woman with long hair wearing a blue dress

A pair of luxury Gulfstream jets purchased for Secretary Kristi Noem and senior Homeland Security officials are raising eyebrows in Washington, not just for the price tag but for what they seem to represent.

Kristi Noem’s $172 Million Gulfstream Acquisition: Homeland Security’s Latest “Safety” Upgrade

According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security has signed a $172 million contract with Gulfstream for two G700 private jets, aircraft marketed for their “most spacious cabin in the industry.” Officials say the planes are necessary for “safety” and “secure, reliable, on-demand communications,” but the purchase goes well beyond the department’s initial budget request for a single replacement jet.

The Coast Guard had previously sought $50 million to replace an aging Gulfstream V used for official travel, calling the older aircraft “increasingly obsolete” even though it was well-maintained and fully operational. Yet DHS ultimately settled on two top-of-the-line G700s, costing roughly three times that amount. Lawmakers are now asking how and why the scope expanded.

In a letter to Secretary Noem, senior House Democrats questioned the funding source and accused her of prioritizing “comfort above operational needs,”  a sharp rebuke during a government shutdown that has affected Coast Guard pay and operations (you can read the letter here). DHS insists the purchase was a matter of safety, citing the age and usage hours of its existing jet.

Ms. Noem, who personally approves any departmental expense above $100,000, has faced repeated criticism for her own spending. Earlier this year she stayed rent-free at a waterfront residence reserved for the Coast Guard commandant, citing security concerns, and frequently used the agency’s private jet for personal travel (reimbursing the Coast Guard for that expense only when called out by overnemtn watchdogs).

Before arriving in Washington, Noem made headlines in South Dakota for redecorating the governor’s mansion with $68,000 in taxpayer funds, including a sauna,  and for billing the state around $150,000 for political and personal trips, including a Paris speech on behalf of President Trump and a bear hunt in Canada.

CONCLUSION

Government air travel has always been an easy target for criticism, and I’ve called out the use of private jets on both sides of the aisle. Even so, this incident strikes me as problematic. Two Gulfstream G700s aren’t just tools of convenience; they’re symbols of detachment. When the agency charged with border security is flying brand-new luxury jets while the Coast Guard struggles to make payroll, justifications based on“safety” ring hollow. The planes may well be useful, even necessary. The timing and scale are the problem.


> Read More: President Trump Tells Speaker Pelosi To Fly Commercial

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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39 Comments

  1. 1990 Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 1:39 pm

    “waste fraud and abuse….”

  2. Jerry Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 1:41 pm

    You don’t need healthcare. You don’t need social security. You don’t need lower taxes. You don’t need groceries to cost less. What you do need to do is sacrifice so member’s of Dear Leader’s government, and his donors, can get tax breaks and toys.

    • Face Palm Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 2:50 pm

      lol, when have Dems lowered taxes? When have Dems cut spending? They cry when there are spending cuts. (So do R’s to be fair.)

      $172mm is 1/200,000 of the National Debt. A drop in the bucket and not even on the short or long list of completely wasteful spending by the government.

      I am happy that you are opposed to wasteful spending. I’m sure you are equally as outraged at the $20 billion already spent on the train to nowhere in California. It’s not like that money wasn’t diverted into policitians and their friends bank accounts. Good news, the final project total is to be around $125 billion. I’m sure you were equally as upset as I when you heard that the government spent $11mm on Hunter Biden’s travel detail. I’m working 60 hours a week so my taxes go to a crack heads vacation. Hmm, so weird, no mention (that I could find,) of this travel related insane spending on this blog.

      Welcome to the side of fiscal responsibility, I look forward to you and other leftists protesting demanding a balanced budget and the end of wasteful spending. I would 100% agree with you if you did this. If you are going to complain about spending, you have to complain about all spending from both sides.

      But you won’t.

      • 1990 Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 6:37 pm

        Just be honest… when your ‘team’ does rewards its ‘cronies’ you think it’s okay. However, when the other side wants to fund the social safety net, you see it as them ‘stealing’ your hard-earned income to pay for some lazy kid with cancer…

        Back to the issue at hand, there are ample government aircraft already available to transport this and other cabinet officials; new luxurious private jets for Noem seems like an unnecessary splurge. If you actually cared about ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ the debt, or the deficit, you’d oppose this.

      • Jerry Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 7:43 pm

        OK Face Palm, you said I won’t complain about wasteful spending on the other side. Let’s see if that holds true…

        Boondoogles like the CA high speed rail project are absurd and should be called out. The only beneficiaries of the spending were obviously those with political ties likely to Democratic politicians. I like spending that helps middle and working class Americans. Not cuts that help wealthy people, or pork projects that help cronies.

        Personally, I’d love to see a much larger investment in rail, and central transit hubs nationwide. To accomplish this, I’d love to see the very wealthy pay more, corporate tax rates rise, and the taxation system simplified.

        11mm on Hunter Biden seems like a red herring, but whatever. If you think the optics of it are poor then you’d agree Noem’s optics are bad too. That was my point.

        I don’t expect politicians to act ethically, and when they do dumb things they should be called out for it. Frankly, I don’t like Noem. I think she’s an a-hole. I don’t believe she represents my interests or cares about most Americans, so yes, I do get especially frustrated seeing her spend wastefully on her own vanity planes. But if Mayorkas had done the same thing during a shutdown, he’d deserve equal ridicule.

        • 1990 Reply
          October 20, 2025 at 8:07 pm

          “I like spending that helps middle and working class Americans. Not cuts that help wealthy people, or pork projects that help cronies.”

          100%
          10/10
          *chef’s kiss*
          Thank you
          This guy gets it
          This is the way
          Abundance!

      • Ryan Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 9:28 pm

        I am so sick of the lies being spewed by the right wing maga nut jobs that infest this blog.

        When have the democrats lowered taxes, three examples: 2022, 2009… their substantial support in 1981, 1986.

        When have the democrats lowered spending.. Clintons balanced budget amendment. 2011 (under Obama).

        Finally, California high speed rail was voter approved.

        • 1990 Reply
          October 21, 2025 at 8:54 am

          Thank you for setting the record straight, Ryan. I totally agree with you. In our current ‘attention’ economy, we need to shout the truth loudly and repeatedly, and fight any attempts at misinformation, because lies travel 10x faster. In the aggregate, we can defeat those who think they can lie with impunity. It does take real effort, though. Thanks for fighting the good fight.

        • Michael Reply
          October 21, 2025 at 11:32 am

          Ryan, haven’t you realized yet that the if the MAGA faithful didn’t repeat the lies and actually believed the facts that the whole movement would fall apart? The emperor has no clothes, but no one can tell him that or they will all look like idiots.

          We know they are….they know they are….but it all falls apart once the truth seeps in, which will happen.

      • Michael Reply
        October 21, 2025 at 11:25 am

        Where were you during the Clinton administrations? You clearly don’t know what you are spewing off about.

        Republican administrations have never balanced the budget, nor even attempted to. Democrats have. And that is simply fact which I am sure you do not want to believe, nor ever repeat.

    • Dave Edwards Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 8:08 pm

      How does ANYONE not have healthcare in 2025? Are you telling me Obamacare was a failure?

      Say it ain’t so Joe, say it ain’t so.

      • 1990 Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 9:21 pm

        Are you conflating ‘healthcare’ with health ‘insurance’?

        ACA ironically helps more poor people in red states than anywhere else. Obamacare works for y’all.

        And, I wish it had gone further, like the public option. We deserve universal healthcare.

        Oh, wait, I recall you’re a right winger, so I doubt you’d actually care until it affects you personally…

  3. Gene Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 1:51 pm

    All the commies are crying now. The illegitimate January 6th investigation cost much more.

    Seriously, vote for scum, and this is what you get.

  4. Not Douchebag Dave Edwards nor Sch*tt Hsuan, Obviously He/She/They/It Is Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 2:09 pm

    Yet another example of the endless corruption and probable criminal activity of this administration. Every one of his cabinet appointments, and SCOTUS nominees, was basically a big middle finger to the USA. Not one of them makes a decision for best interests of the people, their decisions are purely based on their own and corporate best interests, and maintaining power.

    If Biden or Obama had ever done 1% of what this administration (approved by SCOTUS) has done, FAUX “News” would have self-destructed and every GOP would have been apoplectically incapacitated.

    Of course, the actual TDS sufferers MAGAturds, like Douchebag Dave Edwards, in he/she/it’s/their’s grotesque deranged perverse way of thinking will try to spin it as more “winning”, like the Qatar 747 or making the Rose Garden look like Mar-a-Lago or making the Oval Office look like a cheap imitation version of Versailles or ….

  5. d waters Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 2:14 pm

    you did not comment on anything the dems did but now this a big deal! unreal politics!! They gave away billions to the free ride people, who ever donated to them got the $$.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 2:30 pm

      are you defending this?

      • D3SWI33 Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 5:59 pm

        Yes. A high ranking government official gets access to use of private aircraft .

        • 1990 Reply
          October 20, 2025 at 6:38 pm

          And there are ample private jets already owned by the federal government, readily available to the secretary and other officials; yet, why does she need multiple new luxury private jets? The answer is… she doesn’t. This is waste, fraud, and abuse, which is the very thing this administration ran on stopping… turns out, they were the ‘swamp’ monsters this whole time.

    • Billy Bob Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 8:33 pm

      I’d rather Noaem get these free planes than trump voting farmers getting a bailout. Those welfare queens can feel free to live in a ditch

      • 1990 Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 9:24 pm

        No, the farmers don’t deserve this; besides, it’s the smaller farms that’ll suffer, not the big ag businesses.

        But, for real, why not do both; like, she doesn’t need these planes, and they can ‘lift themselves up by their bootstraps,’ just like they’re always saying us city-folk have to do… (don’t worry, we’re getting plenty screwed, too. The only people winning are the oligarchs. The culture war is a farce; always been a class war.)

    • Ryan Reply
      October 21, 2025 at 12:23 am

      “Whataboutism is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone deflects criticism by making a counter-accusation or bringing up a different, often irrelevant, issue instead of addressing the original point. …its primary function is to shift the focus, avoid accountability, and derail productive conversation”

  6. This comes to mind Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 2:25 pm

    You do realize this needs to have special safety equipment like bullet-proofing. Mostly that’s in case there’s a dog in her cabin that “needs attention.”

  7. Maryland Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 2:47 pm

    Noem deserves this like Argentina deserves 40 billion. Time for the thieves to start wearing masks.

  8. Pete Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 2:51 pm

    Can’t really defend anyone who shoots a puppy.

  9. Johnsonflies Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 3:41 pm

    Unreal. So Ice Barbie can jet around our country posing for photo ops.

    • Gene Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 3:52 pm

      Don’t insult Barbie like that.

      • Billy Bob Reply
        October 20, 2025 at 8:35 pm

        Right, a barbie doll is more life like than Kristi noem

        • Pete Reply
          October 20, 2025 at 10:28 pm

          And has more functioning synapses.

  10. David Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 3:53 pm

    DOGE guts everything else and turns a blind eye to this.

    • 1990 Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 6:39 pm

      Obviously because DOGE was merely a front to steal our public government data for private use and profit by Musk. When the adults get back in-charge, we really need transparency and accountability for these abuses of power and law.

      • David Reply
        October 21, 2025 at 5:20 am

        It will never happen. Typical Washington, everyone will feign outrage, there will be hearings, people on the Hill get their media clips and then move on. Voters have short memories. At our agency, House Republicans FY 26 budget restores all of the cuts DOGE made.

        • 1990 Reply
          October 21, 2025 at 8:57 am

          Are you sure that such ‘nihilism’ is really the answer? ‘Nothing matters, both sides, etc.’ Naw, man. It does matter. Real people are affected by cuts to essential programs. Both sides are not the same. It’s not mere outrage. Our system of rule of law, the people electing their representatives, checks and balances, an independent nonpartisan judiciary, etc. All of these things are under threat, namely because the super-wealth and corrupt are getting away with stealing public good for their private gains, while the rest of us get distracted with culture war nonsense. It’s a class war, and unless you already are a centi-millionaire, you’re not on the winning side here. Wake up, man.

  11. Rukes Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 6:15 pm

    Technically the private jets are for safety. Safety for any dogs that are on the ground.

  12. Pete Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 6:31 pm

    A couple of second-hand GVs would have done the trick. It’s not like she needs to G700’s range.

  13. Billy Bob Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 8:41 pm

    A more appropriate plane for someone like Kristi Noem would be to fish TC-ACF out of the water, put it back together with some speed tape, and get her in the air

  14. Kyle Prescott Reply
    October 20, 2025 at 9:12 pm

    I’d dump one in her.

    • Pete Reply
      October 20, 2025 at 10:34 pm

      You’d get syphilis.

  15. Ni Reply
    October 21, 2025 at 9:59 am

    Does she have a blank check?

    What would stop her from the purchase?

    Is the best ways to stop her writing our Congress / senators?

  16. Antwerp Reply
    October 21, 2025 at 10:13 am

    This is the stuff that turns populists into progressives real fast. For all that MAGA wants to defend against a left progressive movement they are actually creating the perfect storm to make sure it swarms the country in this next two elections. Ain’t nothing like increased costs, poor employment opportunities, and shuttering small businesses to turn Bubba into Bernie. I hope Kristi doesn’t get too comfortable on her shiny taxpayer luxury Gulfstream.

    1789 in France. History is doomed to repeat itself yet again.

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