Trump Officials Address ICE Barbie Affair Rumors: ‘Worst-Kept Secret in D.C.’

A number of Trump administration officials have spilled the beans on what has long been an open secret in MAGA circles: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski are allegedly having an affair.Rumors have swirled for years that the Department of Homeland Security secretary, dubbed “ICE Barbie” for her penchant for over-stylized PR stunts in various uniformed roles, and President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager have been cheating on their respective spouses. Both Noem and Lewandowski deny their relationship is anything other than professional.A detailed exposé in New York Magazine notes how the pair, who now work closely together at DHS, are “widely understood” to be romantically involved. One FEMA official even described it as the “worst-kept secret in D.C.”The magazine describes Corey Lewandowski as Kristi Noem’s A senior Trump administration official went one step further, telling the magazine: “Everybody knows they’re together. Can I prove it? No. But they’re together.”Noem and Lewandowski, who was ousted as Trump’s 2016 campaign manager after allegedly assaulting a reporter, have not exactly been discreet about their apparent extramarital coupling.In 2019, after a conservative conference in Doral, Florida, witnesses recalled Noem walking onto a patio where VIPs were smoking cigars and sitting directly on Lewandowski’s lap. “It was very romantic,” one person who saw the PDA told New York Magazine. “They acted like a couple, not like a political consultant and a client. It was very clear.”There have been rumors that Corey Lewandowski and Kristi Noem’s relationship extends beyond the office for years. / Andrew Cabello-Reynolds/AFP via Getty ImagesEarly in their relationship, Lewandowski reportedly brought Noem to New York to meet financiers who could back her rising political career. One millionaire was so struck by how the pair were acting during a meeting that he called a mutual acquaintance to ask outright if the two were dating.In response, a DHS spokesperson called the New York Magazine article a “hit piece [that] reads like a preteen rage-scrolling, then prompting ChatGPT for a screed on misogyny—complete with zero substance and maximum bulls--t."“It’s not just lazy—it’s libelous—peddling anonymous gossip as fact while ignoring our exhaustive, on-the-record rebuttals that destroy their narrative,“ a spokesperson told the Daily Beast. ”New York Magazine has sunk to new depths of journalistic cowardice, force-feeding the American public lies less digestible than kibble dog food."New York Magazine describes how Kristi Noem's Axios journalist Alex Isenstadt’s book Revenge, chronicling Trump’s 2024 campaign, even suggested the alleged affair may have cost Noem a chance of being selected as Trump’s running mate. Advisers said they had seen Lewandowski slap Noem on the butt, while Trump himself would pointedly refer to her as Lewandowski’s “girlfriend.”Ultimately, it was Noem revealing in her own book, No Going Back, how she shot and killed her 14-month-old pet dog, Cricket—reportedly because of his aggressive behavior—that torpedoed her chance of being vice president. “That’s not good at all,” Trump reportedly told his son Donald Trump Jr., according to Revenge. “Even you wouldn’t kill a dog, and you kill everything.”The New York Post also reported that a source saw Noem and Lewandowski openly making out at a hotel bar during the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.Speculation only intensified this year when the Daily Beast’s The Swamp newsletter reported in February that Lewandowski had been spotted at Noem’s D.C. home, taking out her trash. A month later, the Daily Mail revealed the pair had moved across the street from each other in the Navy Yard neighborhood and that Lewandowski was a regular at ICE Barbie’s $3,750-a-month condo.Responding to the affair claims, a DHS spokesperson said the department “doesn’t waste time with salacious, baseless gossip.”The Daily Beast has contacted Lewandowski for comment.