An unseemly spat over a $464 million fleet of jets that has been barely used has taken off at the Department of Homeland Security.
At the back end of last year, DHS splurged on 10 airplanes in a rushed procurement process that the department said was vital for enacting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, which had “unusual and compelling urgency.”
The fleet included three luxury jets—including then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s notorious Big Beautiful Jet, later used to ferry Trump officials around the world—and seven older 737s. They have now been left for months in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with an internal document obtained by The New York Times saying DHS lacked the crews to fly them.
DHS sought on Wednesday to distance Noem’s replacement, Markwayne Mullin, from the debacle and place the blame squarely on his predecessor.
A spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “The contract for Daedalus was made and approved by department leadership before Secretary Mullin was sworn in.” They added that DHS “reserves the right to adjust course in an environment with evolving requirements and demands.”
In response, a spokeswoman for Noem fired back, telling the Times that the purchase had been “finalized” on Mullin’s watch. Contracting records reviewed by the Times show that on the day Mullin, 49, officially became DHS secretary, the contract ballooned by $303 million.
The no-competition contract for the fleet was handed to Daedalus Aviation Corporation, a Northern Virginia company chaired by pro-Trump donor William Walters III, which had never held a federal contract, and run by a CEO who the Daily Beast revealed in March had led his previous airline into bankruptcy.
Walters, a former State Department surgeon, had donated $10,000 to a pro-Noem super PAC whose sister nonprofit paid her chief adviser and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski, 52, more than $265,000 for consulting work. Walters has insisted the PAC was not openly affiliated with Noem, 54, or Lewandowski when he gave. The only other donation publicly tied to Walters went to the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
The stewardship by another Walters company, Salus Worldwide Solutions, of Trump’s flagship $1 billion Project Homecoming self-deportation scheme has also been beset by allegations of corruption, which he denies. Originally slated for three years, that contract is currently being recompeted and, according to Daily Beast sister investigations Substack PunchUp, Salus faces being axed after it burned through all its money in year one with debatable results.
The purchase of the planes is now in the crosshairs of Democratic lawmakers. Senate Appropriations Committee Sens. Patty Murray and Chris Murphy wrote to the department Wednesday, noting its officials had privately conceded most of the fleet will never be used for deportations.
Instead, the senators said they were told that four of the jets bought to deport migrants will now shuttle members of Congress abroad—work commercial airlines and military planes already do.
According to the senators’ letter, the FBI took a 12-month lease on one Gulfstream for Director Kash Patel’s travel despite the bureau already having its own jets, which the bureau defended to the Times on a cost basis, and another was kept for DHS senior officials.
In April, PunchUp exclusively revealed photos of the third, Noem’s luxury jet, which was kitted out with a queen bedroom, showers, a kitchen, and a bar.
The Times reported that the department had since attempted to farm out the jet—which PunchUp revealed in April that DHS had paid way over the odds for while claiming it had cost $70 million—now painted in Air Force One livery, to the Pentagon, but no deal has yet been signed.
“The American people deserve a full accounting of this gross misuse of their tax dollars,” the letter said, according to the Times, and demanded details about the cost and use of each of the 10 planes.
In response, DHS told the Beast that several of the jets had been in maintenance, and two deportation flights would be starting later this month.
This is not the first time that one of Noem’s major initiatives has been scrapped under Mullin, who was sworn in as the new DHS chief in March after Noem was fired. DHS had spent $700 million on seven warehouses across the U.S. to hold detainees, but that plan has since been scrapped. They now face being given away or sold.
The department’s watchdog is currently reviewing contracts signed under Noem and Lewandowski, with The Wall Street Journal reporting last month it is weighing a criminal referral against Lewandowski to the Justice Department. Lewandowski denies all wrongdoing.
A DHS spokesperson said: “ICE has contracts in place for ensuring it is capable of delivering on its mission to the President and the American people. In addition to options available under existing contracts, ICE has a robust federal acquisition program in place to expand or change to meet the needs of the agency.”
A spokesman for Daedalus Aviation said the company was “proud of the work that we have done in supporting our federal customers and in providing the best value to the American taxpayer.”
The Daily Beast also contacted Noem, the FBI, the Department of Defense, and Salus for comment.
