Kristi Noem’s husband’s kinky penchant for crossdressing was an “open secret” in Donald Trump’s White House as she ran the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new report.
It was revealed on Tuesday that Bryon Noem, 56, was leading a secret double life online as a crossdresser with a “bimbofication” fetish, and he had been in contact with multiple adult performers on OnlyFans, allegedly sending them tens of thousands of dollars.
“Mrs. Noem is devastated,” a spokesperson for Noem, 54, told the Daily Mail, which broke the story. “The family was blindsided by this. They ask for privacy and prayers at this time.”
While prior reports had revealed that many in D.C. believed that Bryon was “gay or had his own arrangement,” a second Daily Mail report has exposed further details, including the extent to which Bryon’s proclivities were an “open secret” in Washington, D.C.
“I’ve heard people say Bryon dresses up in women’s clothes, but I didn’t imagine something this reckless,” one Trump administration official told the outlet, adding, “This certainly wasn’t on my bingo card.” The Mail reported that people in the White House had known for months that something was “off” with Bryon.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official told the tabloid, “I have been hearing he was a cross-dresser since last year and that she was telling people about it – we assumed to justify her affair,” referring to Kristi’s alleged extramarital relationship with her top aide, Corey Lewandowski.
Their affair was described by one government official in a September exposé as the “worst-kept secret in D.C.” Both Noem and Lewandowski have denied the rumors.
One source said that White House officials had been openly speculating that Bryon was either gay or had a cuckolding fetish, telling the Daily Mail, “I think everyone assumed it was not a normal marriage. He was either cool with her being b---ed by someone else, or he wasn’t into women.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Others told the publication that Kristi herself had told those close to her that she believed her husband had sexual issues. The Mail also cited campaign donors dating back to Kristi’s tenure as governor of South Dakota who “freely discussed” their belief that Bryon was gay, adding that the couple’s marriage was widely viewed as “fake” in their circles.
“We knew Kristi and Bryon had a full breakdown in sexual relations,” one source, who has known Kristi for years, told the paper. “He’s interested in other stuff. I didn’t know he had fake breasts.”
“The whole thing is fully a freak show,” the source added.
The potential implications of Bryon’s online activities go far beyond being mere fodder for the D.C. rumor mill, however, with officials highlighting the potentially disastrous consequences his secrets could have had for national security.
There has been no indication that Bryon’s habits were raised when Kristi, 54, was being vetted for her role as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, even though experts have said that the information would almost certainly have disqualified her if it had been discovered.
One administration official told the Mail, “They look into who you are married to, but there are not any questions about whether your husband has any secret fetishes.”
They added, “They’re not digging through online chatrooms to get dirt on a secretary’s husband. That could get sticky.”
“They’re supposed to be looking for information that could, at the very least, embarrass the White House,” Ken McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, told the Mail.
“If they had gotten wind of this, I guarantee she would have been blacklisted,” he added. A senior DHS official agreed, telling the newspaper, “This would have been a disqualification for national security eligibility for anyone else whose spouse was hiding this.”
Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove criticized the Trump administration on Wednesday for endangering national security by failing to properly vet Kristi and her husband.
“If the Noems were private citizens, their personal lives would be just that—private and not our business," Kamlager-Dove told the Daily Beast in a statement.
“But because Kristi Noem held a high-level national security position, anything they’d prefer to keep secret could put not only her and her family, but also the U.S., at risk of exploitation.”
While Kristi’s spokesperson asked for “prayers and privacy” when approached for comment by the New York Post, Bryon told the New York Times that he intended to eventually share his side of the story.
Asked by the Times for comment on the news, Bryon told the outlet, “I will at some point. Today is not the day. I appreciate your heart.”
Kristi was removed from her role as DHS Secretary last month after a disastrous year-long stint at the helm. She was replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin and moved into a role as the United States Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, having failed to lead her department through growing backlash and the subsequent partial government shutdown over the issue of ICE funding.
