DHS bought planes from Kristi Noem donor in her final hours

The New York Times posted a YouTube video titled “Why Did the U.S. Buy These Planes?” The channel’s own description states that in the last hours of Kristi Noem’s tenure as Homeland Security secretary, the department signed a multi-million-dollar agreement to buy five aircraft from a company owned by one of her political donors, and that reporter David A. Fahrenthold explains his investigation into the deal.

According to The New York Times reporting carried by NewsNation, HuffPost, IBTimes and Newser, DHS paid Daedalus Aviation Corporation $108 million for a Boeing 737 converted into a private jet that the company had acquired months earlier for under $90 million. The same package included two Gulfstream jets for $106 million after Daedalus bought them for about $83 million, and two 17-year-old Boeing 737 passenger planes at $45 million each. Aviation specialists told the Times those figures sat millions above typical market value for aircraft of that age. The five planes completed half of a $464 million, 10-plane contract awarded without competitive bidding. DHS invoked an “unusual and compelling urgency” exemption to skip open competition. Daedalus had never held a federal contract before 2025.

William Walters chairs the firm. Records show he donated $10,000 in October 2024 to American Resolve, a political action committee that existed to support Noem. Newser reported that companies he leads received more than $900 million in DHS business during her tenure. President Donald Trump fired Noem on March 5, 2026; she remained in the job until Markwayne Mullin was sworn in on March 24. The purchase was signed the morning she left.

Noem answered on X with a lengthy post branding the Times story “DISHONEST” and demanding a full retraction or correction. “If the individual did not personally make political contributions to Secretary Noem, or if the term ‘donor’ instead refers indirectly to unrelated entities or legally distinct contributions, the article simply fails to meet the standards of precision expected of The New York Times,” she wrote. She said “Numerous times clarifications were made to the journalists responsible for this libelous story.” She also argued that “The article's characterization of the individual as a 'donor' ... is materially misleading and, as unsupported by the factual record, conveys a false implication of a direct financial relationship obviously intended to influence official action.”

The Times replied in the comments beneath her post. “We stand by the characterization of the political donor and his firm. As our article makes clear, the Department of Homeland Security bought five airplanes from Daedalus at a substantial markup, a deal approved during Ms. Noem's tenure. Daedalus's chairman is William Walters, who gave $10,000 to the American Resolve political action committee, a group that existed to support Ms. Noem,” the paper wrote.