“ICE Barbie” Kristi Noem is still occupying the waterfront home on a D.C. military base that she moved into as a Cabinet member, despite being fired as Homeland Security secretary.
Noem, 54, took up residence at a house usually reserved for Coast Guard commandants on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling last August, claiming she needed protection after receiving threats.
She was expected to move out of the residence after President Donald Trump fired her on March 5 amid backlash over her use of taxpayer funds.
But seven weeks later, the one-time Cabinet member is still nesting in the Coast Guard’s housing, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A black Suburban SUV typically used by Noem was seen parked outside the house earlier this week, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
U.S. Coast Guard officials have also seen Noem on the base in recent days, according to the Journal.
The Coast Guard falls under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. In her new role as “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” a position Trump reportedly created to keep her out of a Senate run, Noem now serves in the State Department, not DHS.
Noem’s alleged paramour, Corey Lewandowski, has also lived at the house, according to reports.
After revelations of her husband’s secret “Bimbofication” fetish and online cross-dressing life became the latest scandal to engulf her, the New York Post reported earlier this month that Lewandowski, 52, and Noem continued to reside together at the Coast Guard house.
One person familiar with the matter similarly told the Journal that Lewandowski, who has been booted out of the Trump administration, was spotted at the house this month.
“Scores of people have visited Ms. Noem at the house in a business capacity,” Lewandowski, who is married, told the Journal in a statement through a lawyer.
Noem’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Daily Beast has also reached out to the White House, DHS, State Department, and Lewandowski for comment.
Noem moved into the house typically designated for the Coast Guard commandant after Trump, 79, fired then-commandant Linda Fagan last year.
Adm. Kevin Lunday, the current Coast Guard commandant, has told associates he intends to relocate to the commandant’s residence imminently, people familiar with the discussions told the Journal.
He currently resides in a nearly identical neighboring home assigned to the vice commandant, but he wants to move into the house Noem has been occupying so that the Vice Commandant Thomas G. Allan Jr. can take his current home, according to the Journal.
The Washington Post reported last year that Noem was living rent-free at the house. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin has also accused Noem of “living rent-free in the official waterfront residence reserved for the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.”
But during her car-crash testimony on Capitol Hill, which ultimately led to her downfall, Noem insisted she was paying her way.
“I rent that facility. I rent where I stay and pay personal dollars to do that,” she told the House Judiciary Committee.
She also said, “I’m not in the commandant’s house. I’m in a Coast Guard house, but not the commandant’s house. The commandant is in his house.”
Noem earned more than $200,000 in annual salary as secretary, according to the Post. Her net worth has been estimated at $5 million by Forbes.
