'ICE Barbie' Begs Congress for Private $50M Jet

Looks like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is asking the US taxpayers to pay for her own private jet.

In the 11th hour of House budget hearings, the U.S. Coast Guard made a last-minute change to its 2025 budget. The out-of-pocket update was a request for a $50 million new plane for Noem, for..... no real reason.

“I was horrified last Friday when we received a last-minute addition to your spend plan for Fiscal [Year] ‘25: A new $50 million Gulfstream 5 for Secretary Noem’s personal travel coming from the Coast Guard budget,” Underwood told acting Coast Guard Chief Admiral Kevin Lunday. “She already has a Gulfstream 5, by the way. This is a new one.”

Underwood probed further, asking Lunday whether he received any request from Noem or the Trump administration requesting a new plane for Noem, but the admiral evaded the question.

“Meeting the needs of our Coast Guard men and women that are doing frontline operations is my top operational priority, and it’s a top operational priority of the secretary,” he said, ignoring the question. “She’s been clear with that to me, and I know she testified to that effect before the subcommittee last week.”

Lunday explained that the Coast Guard owns two military vehicles, and the older one is “approaching obsolescence and the end of its service life”.

“This aircraft is necessary to provide… secure, reliable, on-demand communications and movement to go forward, visit our operating forces conducting the missions, and then come back here to Washington to make sure we can work together to get them what they need,” he said.

But Underwood was unsatisfied with the response.

“I just want to note that I didn’t hear the admiral answer the question about whether he was directed to purchase this new Gulfstream 5,” she said. “And I just want to note that as I conclude my time.”

In her own budget hearing on Wednesday, Noem was grilled by lawmakers over her “many photo ops and costume changes,” which have earned her the moniker ICE Barbie.

Noem has so far cosplayed as a firefighter, an immigration agent, and even a helicopter pilot in her trips around the country to oversee the implementation of Trump’s sweeping deportation blitz.

“I don‘t need to wear costumes to show how tough I am,” Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell told Noem mockingly.

Lavish jets have been a touchy topic for the government since President Donald Trump announced that he planned to accept a $400 million plane as a gift from Qatar.