Opinion: ‘Justice for Cricket’ — Kristi Noem and the $200 million mistake

By any reasonable benchmark, a cabinet secretary should not be able to spend more than the production budgets of Oppenheimer, Barbie, Top Gun: Maverick, Dune and The Batman combined on a single public-relations campaign and still expect to keep the job. Yet that is precisely what unfolded at the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem, whose $200 million-plus “border-security” marketing blitz—featuring the secretary astride a horse at Mount Rushmore—has now become the stuff of Washington legend and late-night punchlines.

The contracts for the campaign were quietly awarded last spring, even as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was scouring the federal ledger for waste. The resulting spots, filmed five months ago, hit airwaves with all the subtlety of a Super Bowl ad, complete with cinematic lighting and a voice-over warning migrants against crossing into the United States. One 60-second spot was hyped on social media as a “MUST WATCH … HUGE WIN,” but on Capitol Hill it landed with a thud.

Senator John Kennedy, the Louisiana Republican known for his folksy one-liners, labeled the expenditure “spending porn” during a televised hearing and calmly pressed Noem on the justification for the outlay. Within days, President Trump phoned Kennedy; shortly thereafter, Noem was reassigned. While the White House disputes Noem’s claim that Trump signed off on the campaign, Kennedy says he takes the president at his word that he was blindsided by the price tag.

The fallout has been bipartisan. Meghan McCain noted on X that Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters cost less than Noem’s campaign, demanding, “Where is the federal investigation?” Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren, once an intern for Noem, was equally blunt: “Kristi had to go. And also I will say, ‘Justice for Cricket.’” The invocation of Cricket—the dog Noem once admitted shooting in a gravel pit—served as a reminder that the former South Dakota governor arrived in Washington under a cloud of controversy and leaves under a $200 million one.

ProPublica’s November deep-dive into the contracts revealed layers of subcontractors, vague deliverables and billing rates that would make a Pentagon auditor blush. The episode has already resurfaced in Oscar-night writers’ rooms; host Conan O’Brien is expected to mine the spectacle for material during Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast.

For conservatives who campaigned on fiscal discipline, the episode is a cautionary tale: vanity advertising may play well in campaign season, but when taxpayers underwrite the production, the final cut rarely ages well. Meanwhile, somewhere along a highway still stands a sign touting infrastructure projects “Funded by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”—a smaller but equally durable reminder that in Washington, the cameras are always rolling and the receipts eventually come due.