Two Democratic senators from Vermont and Connecticut have published a partial list of what they claim the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spent on former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's $220 million ad campaign, which featured her riding a horse near Mount Rushmore and was instrumental in her dismissal as Secretary of Homeland Secretary. The senators claim that some of the $220M went to horse rentals, hair and makeup, a "signing bonus" to a firm owned by the husband of Noem’s chief spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, and hundreds of dollars spent at a South Dakota magic shop. The Strategy Group Company, a national conservative advertising agency that worked with Noem on her 2022 gubernatorial campaign, was subcontracted by an obscure Delaware-based firm called Safe America Media, which was awarded a $143 million no-bid contract to produce and place the ads in 2025. The Senators have demanded an accounting of the money they received for filming the ads. The strategy Group Company provided partial responses to their requests, representing only a small but insightful picture of what Noem was spending the money on.