The cross-dressing online activity of Kristi Noem’s husband was “an open secret” in Washington, D.C., despite the ousted Homeland Security Secretary’s statement that she was “blindsided” by an exposé about the matter this week, according to a new report.
Pictures of Bryon Noem wearing pink hot pants and a skin-toned spandex top stuffed with balloons were published this week in a Daily Mail report, alleging that he engaged in a “bimbofication” fetish as his wife served in President Donald Trump’s cabinet.
While Kristi Noem’s initial statement expressed shock, insiders told the newspaper that White House and Department of Homeland Security officials had been gossiping about Bryon Noem’s alleged fetishes for “months.”
“Everyone knew he had problems, especially her,” a White House insider told the Mail, referring to Kristi Noem. “It’s not a secret at all.”
The couple has been married for almost 34 years. They have three adult children and several grandchildren.
“I’ve heard people say Bryon dresses up in women’s clothes, but I didn’t imagine something this reckless,” another Trump administration official told the outlet. “This certainly wasn’t on my bingo card.”
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security were also allegedly aware of the accusations that Kristi Noem conducted a taxpayer-funded affair with her former aide Corey Lewandowski, who has since left the department.
“I have been hearing [Bryon Noem] was a cross-dresser since last year and that she was telling people about it – we assumed to justify her affair,” a senior Department Homeland Security official told the Mail.
Kristi Noem described the rumors of an affair with Lewandowski as “tabloid garbage” at a House hearing last month, but she stopped short of responding to questions with a definitive “no.”
Another source reportedly told the newspaper that “everyone assumed it was not a normal marriage” and that Bryon Noem was “either cool” with his wife’s alleged affair with her top aide, “or he wasn’t into women.” The newspaper added that it had no evidence that either claim was true.
Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer and sometime informal adviser to Trump, claimed that “everyone in the admin has known this forever” in a post on X. “I’m shocked it didn’t come out earlier,” she said.
According to the Mail, Bryon Noem’s alleged activity “never came under scrutiny from the President’s top advisers or the FBI.”
Had it come up during Kristi Noem’s vetting process to become Homeland Security chief, it “almost certainly” would have disqualified her from consideration, according to the newspaper.
“They look into who you are married to, but there are not any questions about whether your husband has any secret fetishes,” an official told the Mail, and added that there’s no “digging through online chatrooms to get dirt.”
Kel McClanahan, executive director of the non-profit firm National Security Counselors, appeared to be critical of the vetting process in Kristi Noem’s case. “They’re supposed to be looking for information that could, at the very least, embarrass the White House,” he said. “If they had gotten wind of this, I guarantee she would have been blacklisted.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump told the Mail that he felt “badly for the family” when approached for comment earlier this week.
“I haven’t seen anything. I don’t know anything about it,” he reportedly said in brief remarks over the phone. “That’s too bad, but I just know nothing about it.”
Bryon Noem did not respond to a previous request for comment from The Independent. In a text message to The New York Times, he suggested that he could share his side of the story “at some point” in the near future.
Lewandowski responded to the Mail’s latest report on Kristi Noem’s behalf, according to the outlet, and simply shared her statement from Tuesday.
“Mrs. Noem is devastated,” the statement said. “The family was blindsided by this. They ask for privacy and prayers at this time.”
Many of Bryon Noem’s neighbors in the tiny town of Castlewood, South Dakota, portrayed him as a supportive spouse who shied away from being in the limelight that his wife seemed to enjoy as Homeland Security Secretary — before she was ousted last month by Trump over a multi-million dollar ad campaign.
“People know Bryon as the supportive husband who worked to maintain a normal family life as Kristi’s profile skyrocketed,” real estate appraiser and newspaper columnist Brad Johnson told The Times. “It shows the price of power and fame is very high. But, Kristi invited this type of coverage by her actions at the Department of Homeland Security.”
