Germophobe Trump Brags About Busting ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s ‘Affair’ With Corey Lewandowski
President Donald Trump “frequently” brags in private about busting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s “affair” with her top deputy, a new report alleges.
Noem’s alleged relationship with Corey Lewandowski, a 2016 Trump campaign manager who was fired for assaulting a reporter, has long been the talk of Washington. However, a New York Post report revealed Friday that even the 79-year-old president has partaken in the gossip.
There have been rumors that Corey Lewandowski, back, and Kristi Noem, front, have had an affair for years. Andrew Cabello-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Sources told the paper—whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, dined with Trump at the White House this week, according to Breaker—that the president “frequently” tells a story about witnessing Lewandowski and Noem taking sips from the same can of soda.
The president, a known germaphobe, allegedly says that was a dead giveaway.
“You can’t do that, it’s pretty obvious!” Trump has said, according to the Post’s sources. “You can’t do that, everyone’s going to know!”
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (2-L) and former Donald Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (R) in August 2020. SAUL LOEB/SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
One of the tabloid’s sources described the tale as Trump’s “go-to story” regarding the duo.
Both Noem, 54, and Lewandowski, 52, are married with children.
Still, the two jet around the country together in a 737 MAX airliner being leased by DHS, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The jet, expected to be purchased for $70 million soon, is said to include a private chamber at the rear.
The alleged affair is not a new revelation. A New York magazine exposé published in September said it is “widely understood” that they are romantically involved. A FEMA official called it the “worst-kept secret in D.C.”
Lewandowski even went as far as to order a Coast Guard pilot fired after Noem switched planes due to a maintenance issue, but her blanket wasn’t brought along, the Journal reported.
Donald Trump and Hope Hicks outside the Oval Office in 2018. CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS
The “affair” with Noem is not the first time Lewandowski has been accused of infidelity. Despite being married to Alison Hardy Lewandowski for more than 20 years and sharing four children with her, Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury revealed that Lewandowski had a romantic relationship with the former Trump adviser Hope Hicks during MAGA 1.0.
Wolff’s reporting revealed that Trump was aware of that alleged affair, too. The Inside Trump’s Head co-host wrote that Trump went as far as telling Hicks, now 37, that she was “the best piece of tail” that Lewandowski would ever have.
Lewandowski has also been accused of making unwanted advances toward women. Most notably, the Republican donor Trashelle Odom accused him of repeatedly touching her, stalking her, and making sexually explicit comments to her at a charity dinner in 2021.
“I felt like I was his prey,” she told CBS News in 2024, alleging that he placed his hands in her lap without permission as they sat at dinner. “He was very persistent, aggressive.”
Odom alerted the police, and Lewandowski was charged with criminal sexual harassment. He struck a plea deal that ordered him to complete “impulse control training,” pay a $1,000 fine, and apologize to Odom in court for “any discomfort he may have caused her.”
The musician Joy Villa also filed a police report in 2017 that accused Lewandowski of slapping her butt during a holiday party.
Bryon Noem, the husband of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, listens as she testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security on December 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Noem has been married to Bryon Noem, who operates a crop insurance agency in South Dakota, since 1992. He attended a hearing at which Noem testified before lawmakers in December.
The Noems have three children.
