Concerns about Corey Lewandowski’s role at the Department of Homeland Security came to a head this week with a series of public hearings that resulted in former Secretary Kristi Noem’s dismissal — but questions about the longtime Trump ally’s influence within the agency have been simmering in the background since Noem first took charge of the agency.

In March 2025, just a few weeks into Noem’s tenure, a White House official called a DHS staffer to ask whether he had heard that Lewandowski was using his influence within the agency to steer lucrative contracts to political allies and whether he had any evidence that would substantiate the charge, the DHS official who took the call told National Review.

White House officials, lawmakers, and government contractors told NR that they have long suspected that Lewandowski and his political allies inside and outside of DHS are financially profiting from DHS contracts and multiple offices and committees on Capitol Hill are actively investigating the matter.

During a Tuesday Senate hearing, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana chose to highlight one specific case involving a $220 million ad campaign contract that was not opened up to the standard competitive bidding process. Noem insisted in response to Kennedy’s questioning that President Trump had personally approved the contract, which infuriated the president, who subsequently denied Noem’s claim, and led directly to her firing, National Review reported Thursday.

The White House and DHS declined to comment for this story. Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Ask Chief’

Lewandowski, who was technically serving as a special government employee, wielded an unprecedented level of influence within the agency, multiple DHS officials told National Review.

Early on in his tenure at DHS, Lewandowski quickly developed a reputation as Noem’s closest adviser. For years, the pair had batted away allegations that they were engaged in a romantic relationship; both are married and have children. So, it came as no surprise that he soon began calling the shots inside the department charged with carrying out Trump’s mass deportation campaign and spending the billions in congressionally appropriated funds dedicated to that purpose.

Lewandowski had broad purview over all decisions made inside DHS, big and small. Inside the building, he became known as “Chief.”

“All written communication and all of the little minions in the front office, all the 23-year-olds who have pledged undying loyalty to Corey, would call him ‘Chief,’” a senior administration official said.

Portions of Noem’s schedule,  obtained by National Review, are chock-full of references to her “Chief” Lewandowski, whose title was constantly invoked in schedule notes on high-level decisions or official engagements that were pending approval.

Notes written by staffers show that Noem deferred scheduling choices to Lewandowski. One scheduling note suggests that Noem had opted to decline an invitation to a United Nations event “unless Chief says it is important.”

Even first responder appreciation-day speaking engagements would require Lewandowski’s signoff. In the notes section of a September 5, 2025, scheduling memo, a line specified that the department was leaning against accepting a speaking request for January 6, 2026, for “Law Enforcement and Fire Fighter Appreciation Day” in Florida.

“Probably No – Ask Chief,” the memo reads.

In addition to greenlighting the secretary’s meetings, trips, and special appearances, Lewandowski’s de facto chief of staff status meant he had the final say on approving travel requests for every senior official and final say on who attended high-level DHS meetings.

“I don’t think she ever took meetings without him standing in there,” a senior administration official recalled. “I was supposed to have a one-on-one meeting with her, and he was in there. He took meetings without her, but she never took meetings without him.”

A Long History

Lewandowski’s control over Noem’s schedule predates her time as DHS secretary. One incident from 2022, when Noem was running for reelection as South Dakota governor and Lewandowski was advising her, suggests that he has long been comfortable using Noem’s public stature to manipulate people, even political allies.

In April 2022, the pair traveled to Washington State where Noem was scheduled to headline political events for multiple Washington Republicans, including Fifth District Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Eighth District GOP candidate Jesse Jensen. Lewandowski, whom Noem had hired to help with her campaign, was in tow.

The day before a scheduled fundraiser breakfast with Jensen’s congressional campaign, Lewandowski approached one of Jensen’s campaign aides and said Noem’s team was thinking of taking an early plane home, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Confused and frustrated that the governor’s team would cancel at the last minute, Jensen’s aide called a Lewandowski staffer to reiterate the importance of Noem showing up on time and in person to an event that people had traveled across the state to attend.

Later that day, the play became clear: Lewandowski was threatening to book Noem on the next flight home if Jensen’s campaign didn’t immediately cough up $25,000 in contributions to Noem, the sources said.

“I’ll give Corey credit: announcements had gone out, people were traveling across the state to come have breakfast with the governor, everything was set in stone, and he pulled this thing the night before at the afternoon funder and said, ‘I’ll get her on an earlier flight if you don’t get me the 25k,’” a source familiar with the incident told National Review.

“It was just clear as day that they’d done this before,” the person added.

Lewandowski Dominates at DHS

Once Noem took over at DHS, with Lewandowski by her side, the longtime Trump ally began to use his position to contact powerful people in the private sector for purposes that were never made clear to many senior department officials, multiple DHS staffers told NR.

Lewandowski regularly ran meetings with private sector companies and would constantly pester senior leaders inside DHS to track down CEOs’ cellphone numbers, fomenting suspicions within DHS that he was using his connections to private sector interests for personal gain.

“His team would call private sector companies, always under the guise that the ‘secretary’ would be the one calling, the ‘secretary’ needed the information. The ‘secretary’ needed a meeting,” a senior administration official recalled. “It was never the secretary, it was always Corey.”

Lewandowski also took steps to conceal the extent of his involvement at DHS. Federal law prohibits special government employees from working more than 130 days per year. Lewandowski would regularly walk into the building with other staffers to avoid swiping in and creating a record of his presence in the building, sources familiar with the matter say. He regularly had aides call people, only for him to yell in the background so he could personally chew them out. DHS staffers have long suspected this is because he wanted to avoid logging phone calls in any official capacity.

Lewandowski ruled with an iron fist. According to sources inside the building, he constantly threatened to fire, demote, polygraph, or reassign people who got on his bad side. Career staffers have long been terrified of losing their retirement benefits or being blacklisted from DHS contracts if they leave for the private sector.

The investigations on Capitol Hill into allegations of self-dealing by Lewandowski are just getting started, and multiple media outlets — and now the State of Minnesota under Governor Tim Walz — have joined in.

This week alone, the muddy picture surrounding the DHS contracting process has become a bit clearer. New reporting in the Daily Wire, ProPublica, Bloomberg, and NBC News shows that during her congressional hearings this week, Noem misrepresented the competitive nature of the $220 million ad contract that benefited her political allies, and that the agency invoked an emergency exception to circumvent the competitive bidding process that typically governs how contracts are approved.

While the public is just now catching up, DHS officials have long suspected that Lewandowski and his closest aides were steering contracts to their allies.

“The fraud examiner in me believes that it is a high probability that somebody in the department is getting kickbacks because of what I’ve seen contractually,” one senior DHS official told National Review, although the official had no direct knowledge of any wrongdoing.

In normal contractual processes, “if you have a good, solid vendor, doesn’t matter who they are,” the senior DHS official said. And yet Lewandowski and his team “only seem to care about the vendors, not necessarily the business that we’re doing, but more what vendor are we doing business with.” 

Noem and Lewandowski Rise and Fall Together

It’s unclear where Lewandowski, who has survived multiple falls from grace within Republican politics in recent years, will land after Noem’s ouster (Trump announced that the outgoing DHS secretary will be reassigned as “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a security initiative). Multiple outlets have reported that he’s been dismissed as a special government employee, but DHS has not publicly confirmed the news.

After the former Trump 2016 campaign manager fell out of favor with the president’s inner circle years ago, Lewandowski used his ties to Noem to reclaim power and influence inside the highest levels of government.

In 2020, he shepherded her through his home state of New Hampshire for her puzzling campaign stop in the first-in-the-nation primary state during her gubernatorial reelection campaign. Throughout the campaign, he developed a reputation for using the same tactics he’d later employ at DHS, berating subordinates for any perceived failures, a source who witnessed the behavior told NR.

His personal relationship with Noem then helped him work his way back into Trump’s orbit and secure a role with the Republican National Convention, which National Review first reported in May 2024.

Lewandowski’s work for Noem continued into the 2024 campaign cycle, when Noem was privately gunning to serve as Trump’s vice president. The nature of their professional and allegedly romantic relationship was a constant source of confusion and conversation for campaign staff.

For example, Lewandowski attended her trip to Michigan for the state party convention in August 2024, people who saw them there together said. At one point after the RNC convention, Lewandowski brought Noem into the Trump campaign’s West Palm Beach headquarters and introduced her to staff for no apparent reason, puzzling campaign hands who were just trying to get through a day’s work, according to people who were in the building that day.

When Noem’s national political ambitions reached a low point during her ill-fated book tour, Lewandowski remained by her side.

In April 2024, Lewandowski defended Noem on a media campaign to promote her memoir, No Going Back. Ahead of an interview with Fox Business host Stuart Varney, Lewandowski insisted that Varney refrain from asking her about the more controversial storylines surrounding her newly released book, including her description of shooting and killing her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, 20 years prior.

Noem’s frustration was evident onscreen as she struggled to stay above water in one of the most contentious interviews of her book tour.

“Enough, Stuart. This interview is ridiculous, which you are doing right now,” Noem said at one point in the interview. “So, you need to stop. It is okay. It is. Let’s talk about some real topics that Americans care about.”

At one point during Noem’s interview, a source familiar with the matter recalled to National Review, Lewandowski grew so exasperated off set with Varney’s Cricket-focused line of questioning that he started yelling at the television.

By National Review – https://www.nationalreview.com/news/how-kristi-noems-chief-corey-lewandowski-ran-her-dhs-tenure-into-the-ground/

Americans would be wise to begin paying very close attention to a small rugged island in the northern Persian Gulf that few could locate on a map only weeks ago.

Americans would be wise to begin paying very close attention to a small rugged island in the northern Persian Gulf that few could locate on a map only weeks ago. That island is Kharg Island. It is sometimes spelled Khark Island. And it is nothing less than the main distribution center for Islamic Republic of Iran’s oil. At a moment when the United States and its allies are confronting the Islamic Republic during the ongoing military confrontation known as Operation Epic Fury, Kharg Island stands as one of the most consequential strategic locations in the entire Middle East. If Iran’s regime derives financial oxygen from oil exports, then Kharg Island is the lung through which that oxygen flows.

Should anyone doubt the urgency of understanding its importance, facts about Kharg Island reveal why this isolated outpost has become such a critical focus of geopolitical scrutiny. Kharg Island is a continental limestone island located in the northern Persian Gulf approximately 30 kilometers (only about 18 miles!) off Iran’s coast. It sits northwest of the port of Bushehr and about 483 kilometers (roughly 300 miles) northwest of the Strait of Hormuz. The tiny island measures roughly eight kilometers in length and four to five kilometers in width, covering an area of only seven or eight square miles. Its rocky limestone terrain collects freshwater in porous formations, making it one of the few islands in the Gulf with natural freshwater resources capable of supporting human settlement and wildlife including gazelles.

And it’s perfectly situated for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nefarious purposes. Its population exceeds more than ten thousand residents. The island extends Iran’s territorial sea claims deeper into the Persian Gulf and sits amid some of the most valuable oil infrastructure in the region.

The economic and strategic importance of Kharg Island cannot be overstated. Kharg serves as Iran’s primary offshore crude oil export terminal and historically has handled approximately 90% – 98% of the country’s crude exports. The island’s loading infrastructure is capable of exporting roughly seven million barrels per day through specialized terminals and sea island loading platforms. Pipelines connect the island directly to mainland oil fields in Khuzestan as well as underwater reservoirs beneath the Gulf itself. The entire complex is operated by the National Iranian Oil Company. Crude blends such as Iran Heavy, Iran Light, and Foroozan are loaded onto massive tankers at Kharg before being dispatched across global markets. Should anyone be surprised that analysts repeatedly describe Kharg Island as the main distribution center for Iran’s oil?

The island also carries a remarkable historical legacy stretching back more than fourteen thousand years. Ancient records describe Kharg as a pearl trading center as early as the tenth century. Greek historian Strabo referred to the island as Icaria or Icarus while Roman naturalist Pliny described it as Aracia. During the Achaemenid period the island served as both a defensive outpost and a commercial waypoint linking Persian Gulf trade routes. Archaeological discoveries include Achaemenid era rock cut tombs reminiscent of Palmyra funerary architecture, remnants of Christian monastic complexes associated with the Church of the East after the seventh century, ancient cemeteries, stone churches, and early settlements. Two mass graves of Palmyrene people have been identified on the slopes of Khezr Mountain dating to the first and second centuries before Christ during the Parthian and Sassanid periods. Sassanid era inscriptions and structures further confirm the island’s role as a strategic maritime hub linking Iran, India, Arabia, and Africa.

Modern history has been equally dramatic. Kharg Island was briefly occupied by British forces in 1838. Oil discoveries in the twentieth century transformed the island into one of the most important petroleum export facilities in the world by the early 1970’s. During the Iran Iraq War between 1980 and 1988 the island was repeatedly bombed by Iraqi forces attempting to cripple Iran’s oil exports. Much of the infrastructure was damaged but later rebuilt during the 1990’s. Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979 the island’s oil infrastructure was nationalized by the Ayatollah’s regime and incorporated into the state run petroleum apparatus that still exists. Meanwhile, nearby Kharku Island sits northeast of Kharg and also plays a supporting role in crude oil cargo operations. Not far away stands another sensitive strategic location, the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, adding another layer of geopolitical sensitivity to the region.

In the modern energy system Kharg Island functions as a massive storage and loading complex capable of holding tens of millions of barrels of crude oil in large tank farms before export. Estimates of storage capacity range from roughly 20 million barrels to nearly 30 million barrels depending on operational configurations. Tankers line up to load crude shipments that then travel across international markets. Where does that oil ultimately go? China remains the largest consumer of Iranian crude shipments, frequently receiving cargo through complex shipping arrangements designed to evade sanctions. Additional shipments move through regional intermediaries or transshipment points such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and occasionally Bangladesh. Russia also receives Iranian petroleum shipments in various barter arrangements and energy swaps. Yet in many cases cargoes routed through other Asian ports ultimately find their way to Chinese refineries.

What about the geographic relationship between Kharg Island and the power centers involved in this conflict? Kharg lies roughly 726 kilometers from Tehran or, 451 miles. From Kharg to Beijing the distance stretches approximately six thousand kilometers. Moscow lies roughly 3100 kilometers away which is nearly 1930 miles. Those distances highlight a geopolitical paradox. Iran’s leadership directs energy exports from a capital less than 500 miles away while the principal beneficiaries of those exports sit thousands of miles away beyond the Persian Gulf.

The significance of Kharg Island became the subject of national attention during a televised debate on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, March 4, 2026. During a segment discussing the escalating crisis in the Gulf, investment executive Jan van Eck warned viewers that policymakers and markets must pay attention to Kharg Island because it represents a choke point for Iran’s oil exports. His warning reflected what many strategic analysts have long understood. If Kharg Island is disrupted, the economic lifeline of the Iranian regime is immediately threatened. Should anyone ignore such a strategic vulnerability?

The urgency of this issue has intensified dramatically because of Operation Epic Fury. Operation Epic Fury is a major United States led military campaign against Iran launched on February 28, 2026 under orders from President Donald Trump. It represents the largest concentration of American military power in the region since 2003. More than 50,000 American troops have been deployed along with approximately 200 fighter aircraft, strategic bombers, and two aircraft carrier strike groups. Within the past 96 hours as of this writing, American forces reportedly struck nearly two thousand Iranian targets including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters, command centers, missile launch facilities, air defense systems, naval assets, and other infrastructure linked to Iran’s military apparatus.

This campaign has been conducted in coordination with Israel’s parallel military effort known as Operation Roaring Lion. The combined objective is to dismantle Iran’s security apparatus, destroy missile production capabilities, neutralize naval forces threatening the Gulf, and prevent the regime from developing nuclear weapons. The initial wave of strikes have thus far reportedly resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tragically six American service members were also killed, including casualties resulting from an Iranian attack on a base in Kuwait. Since then American forces have defended against hundreds of Iranian missile and drone retaliatory attacks across the region.

So in the big picture, does Kharg Island matter in this context? Yes! Because it sits at the epicenter of global energy security during a moment of military escalation. As the main distribution center for the Islamic Republic’s oil, Kharg Island is the largest and most important hub through which roughly 90% or more of Iranian crude exports flow into world markets. Disruption at Kharg could send global oil prices surging overnight which is going to hurt the wallets of American families at the pump, but only temporarily.

The broader conflict has already contributed to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint responsible for roughly twenty percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows. Iranian retaliation has included missile and drone strikes across Gulf states targeting American installations in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Energy infrastructure across the region now sits under heightened threat. Strategic facilities such as Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura and Qatar’s Ras Laffan face potential disruption. Regional proxy groups including the Houthis in Yemen have signaled they may target Saudi refineries if Israeli forces strike Iranian energy infrastructure including Kharg Island. Should such escalation occur the ripple effects across global energy markets would be immediate.

President Trump has pledged naval escorts for oil tankers and government backed war insurance to stabilize Gulf shipping lanes, yet the operational feasibility of such guarantees remains uncertain in an environment of active missile and drone attacks. Financial systems in the Gulf have already experienced stress including temporary suspensions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stock exchanges and cyber or infrastructure disruptions affecting data centers in Dubai and Bahrain.

Military risks also remain profound. Kharg Island sits near sensitive facilities including the Bushehr nuclear complex and lies within reach of both Iranian missile systems and American surveillance assets. American MQ 4C reconnaissance drones have reportedly been patrolling nearby airspace suggesting Iranian defensive networks have already been degraded. Yet the scale of the confrontation remains unprecedented since the Gulf War, raising fears of wider escalation including potential attacks on nuclear infrastructure. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged restraint even as evacuations across the region strain logistics.

What are the broader implications for Americans? This conflict is not a distant abstraction. Tens of thousands of American service members are now operating across the Middle East while their families watch events unfold at home. Energy markets, financial stability, and geopolitical alliances all intersect at one obscure limestone island in the Persian Gulf. Ignoring Kharg Island means ignoring the nerve center of Iran’s oil economy and overlooking how the outcome of Operation Epic Fury could shape global energy markets, regional stability, and the economic wellbeing of millions of Americans. In a conflict where economics and warfare intersect, Kharg Island may prove to be one of the most consequential pieces of geography on Earth.

The SAVE America Act provides the perfect basis to reach out to the masses.

Election integrity advocates on the Right can too often get bogged down in the details of voting-machine technicalities, complicated hardware, foreign interference and multifaceted conspiracies when reaching out to the general public. All of these things are important, to be sure, but the intricacies are lost on the average voter.

If you are a front-line warrior in the fight against voter fraud, God bless you for fighting through the attacks, the gaslighting and doing your due diligence. But we must understand that not every American is going to take that level of initiative, even those of the patriotic sort. What the public needs to understand is that there is a serious problem with the voting process, and the source of that problem is the Democrats.

The SAVE America Act provides the perfect basis to reach out to the masses. The legislation would require a valid government-issued ID before registering to vote in a federal election, along with clear proof of U.S. citizenship. It would also limit mail-in ballots to specific circumstances such as illness, disability, military service, or travel. If an individual wants to register to vote in the United States, citizenship should be a basic and non-negotiable requirement. It does not make any sense why an individual should be forced to produce an ID in virtually every aspect of life but should not be made to do so in order to vote.

The requirements provided in the SAVE America Act are equivalent to countries throughout the world, including liberal democracies. Countries such as India and Brazil tie voter identification to biometric databases while the U.S. largely relies on self-attestation for citizenship. Germany and Canada require paper ballots when tabulating votes and maintain strict chain-of-custody procedures, while Denmark and Sweden limit mail-in voting to those unable to vote in person. All common-sense requirements that should be standardized everywhere.

The existing U.S. system has vastly expanded mail-in and absentee voting in recent years, with COVID-19 fear used as the excuse to do so. The counting of ballots received after Election Day has also become a regular occurrence, as ballot counts incomprehensibly last for weeks after the election. It is easy for all of these facts to get lost in the noise for voters who are not in tune with the day-to-day machinations of modern politics. But the SAVE America Act allows voters to more easily understand what is happening and puts Democrats on the defensive by pressuring them into taking an aggressive stance on an issue where a vast overwhelming majority of the people are opposed to them.

It is easy to make the argument that clearer rules are necessary to restore confidence and integrity in American elections. The 2020 presidential election killed faith in our system. Everyone can agree on that regardless of whether they are a fraud admitter or a fraud denier. Restoring faith in that system is crucial. Adding foundational safeguards that are popular across the political spectrum is one way to achieve that.

There is only one reason for Democrats and far-left special interest groups to oppose the SAVE America Act: because they want to enable fraud. They know that loosening the system allows them to essentially stuff the ballot box. The illegals who are still floating around in this country by the millions can exploit these loopholes. There are devious left-wing activists who operate under the guise of humanitarianism to help illegals game the system and vote. The SAVE America Act drives a stake through the heart of their schemes in a tactically sound manner. It keeps the issue simple and centered around voter ID. It does not give the Democrats any wiggle room to obfuscate the issue to voters. Either they support voter ID, or they do not. Voter ID is the achilles heel of the Democrats’ fraud scheme.

Once we achieve a big win on the SAVE America Act, it will give us the momentum we need to go after the whole enchilada – the foreign interference, the voting machines, the dubious algorithms, the mail-in fraud, and so forth. This is why it needs to be the top grassroots priority. We need to make sure every Republican votes in favor of the SAVE America Act, and Democrats in swing districts are forced to fold. After it is passed and signed into law, Democrats will fight its implementation tooth and nail, further exposing their true agenda. This is how the election integrity movement breaks through the glass ceiling and begins to make the foundational changes needed to defeat the Democrats’ fraud machine in all 50 states.