President Trump isn’t the only administration official eyeing a new jet: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is also set to get one under a last-minute addition to the Coast Guard budget.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, blasted the agency for the $50 million line item that “had never been requested or even mentioned before.”
“I was horrified last Friday when we received a last minute addition to your spend plan for fiscal ’25, a new $50 million Gulfstream 5 for Secretary Noem’s personal travel coming from the Coast Guard budget. She already has a Gulfstream 5, by the way, this is a new one,” Underwood said during a Wednesday hearing.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended the request.
“The current CG-101 G550 is over twenty years old, outside of Gulfstream’s service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, said in a statement.
“This is a matter of safety. Much like the Coast Guard’s ships that are well beyond their service life and safe operational usage, Coast Guard’s aircraft are too,” she added. “This Administration is taking action to restore our Nation’s finest maritime Armed Service to a capable fighting force.”
Coast Guard Adm. Kevin Lunday did not respond to a direct question from Underwood about whether he had been asked by higher ups at the DHS to add a request for the plane, but he did defend the need for it.
“It’s old, and it’s approaching obsolescence and the end of its service life, the avionics are increasingly obsolete, the communications are increasingly unreliable, and it’s in need of recapitalization, like much of the rest of the fleet,” he said.
“But this aircraft is necessary to provide the secretary, the deputy secretary, me as the acting commandant, the acting vice and our two area commanders with secure, reliable on demand communications and movement,” he continued.
Funding for a plane for Noem comes after Trump said he plans to accept a $400 million jet paid for by Qatar to serve as Air Force One, after which he plans to retain use of the jet by transferring it to his presidential library.
