The pilot had flown powerful people before. Cabinet secretaries, senior aides, the kinds of political figures who expect a certain level of deference. What he probably did not expect, according to a new report, was to lose his job over a missing blanket.
Yet that is what allegedly happened aboard a U.S. government aircraft used by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her long-rumoured confidant, Corey Lewandowski. The Wall Street Journal reports that Lewandowski — a senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the man widely alleged to be Noem's off‑the‑books partner — ordered a Coast Guard pilot fired because a blanket belonging to Noem failed to make it onto their replacement plane.
In the hierarchy of Washington misconduct, sacking a pilot over a piece of bedding sounds almost comically petty. But as with most farcical episodes in politics, it reveals something far less funny about power, entitlement and who pays for both.
The blanket incident unfolded when Noem, 54, was forced to switch planes due to a maintenance problem, according to people familiar with the episode. The blanket she had been using did not get transferred to the second aircraft. Lewandowski, 52, reportedly reacted by dismissing the U.S. Coast Guard pilot on the spot.
There was, however, a practical snag with this show of authority: there was no one else available to fly them home. The pilot, the Journal reports, was quietly reinstated.
The Daily Beast, which first highlighted the account, said requests for comment to the Coast Guard and DHS went unanswered. A DHS spokeswoman speaking to the Journal did not address the blanket story directly, instead offering the line that Noem has 'made personnel decisions to deliver excellence'. It is a clever bit of bureaucratic phrasing, if not exactly a comforting one for anyone who might forget her travel accessories.
The anecdote appears in a broader Journal investigation into Noem's conduct at DHS, where she serves inDonald Trump's Cabinet after a bruising spell as governor of South Dakota. It adds an almost absurdist coda to a growing portrait of a Cabinet secretary who seems unbothered by how her travel, spending and inner circle look from the outside.
The blanket story might have vanished as a gossipy footnote were it not for the aircraft involved. Noem and Lewandowski have apparently been travelling on a Boeing 737 MAX leased by DHS — a plane originally earmarked for 'high-profile deportations', according to people familiar with the matter.
Instead, staff have taken to calling it Noem's 'big, beautiful jet'. The nickname is not affectionate.
The department is expected to buy the aircraft outright for around $70 million, roughly double the price tag of the seven other planes being purchased for deportation flights. A DHS spokesperson told the Journal the 737 is being used both for removals and for Cabinet‑level travel, and argued that it is cheaper than using military aircraft for these missions. Typically, chartered commercial planes, not military jets, are used to carry out deportations.
Source: International Business Times UK
