Trump Wants a New Plane. Now, So Does Homeland Security Secretary Noem.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem testifies before the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security on May 6.
President Donald Trump is not the only one in his administration seeking a new plane. The Department of Homeland Security is planning on a new Gulfstream V, an agency official confirmed Wednesday, after the anticipated acquisition spilled into public view during a congressional oversight hearing.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois) questioned the spending plan during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the U.S. Coast Guard and in a social media post, contending that the aircraft would be primarily used by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Underwood said the funding, which she placed at $50 million, would be taken from the budget of the Coast Guard, which is overseen by the DHS.
'She already has a Gulfstream 5, by the way, but she wants a new one paid for with your taxpayer dollars,' Underwood wrote on X. Referring to the Coast Guard, Underwood added: 'We should be investing in our national security and improving the lives of our Coasties – not wasting taxpayer dollars on luxury travel and political stunts.'
At the hearing, Underwood asked Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting Coast Guard commandant, whether he had received any communication from his DHS superiors about a new plane for Noem. He did not directly answer the question, saying that the Coast Guard has two long-range military command and control aircraft.
Lunday described the Coast Guard's aircraft fleet as aging and said Noem's plane is 'approaching obsolescence.' Such aircraft are necessary for top DHS and Coast Guard officials, he said, to ensure reliable communications and travel plans.
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant DHS secretary, defended the planned Gulfstream acquisition, saying the agency's aircraft are 'well beyond their service life and safe operational usage.' In a statement, she said the current Gulfstream is more than 20 years old, making it 'well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.'
The Coast Guard has generally kept two Gulfstream jets in service for use both by admirals and senior civilian officials at DHS. Its older executive jet, a C-37A, is based on the Gulfstream V model and began flying with the Coast Guard in 2002, according to government records.
The military service ordered a new executive jet, the Gulfstream 550, in 2020 at a cost of about $66 million and began using it two years later, officials said at the time. It's designated a C-37B.
The request for a new executive jet comes after years of the Coast Guard raising concerns about the age of its search-and-rescue planes, helicopters, and other equipment. Many of them were first put into use in the 1980s and 1990s, the independent Government Accountability Office found last year.
The disclosure of the DHS's interest in a new jet comes as Trump has been advocating for a pair of new aircraft to act as Air Force One, the designation given to specially equipped and fortified jets that ferry the president. Trump has been seeking a new model from Boeing since his first term, but production delays have set back the expected delivery time, prompting criticism from the president.
This week, Trump has faced criticism from Democrats for saying he plans to accept a $400 million Boeing 747-8 as a gift from the government of Qatar. During a visit to the Middle East, the president said he would use the plane for a 'couple of years' while he waits for a pair of Boeing planes to be completed.
Ethics experts have raised concerns that such a donation from a foreign government would be unconstitutional, violating the emoluments clause, which forbids U.S. officials to accept gifts or other things of value from foreign officials without congressional approval.
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While we do not discuss details, our conversations always focus on the benefits we believe we bring to the communities where we operate, including the Eastern Mediterranean,' Chevron said when asked if it had requested U.S. government help. The administration continues to leverage trade talks for broader gains. McCoy Pitt, the senior official in the State Department's international organization affairs bureau, wrote the secretary of state this month about linking trade talks with hopes of killing a global climate change deal. Pitt urged Rubio to approve a strategy before a scheduled October vote by members of the International Maritime Organization on limiting greenhouse gas emissions by large container ships. The U.N. agency in April approved draft regulations, which the State Department memo described as a 'global carbon tax.' Pitt's memo, titled 'Protecting U.S. Shipping Interests by Defeating the International Maritime Organization's 'Net-Zero Framework,'' said that as part of any trade deal with the U.S., countries 'are instructed' or 'would be expected' to vote against the IMO proposal. Through an online portal, the State Department said: 'We do not comment on purportedly leaked documents. We do, however, look forward to the story on how the Trump Administration is using reciprocal trade negotiations to benefit and fight for the American people.'
