{"id":618500,"date":"2026-02-26T22:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/618500\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T22:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:36:37","slug":"homeland-security-awarded-250000-contract-to-trump-aligned-consulting-firm-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/618500\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeland security awarded $250,000 contract to Trump-aligned consulting firm | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $250,000 public relations contract to a Republican political consulting firm led by former Trump campaign officials with connections to Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem<\/a>, according to federal records reviewed by the Guardian.<\/p>\n

On 26 September 2025, the DHS posted<\/a> an opportunity for \u201cpublic affairs consulting services\u201d, specifying that the successful applicant would provide \u201cstrategic counsel\u201d to top officials at the department including Noem. The work would also include ensuring that media outlets in \u201calignment with DHS priorities\u201d were present at appearances with Noem, as well as drafting position papers and devising negotiation strategies \u201ctailored to DHS\u2019s priorities in border security, immigration enforcement, and cyber defense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bids were due the next day.<\/p>\n

In a departure from federal procurement guidelines, the description of the work posted by the DHS also demanded partisan loyalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contractor must demonstrate an established track record of promoting Trump administration<\/a> policies in the media,\u201d it stated. Preference would also be given to applicants \u201cwith prior experience in Cabinet-level communications, particularly those who served in a cabinet agency during the first Trump presidency\u201d.<\/p>\n

Four days after the opportunity was made public, the contract was awarded to American Made Media Company (AMMC) LLC, a political consultancy formed<\/a> in early 2025, merging several existing GOP-oriented political operations. The company, based in Arlington, Virginia, is led by veterans of Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaigns: Sean Dollman, deputy director of operations on the 2016 run and chief financial officer in both 2020 and 2024; Nick Trainer, a special assistant to Trump during the first administration and director of battleground strategy in 2020; <\/strong>and Justin Clark, deputy national political director in 2016 and deputy campaign manager in 2020. Clark also served in the first Trump administration as director at both the White House office of public liaison and office of intergovernment affairs.<\/p>\n

AMMC is an avowedly partisan, Republican firm with no apparent record of past government work. Its components include a data and polling agency, a direct mail operation and film production service, the latter having produced ads for the 2024 Trump campaign, former Trump personal physician turned Texas congressman Ronny Jackson and the labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. A similarly named shell company, American Made Media Consultants, was a conduit for $782m in Trump campaign spending in 2020, the Associated Press reported<\/a>; that company was run by AMMC\u2019s Dollman.<\/p>\n

Both of AMMC\u2019s founding partners have previously worked alongside Lewandowski, who served as Trump\u2019s campaign manager in 2016. Following the January 6 insurrection, CNN reported<\/a> that Lewandowski and Clark were also part of the same small team of political advisers working with the then former president. Clark also served as Trump\u2019s attorney, representing the president in litigation aimed at blocking Congress from obtaining White House records related to the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.<\/p>\n

Representatives for AMMC referred the Guardian to Tim Murtaugh, Trump\u2019s 2020 communications director, who suggested he was the primary beneficiary of the award. \u201cI have worked in a variety of capacities with AMMC over the years and I\u2019m working on the DHS contract through them,\u201d he said in a statement. The DHS, he said, \u201cnaturally prefer to engage firms that already support the mission of the department and are familiar with the president\u2019s record and agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

Murtaugh was brought on to the 2024 Trump campaign to work as a senior adviser, and his hiring was announced at the same time as Lewandowski\u2019s. He did not respond when asked to characterize their relationship.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski, in his role as chief adviser to Noem, now reportedly wields significant control over contracts awarded by the DHS.<\/p>\n

Last August, one month before AMMC was awarded its public affairs contract, Politico, citing a Trump administration official and two others at Fema, reported<\/a> that Lewandowski \u201cis involved in green-lighting six-figure contracts at the agency\u201d.<\/p>\n

In February, the Wall Street Journal likewise reported<\/a> that Lewandowski was \u201cdirecting personnel and contracting\u201d, noting that contracts worth more than $100,000 now must be approved by the office of the DHS secretary, a process that \u201chas given Noem and Lewandowski an opportunity to play a bigger role in the department\u2019s spending decisions than is typical for a secretary\u201d. Several DHS officials told the outlet that \u201ccontracts and grants are being awarded in an opaque and arbitrary manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan watchdog group, said that the contract awarded to AMMC appears highly unusual \u2013 even unprecedented.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about fast tracking, the bid was only open for 31 hours, and work began three days later. Speed often results in bad deals for the public,\u201d Amey said. In addition, \u201cthe contract was advertised as pro-Trump firms only, which violates general contracting safeguards against bias and preferential treatment. While we know contracts are often steered to friendly companies, this is the first time I have seen such political bias in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the regulation<\/a> that governs procurement, federal agencies are required to conduct business \u201cwith complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none\u201d. The spending of public funds requires \u201cthe highest degree of public trust\u201d and should \u201cavoid strictly any conflict of interest or even the appearance of a conflict of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Federal records show<\/a> that a total of six bids were received on the contract, which is due to end on 12 June 2026.<\/p>\n

Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University, told the Guardian that it was not the first instance of public funds being steered to allies of those in government, but \u201cit\u2019s usually not so brazen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this over 20 years. I have never seen something [like it],\u201d she said, describing the partisan language as a \u201cblazing red flag of procurement integrity concern\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually considered an integrity red flag when it\u2019s a very, very short turnaround time, because it means you typically have somebody in mind,\u201d she said. \u201cThis openly says it needs to basically be a Trump-supportive entity, which I\u2019ve just never, ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, the DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said that DHS procurements \u201care overseen by the office of the chief procurement officer and are subject to applicable federal procurement laws and oversight, which ensure transparency, maximum competition and the prudent use of taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not surprising that the Department of Homeland Security, which has proved to be an excellent steward of taxpayer dollars under the Trump administration, would requires [sic] any organization tasked with public affairs not only be proven to do the job but also be aligned with the agency\u2019s mission,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $250,000 public relations contract to a Republican political consulting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":618501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-618500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116139326620017579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}