President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he did not sign off on a $220 million border security advertising campaign featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who faced bipartisan criticism over the commercials during U.S. congressional hearings this week.
“I never knew anything about it,” the Republican president told Reuters in a phone interview.
Shortly after his comments to Reuters, Trump posted to Truth Social that Noem would be replaced with Markwayne Mullin, a Republican U.S. senator from Oklahoma.
Noem, a top official overseeing Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, faced scrutiny about the campaign while testifying before congressional panels on Tuesday and Wednesday. Lawmakers from both parties asked about the contract and process to select the companies for the campaign.
