Noem wanted to buy Spirit Airlines planes - except the airline didn't own them...and they didn't have engines

Source: The Independent

Saturday 08 November 2025 09:59 EST


Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered Spirit Airlines jets before realizing the airline didn’t own the planes — and that those aircraft didn’t have engines, according to a report. Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski planned on using the ten 737 planes from Spirit to increase the number of deportation flights — as part of President Donald Trump’s agenda — as well as to use them for their own travel, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The Trump administration is on pace to deport 600,000 immigrants by the end of the year, the DHS said in September.

Some warned the pair that the proposal would be much more expensive than hiring additional flight contractors, the sources said. Throwing another wrench into the pair’s plans, Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy for the second time in August, didn’t own the planes and the jets’ engines would need to be purchased separately.

The effort has since been put on hold, the Journal reported. The Independent has contacted DHS and Spirit for more information. However, at some point during the longest-ever government shutdown, DHS purchased two Gulfstream jets for $200 million, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said last month.

“It has come to our attention that, in the midst of a government shutdown, the United States Coast Guard entered into a sole source contract with Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation to procure two new G700 luxury jets to support travel for you and the Deputy Secretary, at a cost to the taxpayer of $200 million,” Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Lauren Underwood said in a letter to DHS in October.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/kristi-noem-spirit-planes-dhs-b2861396.html