Digging into Kristi Noem's credit card expenses: Inauguration, book tour & a hunting trip
Check out The Dakota Scout’s review of notable charges lining $750,000 worth of charges on state-issued cards during U.S. Homeland Security secretary’s six years as South Dakota governor
With about $750,000 billed to former Gov. Kristi Noem’s state-issued credit cards during her six years in office, there was no shortage of colorful excursions.
From book tours to hunting trips, South Dakota taxpayers shouldered some of the expenses related to Noem’s travel, whether she was on official state business or not.
The South Dakota State Auditor’s Office agreed to release the receipts and credit card statements of Noem’s spending to The Dakota Scout. Here is just a sampling of some of those expenses:
Biden inauguration
Noem attended Joe Biden’s inauguration in January of 2021. Her room at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C., cost taxpayers $1,974 for several days, while a security detail stayed in rooms that were $100 a night more than the governor’s. Lodging in Washington for security was $8,818, and there were several hundred dollars in other lodging expenses in hotel rooms attributed to security and $1,081 in car rentals for the inauguration.
Airfare receipts show Noem flew with her daughter to the inauguration from a separate trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, arriving Jan. 17 at the Capital. A note on the airfare receipt said, “Do not pay” for Noem’s daughter.
Other expenses include food and $122.36 at Dick’s Sporting Goods for “inauguration cold weather gear.”
All told, the billing cycle on the governor’s Premier Bankcard that included the inauguration came in at more than $17,000.
Disastrous book tour
The former governor had high hopes that her second book in two years – “No Going Back” – would elevate her national standing at a time when she was rumored to be on Donald Trump’s shortlist for vice president in the spring of 2024. However, it ended up cratering those ambitions. First, she recounted an incident about shooting a dog – an account that had the rare effect of unifying dog lovers across the political spectrum. Then, The Dakota Scout broke the news that she included an improbable account of meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the book. These stories came out on the cusp of a publicity tour that Noem took to promote the book on the East Coast.
After a series of national interviews went south, Noem canceled her remaining interviews in early May and abandoned the book tour, blaming “bad weather” back home in South Dakota.
Records show that at least $727 in airfare was billed for her security detail, as well as another $7,038 in lodging for the detail at the Thompson Central Park Hotel in New York City, and another $1,790.48 in vehicle rentals. Within a few days of ending the book tour, her card was being used in Orlando, Florida.
Canadian hunting trip
In May 2023, Noem traveled to Canada where she went on a hunting trip guided by Safari River Outfitters. The Saskatchewan guiding service has, according to its website, “built a reputation as a first-class Canadian hunting destination for trophy white-tailed deer, monster black bears and moose.”
The outfitters were apparently successful in leading Noem, and her niece, to a successful bear hunt. Both posed on social media in photos with a harvested bear during the outing. It wasn’t clear if it was the same bear or different bears. At the time of the hunt and subsequent social posting, Noem was positioning herself as a potential head of the National Rifle Association.
It's unclear what taxpayers paid here. The trip was part of an auction for the Second Century Habitat Fund that took place during the 2021 Pheasant Hunt. A security detail charged more than $1,000 in lodging expenses and gas, but the price of the airfare could not be located among the thousands of pages of records.
Hamburgers and coffee
It wasn’t all airfare and hotels for Noem’s credit card. She – or her staff – frequently used the card to purchase food. State employees on state business are entitled to a per diem to cover food and lodging, and one of the most frequent places Noem stopped was Culver’s and Starbuck’s.
While on the road, her card was used to bill more than $1,365 at those dining establishments.
House maintenance
Noem’s records weren’t the only ones released by the Auditor’s Office. They also included the final year of credit card receipts on Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s state-issued Citibank card.
Daugaard also traveled to out-of-state meetings, but much less frequently than Noem. His trips in the final year were exclusively to meetings for groups such as the National Governor’s Association, economic development recruitment and one meeting in New York with ratings agency officials. Daugaard was particularly proud of the AAA-credit rating that South Dakota was upgraded to during his time as governor.
Other expenses showed more of his daily priorities. On May 26, 2018, the governor went to the True Value hardware store in Custer. There, he bought items including electrical tape, felt pads, a mini chopping mat, fasteners and a push broom. The receipt was labeled “supplies for Valhalla,” the Black Hills summer home that former Gov. and Sen. Peter Norbeck left to the state. Total cost: $87.46.
Next day, Daugaard’s card was used to purchase three dishtowels for Valhalla at Legion Lake Convenience Store. The dishtowels had a bison logo. They cost $19.62.
Wooing firearms
Gov. Kristi Noem and her predecessors made no secret about their desire to lure firearm and ammunition manufacturers to a state that embraces hunting and the Second Amendment. To that end, Noem and staff went at least two times to the industry’s premier trade show in Las Vegas, known as the Shot Show.
On the 2024 trip, the Governor’s Office billed nearly $15,000 in lodging expenses – almost all of that expense at The Venetian Resort – a resort that frequently showed up in the governor’s records. There was more than $6,200 in other related travel costs, excluding food.
The receipts indicate that the office paid for a conference room – presumably to meet with economic development prospects.
Dental veneers
Following a previously undisclosed bicycle accident several years ago that damaged her teeth, Noem and her husband flew to Houston, Texas, to have her teeth evaluated by specialist dentists at Smile Texas, a clinic that specializes in dental veneers and cosmetic dentistry.
The clinic is based in Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Noem, in a testimonial that she did for the clinic in 2024, said she flew to Houston, arriving at 2 a.m. with her husband, Bryon. They left the next week and then returned seven days later.
“It was amazing to me how flexible this team was with my schedule and they are that way with everyone,” Noem said in the testimonial.
It’s unclear when those trips took place. The governor’s credit card was billed in Houston and Sugar Land on two separate trips in 2022 – once in May when she spoke at the NRA’s annual convention. And in March 2022, a security detail billed $3,510 for eight room nights at the Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa and spent another $1,285 on a rental car. In April, another car rental for $344 plus $59.67 was billed in Sugar Land. None of the receipts indicate why the detail was in Houston and Sugar Land.
She was back in the area in April of 2024, when she taped her testimonial on behalf of Smile Clinic. Records show her credit card was billed $714.61 for a rental car. A security detail spent $743 on lodging at a Best Western Hotel, and another $943 at the Houstonian.
RADICAL IDEA: Let's elect a governor that focuses ONLY on SD issues.
None of these trips seem to have anything to do with helping the average SD taxpayer.
Worse, some of them, like the Western Governors Association, seem to be hunting grounds for lobbyists.
Someone should look into exactly what goes down at those meetings.
She needs to pay back anything that was for personal gain, like a book tour, a bear hunt, cosmetic procedures, etc.! She lived large on hard working people’s dime! Shame on her!