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Kristi Noem’s most dedicated aide, who exited the Department of Homeland Security amidst controversy, has not attracted employment interest from major conservative media outlets like Fox News.
Tricia McLaughlin, who served as the chief spokesperson for DHS and left her position shortly before Noem’s dismissal, allegedly sought a role at Fox News as a contributor, according to insights from the Daily Mail.
The 31-year-old has also reached out to other conservative networks such as Newsmax and Real America’s Voice, although no offers have materialized from these platforms.
McLaughlin’s departure in February was shadowed by allegations that her husband, Ben Yoho, unlawfully benefited from a taxpayer-funded, no-bid contract to create border control advertisements featuring Noem.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, McLaughlin refuted claims that she had approached Fox, Newsmax, or Real America’s Voice seeking employment.
McLaughlin was a Fox stalwart during her time at DHS, but her history with the network has done little to help her cause in the wake of Noem’s spectacular sacking by Donald Trump, sources said.Â
‘Fox is pretty picky, and they don’t like to deal with drama,’ one insider told the Daily Mail.
At the center of the brewing storm is McLaughlin’s husband, Yoho, whose Strategy Group company received hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce an ad campaign featuring Noem on horseback at Mount Rushmore in October 2025.
His firm was paid through the ad campaign as a sub-contractor, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, in Washington, DC, on January 22
Group, which is owned by McLaughlin’s husband, received hundreds of thousands of dollars for producing a series of ads including one featuring Noem on a horse at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial during a government shutdown in October 2025
At the center of the brewing storm is McLaughlin’s husband, Ben Yoho, whose Strategy Group company received hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce an ad campaign featuring Noem on horseback at Mount Rushmore in October 2025
The 31-year-old has also approached Newsmax and Real America’s Voice, though she has not received a formal offer from any of the networks, sources told the Daily Mail. McLaughlin has denied ever approaching these outletsÂ
Noem faced an intense grilling from Louisiana Senator John Kennedy over the ad after claiming Trump had personally approved the lavish taxpayer-funded campaign.
Trump swiftly shot down those claims and she was fired within hours, becoming the first cabinet casualty of his second term.
McLaughlin’s attempts to salvage her reputation after Noem’s humiliating ouster from Trump’s cabinet have been met with a muted response from the White House.
A senior White House official, however, told the Daily Mail that Tricia was not pushed out of her job: ‘She told us she was planning to leave on her own and we were actually disappointed to hear that because she was great to work with, and she was a great advocate for the President on TV!’
The DHS inspector general’s office has now launched an official investigation into how the contract was awarded.
A DHS spokesman previously said: ‘DHS has no involvement with the selection of subcontractors.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Fox News for comment.
McLaughlin was a prominent feature on Fox during her tenure at Homeland, appearing on the network during their primetime coverage multiple times a week.
‘Tricia really knows her ‘STUFF!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social in December following one of her appearances.
Fox has a history of hiring former Trump officials as on-air personalities, including the president’s ex-press secretaries Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany.
McLaughlin has had to perform crisis PR work for herself and her husband while pursuing a new media role.Â
McLaughlin has pushed back against numerous journalists and some Republican influencers on social media, demanding they update stories and posts to remove any references to wrongdoing or corruption.
Yoho, meanwhile, is continuing to do work for a network of Republicans in his home state of Ohio, where McLaughlin also grew up
Sources told the Daily Mail that Tricia McLaughlin, the former top spokesperson for Kristi Noem who left DHS in February, has reached out to Fox News about joining the network as a contributor but does not have an offer. McLaughlin denied ever approaching Fox for the job
‘Fox is pretty picky, and they don’t like to deal with drama,’ one insider told the Daily Mail.
While pursuing a new media gig, McLaughlin has had to focus much of her attention lately performing crisis PR work for herself and her husband
Yoho, meanwhile, is continuing to do work for a network of Republicans in his home state of Ohio, where McLaughlin also grew up.
His firm is working on the Ohio House congressional campaign for former ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan, a longtime Noem loyalist who fled the department prior to Tricia’s resignation.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio gubernatorial campaign has also hired Yoho’s firm to produce its first commercial, released Thursday, amid the couple’s swirling scandal, the Daily Mail has learned.Â
Yoho and McLaughlin met initially as staffers on Ramaswamy’s short-lived presidential campaign during the 2024 presidential cycle. The couple celebrated their wedding last summer.