Following on the heels of news of "Whiskey Pete" Hegseth's luxury spending spree at the Pentagon, it's being reported that recently defenestrated "Border Barbie" Noem spent millions of taxpayer dollars on custom-painted ICEmobiles that aren't being used:
After spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a fleet of new vehicles with Donald Trump-inspired paint jobs, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents reportedly don’t want to drive them.
Last summer, a slick promotional video captured a Ford Raptor pickup truck and GMC Yukon SUV rolling around Washington, D.C., with music from DaBaby playing over close-up images of navy blue paint jobs with red-and-white racing stripes and a gold seal.
The words “defend the homeland” appear on the side, and “President Donald J. Trump” is printed in gold on a rear window.
Homeland Security’s preview of its new fleet — with paint jobs designed to look like the president’s private jet — cost more than $700,000. The government ultimately spent more than $2 million buying up hundreds of new cars with custom wraps, according to contracts reviewed by The Independent.
But officers don’t want them, according to The Washington Examiner.
“ICE has never had marked vehicles,” one person familiar with the purchases told the outlet. “In talking to people, they’re like, ‘We don’t want to use these, we can’t.'”
Another said it’s “ridiculous” to drive marked cars because “you don’t want to advertise what you’re doing.”
“We’re just hiding them in a parking garage somewhere because we don’t want to drive them,” the person reportedly told the outlet. “Who wants to drive the marked vehicles?”
Roughly 25 newly delivered ICE vehicles are sitting at an immigration detention facility in California, unused, according to the Examiner. [snip]
One contract for a pair of high-performance Mustang GT Fastback coupes was “an immediate request by the White House,” according to another federal procurement document reviewed by The Independent.
Another no-bid contract awarded $2.25 million to a company owned by a prolific Republican donor, whose firm supplied 25 Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs. The contract, skirting a competitive bid process, was awarded to the company because of an “unusual and compelling urgency.” [snip]
The purchases were reportedly directed by now-former ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan, who left the agency to run for a congressional seat in Ohio.
Sheahan was among several top DHS officials to leave the agency in recent months; last week, the president fired Secretary Kristi Noem, who is stepping down March 31, and Noem’s top deputy Tricia McLaughlin left the agency last month.
ICE leadership is now trying to amend open orders for new cars and trucks to leave out the pain jobs, according to the Examiner... (our emphasis)
A $225 million inside job pr campaign starring Noem apparently got her fired; then there's that multi-million dollar taxpayer funded flying love nest she shared with her married boyfriend. Now we have another sketchy no-bid contract for a Republican donor's company to supply the ICEmobiles that can't be used (maybe a silver lining). It goes without saying that, in any other administration, both this and the "Whiskey Pete" spending spree -- while Americans are struggling in the MF's economy -- would be top news stories for days if not weeks -- but, wait, there's that Operation Epic Epstein Fury taking up all the oxygen.
This is a smash-and-grab, pay-to-play, "Epstein class" regime of morons, crooks, grifters, and self-dealers (all in the cult leader's image!) of world-historic caliber whose only interest in government is to sate themselves at the public trough. We can only wonder, for now, what other grand thefts and misuse of tax dollars have been and are being committed by them.
BONUS: Here's what their idea of a competent scourge of waste, fraud, and abuse is.
(Photo: they forgot the clown horn; one of the Trumpy ICEmobiles / DHS)
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