In the small South Dakota town where everybody knows Kristi Noem and her family, some neighbors refused to believe that the recently published crossdressing pictures of her husband are real.
A bombshell Daily Mail report Tuesday suggested that Byron Noem, who has been married to Kristi Noem for nearly 34 years, engaged in a “bimbofication” fetish and reported that he sent tens of thousands of dollars, along with photos of him seeking a “Barbie doll”-like appearance, to various female models online.
In one image, the 56-year-old is wearing pink hotpants and a skin-toned spandex top stuffed with balloons to resemble comically large breasts.
Residents of Castlewood, a tiny town that is part of the wider community of Watertown, who have known the Noems for decades, were in disbelief over the photographs but also expressed great sympathy for Bryon Noem.
“Must be A.I.,” cattle rancher Kevin Ruesink told The New York Times. “I grew up playing ball with Bryon,” he said with a hint of “suspicion and pity” after a reporter at the newspaper showed him the photographs of Bryon Noem. “I’ve never known him to be part of stuff like that. I don’t believe that at all.”
Other neighbors portrayed Bryon Noem as a supportive spouse who shied away from being in the limelight that his wife seemed to enjoy as Homeland Security Secretary — before she was ousted last month by President Donald Trump over a multi-million dollar ad campaign.
In one anti-immigration ad, in which the taxpayer paid tens of thousands of dollars for the 54-year-old’s makeup and props, Kristi Noem appeared on horseback against the backdrop of Mount Rushmore.
“People know Bryon as the supportive husband who worked to maintain a normal family life as Kristi’s profile skyrocketed,” real estate appraiser and newspaper columnist Brad Johnson told The Times. “It shows the price of power and fame is very high. But, Kristi invited this type of coverage by her actions at the Department of Homeland Security.”
The Noems were high school sweethearts and have three adult children and several grandchildren. Locals said that they would occasionally spot the couple around town, dining out at a restaurant or attending the odd birthday party.
At a local gas station, an unnamed local reportedly “shook his head sorrowfully” and “didn’t know what to believe” about Bryon Noem.
“Such a nice man,” he told the outlet. “It just tears me up.”
Nancy Turbak, a former Democratic state senator who knows the family and works in Watertown, expressed sympathy for Bryon Noem, who runs a local insurance business.
“He never asked for the public life in the first place, and I know him to be a kind and decent man,” Turbak told the newspaper. “I wish he were not going through this.”
The Independent has contacted Bryon Noem for comment.
He declined to comment to The Times but hinted he could break his silence on the matter “at some point” in a text message to the outlet.
National security experts told the Daily Mail that Bryon Noem’s activities left the outgoing secretary “vulnerable to blackmail,” because the compromising photographs could have been intercepted by “hostile intelligence services.” Bryon Noem denied this notion to the outlet.
A spokesperson for Kristi Noem claimed the former Homeland Security chief was “blindsided” by the report, and asked for “privacy and prayers.”
Their marriage was reportedly the talk of the town well before the embarrassing photos of Bryon Noem dropped, and locals watched news coverage of Kristi Noem’s congressional testimony.
Bryon Noem sat behind his wife as she was grilled by lawmakers in early March, where she gave a performance that ultimately ended her time in Trump’s cabinet.
During the congressional hearings, Kristi Noem was probed about accusations of conducting a taxpayer-funded affair with her former aide Corey Lewandowski, who has since left the Department of Homeland Security.
Both Kristi Noem and Lewandowski have vehemently denied suggestions that they had an affair, with the former previously describing the rumors as “tabloid garbage” at a House hearing. She also described the accusations as a “disgusting lie.”
The Daily Mail also reported that one of the women Byron Noem interacted with online asked the former DHS chief’s husband about the alleged affair.
“I asked him about it and his response was, ‘I know. There's nothing I can do about it,"' she told the Mail.
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