Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem received her own life-sized bronze statue in South Dakota on Friday.

The monument — depicting Noem wearing a cowboy hat and standing next to a full-sized bronze horse — was added to South Dakota’s Trail of Governors that features 32 life-size bronze statues in Pierre, SD.

With Friday’s unveiling, the official web site declared, “every former chief executive in the state’s history is represented on the walking route. Future governors will receive statues after leaving office.”

Sioux Falls station KELO covered the unveiling and spoke with the former South Dakota Governor.

The reporter asked if Noem found her new position as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas as a continuation of her time at DHS.

“It is. It’s allowing me to use everything that I did at the Department of Homeland Security to go and advise other world leaders on how they can do that same thing in their countries. And it’s interesting, and not only through the Shield getting to work with the Western Hemisphere, I’ve had countries from the Middle East reach out, countries in Europe reach out,” Noem said.

The statue was reminiscent of the quarter-million dollar ad Noem shot in South Dakota while DHS secretary, picturing her wearing a cowboy hat and sitting astride a horse in front of Mt. Rushmore.

The expensive ad was one of the reasons for Noem’s downfall at DHS as she faced a Senate grilling over her spending.

Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Richard Blumental (D-CT) launched a conflict of interest investigation into Noem’s awarding of contracts, including the firms she paid for the ad.

The senators listed the expenses in a release sent out shortly before President Donald Trump removed Noem from DHS, including:

$107,405 Labor costs to The Strategy Group Company
$60,000 “Signing bonus” to The Strategy Group Company
$52,599 Videography, photography, and production vendors
$20,000 Horse rentals
$3,781 Hair and makeup services
$500 Magic Makers, Inc., a magic store based in Sioux Falls, SD
$41,852 Other vendors

The release said the expenses totaled $286,137 to be paid for by taxpayers.

Watch the clip above via South Dakota’s KELO.

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