Tricia McLaughlin, the former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who abruptly left the department last month, is reportedly struggling to find a new gig.
McLaughlin, 31, has reached out to Newsmax and Real America’s Voice about getting a role, but has not received an offer from those channels, according to a report in The Daily Mail. The outlet reported on Saturday that McLaughlin has received no job offers in conservative media, despite reaching out to several outlets and being a regular face on right-wing airwaves.
Despite McLaughlin’s frequent appearances on Fox News and the channel’s long history of hiring former Trump administration officials, the Mail reports that her connections have done little to get her a role there.
“Fox is pretty picky, and they don’t like to deal with drama,” one insider told the Mail.
In an emailed statement to the Daily Beast, McLaughlin disputed the report.
“I have not approached any media outlet,” she wrote.
Before becoming a DHS spokesperson, McLaughlin worked in the media.
According to her official biography on the DHS website, McLaughlin was once a political contributor for ABC News. A LinkedIn account that appears to belong to McLaughlin also lists the University of Maryland graduate as having interned at The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd on MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) for 17 months between 2014 and 2015.
McLaughlin was among the staunchest public supporters of Trump’s harsh immigration policies. Trump frequently praised McLaughlin for her TV appearances, writing on Truth Social just after a Fox News hit, “Tricia really knows her ‘STUFF!’”
McLaughlin left DHS in February, at a time when the agency was mired in controversy over the deaths of Minnesota mother Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti, at the hands of the department’s federal agents.
McLaughlin has been embroiled in her own personal controversy as well. Her husband, Ben Yoho, benefited from a $220 million no-bid, taxpayer-funded contract that produced border patrol ads starring Kristi Noem.
That ad was the final nail in the coffin for Noem as leader of the DHS. President Trump fired her two days after she was pressed on Capitol Hill about the pricey ad, which featured her riding horseback in her native South Dakota.
Yoho’s firm was paid through the ad campaign as a subcontractor, which has raised serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
McLaughin has entered crisis comms mode over the reports about her husband’s firm profiting from her connection at DHS, lashing out online at reporters and news outlets, including the Daily Beast, demanding they retract or update their stories.
In the meantime, her husband, whom she referred to as her fiancé in her post trashing the Daily Beast, continues to work at his firm in the couple’s native Ohio.
The firm is also working on former ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan’s congressional campaign in Ohio. Sheahan, a longtime Noem loyalist, fled DHS just before McLaughlin resigned.
Sheahan has come under increased scrutiny this week after reports emerged claiming that she spent millions on 2,500 ICE-branded cars, the vast majority of which have not been used.
