Married Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has engaged in a years-long affair with longtime Donald Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, multiple sources told The Post Friday.
The liaison emerged one week after Noem, a 51-year-old mom of three, formally endorsed Trump, 77, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, raising the pitch of speculation that the 45th president would pick her as his running mate.
“He’s 100% banging her,” said one person familiar with the relationship between Noem and Lewandowski, first reported by DailyMail.com.
The source added that they personally witnessed Noem “sitting on his [Lewandowski’s] lap” and “playing grab-ass” during an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in December 2020.
“The usual stuff that drunk people who are having affairs do,” the source described the interaction.
A second source told The Post the dalliance has been widely known in Republican political circles for “years,” adding that Noem’s husband is said to have moved out of the governor’s mansion in Pierre roughly two years ago.
A third person told The Post that he and fellow GOP operatives were “well aware” of the fling and suggested the story finally appeared in print thanks to “one of her competitors for VP.”
Both Trump and political pundits have publicly mused for months about potential running mates, with some of the names mentioned including Noem, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), former ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), current GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and hard-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Noem herself was once considered a potential 2024 contender but opted not to enter the race, telling Fox News last month that no Republican could win the nomination as long as Trump was running.
“Why run if you can’t win?” she asked.
On Sept. 8, Noem announced at a rally in Rapid City that she was backing Trump, calling him “the fighter that our country needs.”
“You made America great again once, let’s do it again,” Noem said while introducing the former president. “I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country.”
Lewandowski, 49, was Trump’s first 2016 campaign manager and widely credited with engineering his victory in the 2016 New Hampshire primary, which bolstered the real estate mogul after a loss to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Iowa caucuses.
“You made America great again once, let’s do it again,” Noem said while introducing the former president. “I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country.”
However, Lewandowski’s star began to fade after he was accused of manhandling Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields following a Trump press conference in March 2016.
He was charged with one count of simple battery, which was later dropped.
Lewandowski was dismissed from the Trump campaign three months later, following reported clashes with then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
However, the Massachusetts native remained close to Trump while a private citizen. According to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation, Trump summoned Lewandowski to the Oval Office on June 19, 2017, and ordered him to tell then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to both make a public statement criticizing the probe and direct Mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to future foreign interference in US elections.
Lewandowski arranged a meeting with Sessions, but the AG canceled due to a last-minute conflict. The following month, Trump summoned Lewandowski again and told him that if Sessions did not agree to meet, Lewandowski should tell Sessions he was fired. Lewandowski passed the order to then-White House deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, who pocketed it and did not deliver it to Sessions.
The former campaign operative has been married since 2005 to wife Allison Hardy, but has been accused of numerous affairs and acting inappropriately with high-profile women in the Trump orbit.
In November 2017, pro-Trump singer Joy Villa said Lewandowski had slapped her backside “really hard” at a holiday party. When Villa told him to keep his hands to himself, Lewandowski reportedly told her “Go ahead, I work in the private sector” — then smacked her butt again.