Five planes from a donor's company: David Fahrenthold on Kristi Noem's final DHS deal
The investigative short drew close to 90,000 views in its first six hours, and its comment section had passed a typical full first day's worth of comments many times over.
The New York Times
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 218,502 views a day, 16 times a normal first day on this channel (13,529).
Why Did the U.S. Buy These Planes?
Most news channels of The New York Times' size are having an ordinary stretch. Forbes Breaking News, TMZ and Daily Mail World sit close to their usual daily pace, and PBS NewsHour and NowThis Impact run a little above theirs. The Times stands apart, with its daily views nearly double what is normal for the channel.
The biggest single reason is a short with a plain question for a title: "Why Did the U.S. Buy These Planes?" In it, investigative reporter David A. Fahrenthold walks through his reporting on a deal the Department of Homeland Security signed in the last hours of Kristi Noem's time as its secretary. The agreement, worth millions, was to buy five aircraft from a company that, according to the description, is owned by one of her political donors. Fahrenthold, who spent years at The Washington Post following the money around Donald Trump's businesses and charity, is on familiar ground here.
The short passed 85,000 views within six hours, and the comments arrived even faster. More than 500 came in over those hours, about ten times what a Times short usually gathers in its whole first day. Most of the comments are about taxpayer money, and many viewers ask whether anyone will answer for the purchase.
It led a busy day for the channel. Vanessa Friedman's verdict on Haider Ackermann's openly sexy Tom Ford collection in Paris came close behind, followed by Brazil's presidential runoff and Ivan Nechepurenko's search for gasoline in Moscow.
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- Channel
- The New York Times
- Subscribers
- 5,290,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 7,295,253
- Channel views, pace per day
- 1,215,433 (on a normal day: 627,063)
- Video published
- October 6, 2026
- Video views so far
- 86,707 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 218,502
The numbers
The figures below show a short that took off within hours and a channel running well ahead of its usual pace.
💡 Test your knowledge
David A. Fahrenthold won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Donald Trump's charitable giving. Which newspaper did he work for at the time?
Fahrenthold won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting at The Washington Post, before he joined The New York Times.
