After significant pushback from both sides of the aisle and many Americans, Kristi Noem’s tenure as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary is at an end. Her time as secretary could be described as turbulent at best, forever stained by the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, whom she called domestic terrorists, and her authorizing the use of $220 million in taxpayer dollars to run ad campaigns for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), many of which prominently depict her.
Noem is likely the only one distressed by her dismissal, as even staunch Republicans, Senators John Kennedy of Louisiana, and Thomas Roland Tillis of North Carolina, came after her in the recent Senate hearings that shortly preceded her firing. Not dissimilar from Greg Bovino’s removal as head of ICE operations in Minneapolis and then sent back to California to reportedly retire, Noem seems to have been thrown under the bus by the Trump administration and given another role, special envoy for “The Shield of Americas.” Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) has been tapped to succeed Noem, but who is Mullin and is this a cosmetic or structural change for DHS?
Mullin, a former MMA fighter and business owner, is probably best known for his confrontation on the Senate floor with Teamsters’ President Sean O’Brien, after O’Brien had criticized him online. During O’Brien’s Senate hearing, Mullin decided to respond to his criticism, saying, “You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.” The resulting verbal altercation almost turned into a physical one, with Mullin standing up to come towards O’Brien before being stopped by the chairman of the committee, Bernie Sanders.
According to the Hill, the two sat down at President Trump’s request, and ended up talking for hours, O’Brien apologizing and even endorsing Mullin’s candidacy for Secretary of Homeland Security. “If anyone is willing to stand their butt up to protect America, it’s Markwayne Mullin,” he said, referencing their confrontation.
Mullin’s palling with the President of the Teamsters certainly doesn’t give the impression that he is a tow-the-line Republican, tough on immigration. After all, the Teamsters call for “comprehensive immigration reform that includes a rational and reasonable pathway to citizenship for our nation’s 11 million or more undocumented individuals.” Mullin was also one of two GOP senators who aided capital police’s attempts to prevent rioters from gaining entry to Congress on January 6th, and is on the record saying, “They had evil intentions, they had evil in their eyes.”
Although these instances may give the appearance that Mullin frequently breaks party lines, during the most recent session of Congress, the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank responsible for Project 2025, rated him 90% on voting with the organization. Trump himself has dubbed Mullin “a MAGA Warrior,” lending little hope that this means structural change at DHS.
Kica Matos, President of the National Immigration Law Center, said of Mullin’s candidacy, “This is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig, and we must act accordingly. Changing who sits atop Trump’s deportation machine should not dull the resolve of lawmakers who have courageously stood up to demand accountability from ICE and CBP. We cannot allow any more taxpayers dollars to go to ICE and CBP’s lawless attacks on our communities.”
Whether or not the leadership switch represents a substantive change, it seems Mullin will almost certainly be confirmed as Republicans retain control of the Senate and have some bipartisan support in the form of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). Americans are all undoubtedly breathing a sigh of relief that at the very least he isn’t Kristi Noem, or as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. so aptly put it,“Good riddance.”
Image source and credit: Octavio Jones/Getty; Andrew Harnik/Getty
