OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — President Donald Trump's plans to nominate Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to take over as Homeland Security secretary follow a notable political rise for the plumbing company owner who was first elected to Congress in 2012.
Mullin, 48, has become one of Trump’s fiercest defenders in the U.S. Senate and is now positioned to join his administration after the president on Thursday fired embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who had come under mounting criticism over her leadership of the department.
A former mixed-martial arts fighter and collegiate wrestler, Mullin has earned a reputation as a fighter in the Senate and has grown friendlier with Trump since they attended an NCAA wrestling event together in Tulsa in 2023.
“Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
Mullin told reporters at the Capitol Thursday that he would get DHS “focused on protecting the homeland.”
“No matter if you support me, you don’t support me, I’m going to be laser-focused on getting that done,” he added.
A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin emerged from a crowded GOP field in 2022 to win Oklahoma's vacant U.S. Senate seat. He was running a successful plumbing company in Oklahoma — known for its red vans with “The Red Rooter” logo on the side — when he first ran for the U.S. House and painted himself as a political outsider fed up with government regulations strangling businesses like his.
He ultimately won the seat representing Oklahoma’s sprawling 2nd District, a rural seat that was once a Democratic stronghold but has become increasingly conservative over the last decade.
His fiery exchanges in the Senate included a 2023 hearing with the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, when Mullin told the union leader to “stand your butt up," before standing from his seat and appearing to take his ring off.
“If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults," Mullin told Sean O'Brien, the union's president, with whom Mullin had previously engaged in a back-and-forth on social media. "We can finish it here.”
Months after his confrontation with O’Brien, the two reconciled. Mullin called the union leader a “new friend.”
The interaction underscored how Mullin is one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders in Congress and often spars with people on social media, but also often is an affable presence in the Capitol. He’s known to walk the halls in a cowboy hat and boots, sometimes bouncing a rubber ball as he chats with reporters.
He’s also a conduit between the White House and Senate Republican leadership and maintains relationships from his days in the House. He still leads workout sessions sometimes in the House gym.
At the State of the Union last month, Mullin took a swipe at a sign held by Rep. Al Green that said “Black people aren’t apes”, a reference to a racist video the president posted that depicted former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle.
During the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Mullin made headlines when he attempted to enter the country from multiple locations and was denied. Mullin said he was trying to help an American family flee Afghanistan.
Mullin initially vowed to only serve three terms in Congress, a promise he later broke when he announced plans to run again, saying then that he “didn't understand politics” when he originally made the initial pledge.
Mullin also has faced criticism for receiving at least $1.8 million from a federal rescue program designed to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.
Data from the U.S. Treasury Department showed four separate businesses owned by Mullin received a total of between $800,000 and $1.9 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. A Mullin spokeswoman said at the time the congressman was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the companies and referred questions to the companies’ chief financial officer.
Mullin has supported legislation important to tribal citizens and advocated for tribal sovereignty, and he stumped for Trump in 2024, describing the president as strong on issues affecting Native communities.
“It is deeply encouraging to have someone with a keen understanding of federal Indian policy, law and justice elevated to such a critical leadership role within a powerful federal agency,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said Thursday.
As a tribal citizen, Mullin could address recent allegations that members of federally-recognized tribes have been targeted by ICE officers, including some documented cases of their detainments and arrests.
Associated Press reporter Graham Brewer in Norman, Okla., contributed to this report.
FILE - Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma., speaks during the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to be Defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks to the press outside of the Capitol, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks with reporters on the steps at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President Donald Trump has fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and says he’ll nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats.
Trump says he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Noem’s departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits.
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Trump’s pick to replace Noem has in the past expressed skepticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of DHS and which the Trump administration has considered shrinking or even eliminating.
“If we have to wait on the federal government to respond, we’re going to be waiting for the rest of our life,” Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told Fox Business in 2024, shortly after Hurricane Helene ravaged parts of North Carolina, Florida, and other states.
“It’s not FEMA that’s going to respond, it’s the local people that are going to respond and we’re going to be fighting with FEMA to get reimbursed if they ever do reimburse,” Mullin said.
llinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat who was critical of Noem and DHS even before ICE agents swarmed Chicago last fall in a sometimes-violent immigration crackdown, offered a blunt reaction.
“Shouldn’t let the door hit her on the way out. It’s frankly not too soon,” Pritzker, who has been mentioned as a presidential candidate in 2028, said, adding his hopes that Mullin will do better.
“It’s a pretty low bar,” he said. “We saw shootings and we saw breaking the law, we saw corruption under Kristi Noem, so, not sure you could do worse.”
“We made clear weeks ago that Kristi Noem must be fired or she would face impeachment. Her well-deserved termination is long overdue, consistent with what we have demanded,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a statement.
Jeffries contended that under Noem “taxpayer dollars have been weaponized by DHS to kill American citizens” and that the secretary “paraded around in a luxury jet and wasted public funds to glorify her ICE Barbie self-image.”
Jeffries promised further action against DHS after Noem’s departure from the agency.
“Kristi Noem’s removal is only the first step towards reforming the lawless Trump DHS. A change in personnel is not sufficient,” said Jeffries, who called for “bold, meaningful and transformational changes.”
Some of the most important immigrant organizations in the U.S. quickly welcomed Noem’s departure as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security but said they did not see her replacement by Sen. Markwayne Mullin as a radical change.
“Keeping communities safe — including those of our immigrant and refugee neighbors — are what should be most important to any government official,” said Beth Oppenheim, CEO of HIAS, one of the oldest refugee organizations in the U.S.
“We call on all leaders in this administration — including the incoming Secretary — to lead with the utmost respect and dignity for the most vulnerable across our country.”
Separately, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of the refugee resettlement organization Global Refuge, said in a statement that her departure is an “opportunity to course-correct.”
“The past year has been marked by policy whiplash, the erosion of long-standing humanitarian protections, and mounting instability for immigrants, employers, and the communities that depend on them,” said Vignarajah.
Common Cause, a bipartisan government watchdog with active members in every U.S. Congressional district fighting for government accountability, said Noem’s removal from DHS “is an important step toward restoring democratic governance” but warns that “the fight is long from over.”
“Kristi Noem’s removal is a hard-won victory for Americans who refused to stay silent,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause. “This is a powerful reminder that in a true democracy, no official is above the law.”
Some immigration advocacy groups are welcoming Noem’s firing but also cautioning that more changes are needed to bring about what they say is needed accountability.
In a statement the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights said her departure is “long overdue.”
“For immigrant communities across the country, her leadership represented a dangerous escalation of policies that treated families and workers as targets rather than as human beings,” the group said.
But they cautioned that removing her was only the first step and said the next secretary must ensure transparency and that agencies within DHS treat immigrants with “basic human respect.”
America’s Voice’s executive director Vanessa Cárdenas said in a statement that Noem’s tenure was “marked by cruelty” but also said that the problem wasn’t just with Noem. They said there needs to be real accountability for organizations like ICE and Border Patrol.
Two days before Noem’s ouster, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered that the secretary could be questioned under oath in a lawsuit opposing staff cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
District Judge Susan Illston’s decision was “very unusual” said Laurie L. Levenson, law professor at Loyola Marymount University’s Loyola Law School.
“It’s an indication that the court was really frustrated because they’re not getting a straight story from the government,” Levenson said.
A coalition led by labor unions sued the Trump administration in January after it didn’t renew expiring contracts for hundreds of term-limited disaster employees.
Illston issued the order after a government attorney Tuesday made statements contradicting a sworn declaration by FEMA’s acting leader, Karen S. Evans.
Noem’s dismissal didn’t necessarily mean she couldn’t still be deposed, said Levenson, though the defendants might argue she no longer represents the government in this case.
Mullin’s nomination will go through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. That panel is chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican whom Mullin recently criticized as a “freaking snake” to a group of voters in Tulsa.
The comment came as Mullin described how Paul - who frequently defects from his own party in foreign policy, federal spending and other matters - proposes legislative measures that could tank a bigger package, such as appropriations bills and a farm bill.
“Rand Paul’s a freaking snake. And I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face,” Mullin said, according to Oklahoma conservative talk show host David Arnett, who wrote about the remarks on his Substack.
Mullin was referring to a 2017 attack in which Paul was assaulted by a neighbor who tackled him and broke several of his ribs in a dispute over lawn maintenance.
The White House press secretary says the administration will work with the Senate to confirm Mullin to replace Noem “as quickly as possible.”
Karoline Leavitt said Mullin was “extraordinarily qualified” for the post. She added that Trump was “grateful” to Noem for “helping usher in the most secure border in American history.”
“President Trump’s immigration agenda is keeping our borders secure and deporting illegal alien criminals from our country, and it will continue without interruption,” Leavitt said in a post on X.
Noem has faced blistering criticism from lawmakers of both parties recently about her handling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of DHS, including a policy that she personally approve agency expenditures of $100,000 or more, which critics say has slowed billions of dollars in disaster reimbursements to states and even delayed emergency response.
“You’ve failed at FEMA,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told Noem during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week in which he lambasted her for delayed funds for Hurricane Helene recovery.
Noem has said FEMA should “ no longer exist as it is ” and has been accused of trying to weaken the agency by slowing reimbursements to states, withholding grant money and cutting staff.
The disaster agency is on its third temporary leader since last January and lost at least 2,445 employees in the period between January and June 2025, nearly 10 percent of its workforce.
Trump said he is appointing Noem to serve as his “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas” as he announced her ouster from DHS.
Trump is gathering with the leaders of 11 Latin American countries for a “Shield” summit on Saturday at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
The name of the gathering is supposed to reflect Trump’s vision for U.S. national security strategy to put a greater emphasis on the Western Hemisphere, as he looks to leverage U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen in the region since the end of the Cold War. The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago have confirmed they’ll attend, according to the White House.
Noem, speaking in Nashville, confirmed she will be at the summit and that Trump will announce “a big agreement” that will detail “how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.”
“Thank you @POTUS Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” Noem wrote on X. She added that she looked forward to working with top administration officials “to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren.”
“In this new role, I will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise, I forged over the last 13 months as Secretary of Homeland Security,” Noem wrote. She also said that, during her tenure, the department “delivered the MOST secure border in American history” and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster rate.”
The post followed Noem making no mention of being ousted during a more than 30-minute address and question-and-answer session at a law enforcement event in Nashville.
Noem made hers the face of immigration enforcement, often putting herself in the center of the action.
She sometimes dressed in a flack jacket and accompanied agents on immigration raids as cameras recorded, though she does not have a law enforcement background.
She also posed in front of a group of shirtless, tattooed men behind bars during a March visit to an El Salvador prison where the Trump administration sent people it accused of being gang members.
Noem spoke for more than 20 minutes, but didn’t mention her firing as she spoke to the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference in Nashville on Thursday.
Even when she began answering audience questions, no one mentioned it. Asked about future law enforcement grants, Noem seemed to suggest that she would continue to be on the job.
“I think your best options for funding alternatives would be through some grants that with the department, we have specific grants towards, terrorism grants,” she said at one point. “So maybe what I’ll do is I will forward those grant opportunities to all of you so that you can share them with your departments and have that opportunity.”
Mullin would take over the third largest department in government that has responsibility for carrying out Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. And he takes the office at a pivotal time for that agenda.
Immigration enforcement during the first year of Trump’s administration was largely defined by high-profile, made-for-social-media operations with flashy names that were often led by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who reported directly to Noem.
Noem herself often went out on those operations, riding along with officers when they went out to make arrests.
But those high-profile operations in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, often led to clashes with activists and protesters that were captured on video and drove opposition to the president’s immigration agenda.
That culminated with the shooting deaths in Minneapolis after which Trump sent in his border czar Tom Homan to take direct control of the operation in Minneapolis. Bovino was also reassigned.
Noem is the first Trump Cabinet member to be ousted from her post, but the president lining up a new job for her is actually part of a trend.
Trump announced that Noem will become a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas.” That’s a new security initiative that the president said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Former national security adviser Mike Waltz was nominated as United Nations ambassador after he mistakenly added a journalist to a Signal chat discussing military plans last year.
Trump also tapped IRS Commissioner Billy Long to be his ambassador to Iceland after Long contradicted the administration’s messaging in his less than two months in the job.
And Trump said in August that State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce would be deputy representative to the U.N. after leaving the State Department.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks to the press outside of the Capitol, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, Wednesday, March 4, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
