WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is on track to confirm Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary, President Donald Trump's nominee to take over the embattled department after firing Kristi Noem amid a public backlash over the administration's immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations.
Mullin, a Republican senator from Oklahoma known for his close friendship with Trump, has tried to present himself as a steady hand, saying that his goal as secretary would be to get the department off the front page of the news. But he tangled with the Republican chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, who questioned Mullin's character and temperament during last week's combative confirmation hearing.
Senators advanced Mullin's nomination on Sunday during a rare weekend session on a largely party-line vote, and confirmation is expected late Monday.
He would take the helm of the Department of Homeland Security at a difficult time. The department's routine funding has been shut down, leading to long waits at U.S. airports during the busy spring break travel season, as Democrats demand changes in immigration enforcement operations following the deaths of two U.S. citizens during protests this year in Minneapolis.
Trump announced over the weekend he's ordering immigration officers to help Transportation Security Administration agents, which lawmakers and others warned could escalate tensions at crowded airports.
While the senator comes to the position after more than a dozen years in Congress, and with the management experience of running an expanding family plumbing business in Oklahoma, he has not been seen as a key force in immigration issues.
A former mixed martial arts fighter and collegiate wrestler who has led early-morning workout sessions in the members-only House gym, he became close with members of both parties and is often seen as a negotiator in partisan Washington.
It is his loyalty to Trump that landed him the job, and he’s not expected to sway from the president’s approach. Mullin was a strong supporter of Trump’s immigration agenda and ICE officers before being tapped for the DHS job.
“I can have different opinions with everybody in this room, but as secretary of homeland I’ll be protecting everybody,” Mullin said during his confirmation hearing.
Mullin’s first challenge will be to restore routine funding to the department that has been blocked since mid-February when Democrats demanded that immigration officers face tighter restraints. They want immigration officers to identify themselves and not wear masks; refrain from enforcement operations around schools, churches, hospitals and other sensitive locations; wear body cameras; and obtain a judge's approval on warrants before entering people's homes or private spaces.
At his confirmation hearing last week, Mullin sought to portray himself as a steady hand at a pivotal time for the agency — an image that was challenged by the committee chairman, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, in a heated exchange. Democrats are also skeptical, seeing him as a loyal executor of Trump’s agenda.
Paul voted against Mullin in committee and did not vote Sunday when Mullin's nomination advanced on a vote of 54-37, with Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico joining most Republicans.
Mullin comes into office at a time when public support for the president’s immigration agenda has fallen after a year of high-profile operations in multiple American cities. Under Noem’s leadership, officers were accused of using force to arrest immigrants, detaining them in squalid conditions and bypassing due process to rapidly deport immigrants.
He did walk back some of his comments during his confirmation hearing, saying he was wrong to malign protester Alex Pretti after he was shot and killed by an ICE officer and said that as secretary he would refrain from making judgments before an investigation is carried out.
He shed light on other ways he might influence policy when it comes to immigration. For example, he said that officers would be required to use a warrant signed by a judge — not the administrative warrants now used by ICE officers — to enter a house except in rare circumstances.
He acknowledged the concerns some communities have over building massive ICE detention facilities in their neighborhoods and said cutting off federal funds to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that don’t work with ICE would be a last resort.
But ultimately, it is the White House that sets the agenda when it comes to how Trump’s vision for immigration enforcement is carried out, and Mullin is expected to follow its lead. Trump faces a strong lobby within the GOP pushing him to make good on his promise to deport 1 million people a year.
Mullin will also have his hands full charting a new course at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has come under scrutiny as it delivers disaster aid to parts of the country hard-hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters.
A growing number of critics, even fellow Republicans, said Noem’s policy of personally approving contracts over $100,000 slowed disaster response, and the department still doesn’t have a full-time administrator.
Mullin presented a fresh approach on federal emergency management during his Senate confirmation hearing, rejecting the idea of eliminating FEMA and saying he would revoke Noem’s contract approval rule.
FILE - This photo combination shows, from left, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in Washington, March 18, 2026, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.,. March 18, 2026 on Capitol Hill in Washington and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Tom Brenner, file)
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., President Donald Trump's pick for Homeland Security secretary, testifies during Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing, Wednesday, March 18, 2026 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, saying the U.S. would hold off on strikes against Iranian power plants for five days.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social site hours ahead of his self-imposed deadline later in the day.
Writing in all capital letters, he said the U.S. and Iran have had “very good and productive conversations” that could yield “a complete and total resolution” in the war. Talks would continue “throughout the week,” he said.
Trump added that the suspension of his threat to attack power plants was “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”
Trump did not elaborate on the negotiations that had taken place. Iran did not immediately acknowledge any talks between the countries, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did say he spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has been an intermediary before in negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
Trump’s announcement came as the United Arab Emirates reported its air defense were attempting to intercept new incoming Iranian fire Monday afternoon.
Earlier Monday, Iran warned it would strike electricity plants across the Middle East and mine the Persian Gulf after Trump threatened to bomb power stations in the Islamic Republic if it did not reopen the strait.
The war, now in its fourth week, has already seen several dramatic turning points — the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, the bombing of a key Iranian gas field, and strikes targeting oil and gas facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Gulf Arab nations. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging, and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors.
Trump’s ultimatum and Iran’s promise of retaliation threatened to raise the stakes yet again, with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians across the region.
If carried out, the attacks could cut electricity to wide swaths of people in Iran and around the Gulf and knock out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water. There are also increasing concerns about the consequences any of strikes on nuclear facilities.
The fever pitch of the rhetoric shows how the war has spiraled to a point unimaginable at the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran.
Trump said the U.S. would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours — a deadline that would expire late Monday Washington time but has now been extended.
Iran has shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped along with other important commodities, in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes. A trickle of ships has gotten through, and Iran insists the crucial waterway remains open — just not to the U.S., Israel or their allies.
The chokehold has wreaked havoc on energy markets, pushed up the prices on food and other goods well beyond the Middle East and sent shock waves throughout the global economy.
“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” said Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard promised retaliation if Trump made good on his threat, saying Iran it would hit power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran would consider vital infrastructure across the region to be legitimate targets, including energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.
Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles targeting Dimona in Israel, near a facility key to its long-suspected atomic weapons program. The Israeli facility wasn’t damaged.
United States Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper, meanwhile, claimed in an interview that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas, and suggested those areas would be targeted.
“You need to stay inside for right now,” Cooper told Iranian civilians in the interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International that aired early Monday.
In his first one-on-one interview since the war started, Cooper said the U.S. and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s capabilities to rebuild its military.
“It’s not just about the threat today,” he said. “We’re eliminating the threat of the future.”
Israel launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in the afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit.
With the U.S. deploying more amphibious assault ships and additional Marines to the Middle East, Iran warned against any ground attack.
“Any attempt by the enemy to target Iran’s coasts or islands will, naturally and in accordance with established military practice, lead to the mining of all access routes ... in the Persian Gulf and along the coasts,” Iran’s Defense Council warned said in a statement.
The widespread use of mines could imperil not only military vessels but scores of commercial ships waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and a cleanup would last long after the conflict ends.
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also has said that he retains all options. Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.
Israel has also targeted the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon during the war, while the group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
In recent days, Israel has hit many apartment buildings in Beirut and bombed bridges over the Litani river in the Lebanon's south.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the targeting of bridges “a prelude to a ground invasion,” while Egypt denounced the strikes as the "collective punishment” of civilians for the actions of Hezbollah.
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.
Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trading, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, at around $113 a barrel, up some 55% since the war began.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior United Nations official, said the world has already seen a ripple effect, including “exponential price hikes in oil, fuel and gas” that have had a far-reaching impact on millions, primarily in Asian and African developing countries.
“There is no military solution,” he said.
In another sign of the far-reaching effects, South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said Monday it had to shut down a major industrial plant because the war had disrupted supplies of naphtha, a petroleum product used in plastic manufacturing.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. AP writers Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, Sally Abou AlJoud and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Missiles launched from Iran streak across the sky over central Israel, early Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A man waves an Iranian flag during a campaign in support of the government as a woman and vehicles pass by at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman waves an Iranian flag during a campaign in support of the government at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke and flames rise from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
A cargo ship carrying vehicles sails through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz in the United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo)
People follow a truck carrying the flag draped coffins of Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of his comrades Amir Hossein Bidi , during their funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
