President Donald Trump has tapped former Sen. Markwayne Mullin — a second shot at filling the top job at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump canceled his first choiceKristi Noem, center growing criticism of its leadership and management of the agency.
Mullin, a militant politician turned MMA fighter, was confirmed in his new post on Monday. Now, he’s taking charge of an agency that is disrupting a series of bad messes, from funding freezes causing chaos at U.S. airports to a radical, and often violent, mass evacuation campaign.
Is Mullin the man to clean this all up? Only time will tell. But there are clues in his (fun, often surprising) record. Today, we look at the man newly tasked with overseeing US border security, immigration enforcement and emergency response… at a time when that’s a tough job.
As his first moniker might suggest, Markwayne Mullin has a lot of people. The 48-year-old Republican has worked as a US senator and a plumber. He is a MAGA conservative and an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He is a figurative fighter who once publicly challenged a party leader to a fist fight… and then it continued to be his best friend.
For our purposes, however, it is perhaps more important to understand that Mullin, until his confirmation Monday, was a first-term senator known for his speaking style and his close relationship with Trump. He has friends on both sides of the political spectrum, but no experience in law enforcement.
How did Mullin get into politics?
Mullin was running his family’s plumbing business in Oklahoma when he first ran for Congress in 2012. Mullin was reportedly frustrated that the Affordable Care Act would force him to provide health insurance to his employees, making opposition to the ACA a large part of his platform. He campaigned under the slogan “not a politician, a businessman” – and won with more than 57 percent of the vote.
Mullin served in the Legislature for 10 years before running to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe in 2022. In the Senate, he was the only sitting senator. without a bachelor’s degree and the only one of American origin.
Mullin is fiercely loyal to Trump, who took a deep interest in Mullin’s son after the boy suffered a brain injury. The MP has also been involved in a series of (sometimes unusual) controversies.
What kinds of controversies has Mullin been involved in?
Mullin is one of the richest senators in the country, and the property is valued somewhere $29 million and $97 million in 2024. (Disclosure laws allow lawmakers to report their assets within a range — hence the gap in the number.) Mullin was wealthy when he entered politics, but his wealth has grown since then. His big stock business has attracted special attention from journalists and watchdog groups, who suggest he may benefit from non-public knowledge and say he has sometimes failed to disclose investments.
Mullin has also made headlines for better reasons. In 2021, he tried again to start a bad rescue mission to Afghanistan while the American forces leave. Then there was the time he clashed with Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien to fight during the 2023 Senate committee hearing. Senator Bernie Sanders had to intervene.
Is Mullin expected to bring that chaotic energy to DHS?
No one has a crystal ball, of course. But Mullin beat him the sound of reconciliation during its Senate confirmation hearings. Among other things, Mullin said he would require ICE agents to obtain court warrants before entering private homes in most cases and work in partnership with “sanctuary cities.”
Before being appointed to the DHS job, Mullin was is also reported to work with a friend in the House to craft a bipartisan compromise to end some of ICE’s most controversial new tactics, including enforcement actions in sensitive areas like hospitals, schools and churches. (Mullin, despite his voting record, is known to have close Republican and Democratic friends — some of whom he met in the gymnasium of Congress, where he leads bilateral exercise group.)
So… does that mean things are back to normal now?
Given Mullin’s commitment to Trump and his agenda, you probably shouldn’t expect to see a big face at DHS under his leadership. Mullin is essentially a Trump loyalist, said Reese Gorman, political reporter at NOTUS. in conversation and my colleague Sean Rameswaram: “I don’t think you’ll see much change in the rhetoric or the deportation mission.”
But that mission may look and feel a little different under Mullin. Sen. Martin Heinrich, one of two Democrats supporting Mullin’s confirmation, said he believes the Oklahoma lawmaker cannot be “bullied” by the White House. During his hearing, Mullin also repeatedly he promised working with Democrats.
“My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every day,” he said he said. “My goal is for people to understand that we are out there, we are protecting them, and we are working with them.”
