Major changes are underway at the top of the Department of Homeland Security.
In the first Cabinet reshuffle of his second term, President Donald Trump has tapped Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin (R) to take the lead on his “mass deportation” goals. The changes come after Kristi Noem was fired as Homeland Security secretary. Mullin’s Senate confirmation hearing will take place next week.
Mullin, a militant politician turned MMA fighter, has established himself as a political outsider in Congress — and MAGA’s most loyal. Trump’s new Homeland Security pick comes after Noem’s leadership came under increased scrutiny following the murders of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents.
As DHS finds itself in the midst of controversy, funding battles, and public anger, what will Mullin’s appointment bring to the agency?
“If you look at most of Trump’s Cabinet secretaries, he doesn’t go with the best choices sometimes,” Reese Gorman, political reporter at NOTUS, told me. Today, It’s Explained. “In fact, Trump tends to choose people he likes and who would give him credibility. That is one of the main things that Trump looks for when he appoints people to the Cabinet.”
Gorman has covered Mullin’s political rise for years. He joined Today, It’s Explained host Sean Rameswaram to explain who Mullin is and what his vision might be for the future of the Department of Homeland Security.
The following is part of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s more throughout the episode, so tune in Today, It’s Explained wherever you find podcasts, incl Apple Podcasts, Pandoraand Spotify.
We have to start with his name, Markwayne. Where does that come from?
So his two uncles were called Mark and Wayne and they combined the names to become Markwayne. And at one point, his parents thought they were going to drop one of them, but he just kept them. And it’s a very Oklahoma name, Markwayne Mullin.
And what is its origin story? How did he enter politics?
So Markwayne Mullin is a member of the Cherokee Nation, one of the few Native Americans in Congress. That is something he is very proud of that he talks about a lot. He is also from Stilwell, Oklahoma, which is one of the poorest cities in the United States. He grew up there…and he never graduated college, he has an associate’s degree, he started a plumbing company.
And as someone who went to college there and worked there for a while, I would see Mullin Plumbing trucks all over the state.
It is one of the largest plumbing companies in the state. And he decided to run for Congress as this guest, where his tagline (was) “Not a politician, a businessman.”
And in the Senate and Parliament, he has the reputation of being a fighter, which comes from his reputation of being a real fighter!
He was a true MMA fighter.
Okay, but more important to our conversation today is that President Trump loves this guy. President Trump has a good chance for this tough guy from Oklahoma. How did their relationship develop?
Their relationship developed very early. Markwayne is someone who, to his credit, is very good at building relationships. And so in Trump’s first term, that was no different. He was very close to Trump. … The relationship grew when Markwayne Mullin’s son suffered a horrific, almost life-threatening injury, from wrestling. … He had to be flown to California to a special hospital for surgery. It was a very scary time for Mullin and his family. Trump would visit his son at one point and regularly called each week to update Mullin and his son.
And Mullin credits that to his growing relationship with Trump.
And what turned Trump against Kristi Noem?
The straw that broke the camel’s back was his response to a question at last week’s hearing with Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, where he asked if Trump approved this $220 million ad campaign that looked like a political ad, and said that Trump signed off on it, which angered Trump. He insisted that he did not approve of this.
When asked about her alleged affair with her adviser, Corey Lewandowski, and she didn’t deny it, she avoided the question entirely, saying she was surprised it was even being asked — something that also angered Trump.
Has Mullin said how he wants to run DHS differently than, you know, Kristi Noem did?
Following the death of Alex Pretti when he was shot and killed by the Border Patrol in Minnesota, Mullin’s statement was not too different from Kristi Noem’s. He didn’t go so far as to say he was a domestic terrorist, as Noem said. I think you won’t necessarily see a lot of change maybe in the rhetoric or the mission to deport people who are here illegally.
But what I think you can see is more loyalty to Trump. Noem was always on TV pushing the administration, and he was obsessed with the image of it all. And so I think maybe some of it can change, the pictures of it. But the real overall mission is still going to be this effort to deport a lot of people who are here illegally.
And as much as Republicans in Congress may have wanted a change in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, they haven’t yet come forward and said, “We want a policy change from the White House.”“
At least not in public. There are definitely members that I talk to every day (who) express (dissatisfaction) about the administration’s efforts right now, but they are afraid to go on record. Being a Republican and criticizing the administration is not good for your political success. And so many of these members are afraid to criticize this publicly. But it is a real concern that many of them have, especially vulnerable members. The optics of this are really not good.
