Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) has been tapped to head up the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after President Donald Trump on Thursday fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from the post.
“I am pleased to announce that the Highly Respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Mullin will replace Noem on March 31, Trump said.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) speaks to members of the media on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 3, 2026. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)
The president said Noem served well and had “numerous and spectacular results,” namely with respect to the U.S.–Mexico border’s security. Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, will be leaving for the newly created post of special envoy for the shield of the Americas, he wrote.
Here’s what to know about the Oklahoma Republican.
‘I Wasn’t Expecting the Call Today’
Mullin has said that he was just as surprised by the news as the rest of the nation.
“I wasn’t expecting the call today,” he told an ABC News reporter during a live interview, adding that he is “ready to get started” and his “focus is to keep the homeland secure.”
On Truth Social, Trump said Mullin “will work tirelessly” to secure the U.S.–Mexico border and stop “migrant crime, murderers, and other criminals from illegally entering” the United States.
Mullin responded in kind, telling ABC that he was “great friends” with Trump and is “super excited about the opportunity” to head up the agency.
Personal Life
Mullin, 48, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
One-eighth Cherokee Indian, Mullin is a documented member of the Cherokee Nation and the only Native American in the U.S. Senate. The lawmaker traces his Cherokee ancestry back to North Carolina and Georgia, where his ancestors resided before being relocated to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears.
He also serves on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Mullin married his wife, Christie, in 1997. Today, the couple has six children, three of whom are adopted.
Mullin had long worked as a businessman before his ascent to Congress in 2012. At that time, he owned four companies: Mullin Properties, Mullin Farms, Mullin Services, and Mullin Plumbing. The lawmaker has stated that he has sold off his plumbing-related enterprises in 2021. He is also a working rancher.
Political Career
Mullin entered Congress in 2012, being elected first to the House of Representatives.
He ascended to the Senate in 2023, being elected in 2022 following the retirement of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).
In 2021, while still in the House, Mullin joined Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) in barricading the House chamber during the Jan. 6 certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. He saw the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt and has said that the officer had no choice but to shoot.
In 2022, Mullin introduced legislation in that chamber to remove Trump’s impeachments from the Congressional Record. The Democratic House majority at the time left the push dead on arrival in the chamber.
In 2025, he joined his colleagues in voting to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the vehicle for Trump’s second-term policy agenda.
DHS
Mullin takes the helm of DHS at perhaps the most difficult point of its roughly 23-year existence.
Many of DHS’s functions remain popular and non-controversial with voters. These include patrolling U.S. waters and interdicting drug trafficking through the Coast Guard, providing emergency response to natural disasters and weather events through the Federal Emergency Management Administration, and cybersecurity defense.
DHS also oversees the Transportation Safety Administration and airport security.
However, in recent months, voter support for DHS’s immigration enforcement arms—most prominently Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—has dropped.
According to one poll by YouGov, a record 50 percent of Americans support abolishing ICE, including 23 percent of Republican respondents. That reflects an increase in support for the position since Jan. 17, when just 46 percent of voters backed the position.
DHS has faced scrutiny for its recent major immigration operation in Minneapolis, which has since ended. During the operation, two protesters—Renée Good and Alex Pretti—were killed in separate immigration agent-involved shootings.
DHS Remains Shut Down
DHS has remained partially shut down for weeks after Democrats demanded that ICE agents adhere to stricter rules around masking, identification, uniform, and judicial warrants, with Senate Democrats vowing to block any DHS funding measure that doesn’t include these provisions.
Mullin, meanwhile, has mounted a defense of DHS in several media appearances since the shutdown started, including during an interview in mid-February with CNN, where he accused Democrats of engaging in “political theater.”
“They’re not stopping the Border Patrol from doing their job. All this is a political theater because the State of the Union is coming up a week from Tuesday,” Mullin said.
He has called the outgoing Noem “a friend,” telling ABC that he supported her role as head of the DHS and that she had a difficult job to perform.
After Trump announced that Mullin will take over, Noem wrote in a post on X that she is thanking Trump for naming her as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
Senate Confirmation
Mullin said he and the Trump administration will now work toward getting confirmed in the Senate and will speak with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
At least one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), wrote Thursday in a post on X that he would back Mullin to head DHS.
Mullin would only need a simple majority to be confirmed, meaning that he could be approved without any Democratic support as long as he has GOP backing.
The collegial upper chamber has historically been more favorable to its own members in cabinet nominations. At the start of Trump’s term, while the fate of other nominees remained uncertain, then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) easily slid to a unanimous confirmation in the upper chamber.
BOOKMARKS
Democrats blocked funding on Thursday for the Department of Homeland Security, which remains in partial shutdown. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already funded through 2029, but the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Coast Guard are all affected.
Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), introduced legislation on Wednesday to break up meatpacking company monopolies. “The pernicious stranglehold of the meatpacking monopoly has weakened our supply chains and price gouged consumers at the grocery store,” Schumer said in a statement.
Twenty-four state attorneys general are suing Trump over recent tariffs he imposed under the Trade Act of 1974. These are new 10 percent tariffs Trump imposed after the Supreme Court struck down a previous set last month, and the president has warned he may raise them to 15 percent.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Wednesday that he’d give up his aspirations of winning the state’s Senate seat in November … but there’s a catch. He said he would only do so if the Senate abolishes the filibuster, and passes legislation requiring proof of citizenship to vote.
—Stacy Robinson
