DHS: Exit Noem, enter Mullin

Markwayne Mullin and Kristi Noem

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Kristi Noem last week “earned the distinction” of being the first Cabinet member to be fired by President Trump, said Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic. It was well deserved, because Noem generated more scandals in her year as Department of Homeland Security secretary “than a normal presidency would muster in four.” She oversaw ICE’s brutal and deeply unpopular mass deportation campaign; falsely smeared two U.S. citizens shot dead by immigration agents as “domestic terrorists”; splashed taxpayer dollars on luxury jets while stalling FEMA disaster relief; and allegedly conducted an open affair with her special adviser, Corey Lewandowski. (Both are married to other people and deny any romance.)

But ultimately it wasn’t Noem’s supposed infidelity, “incompetence, or self-enrichment” that doomed her; it was “pointing the finger at the boss.” Asked in a Senate hearing last week if Trump had approved a $220 million DHS ad campaign—which starred Noem and benefited businesses close to her—she replied, “Every single bit.” Trump quickly denied the claim and gave Noem the boot. It doesn’t matter whether she was telling the truth. To implicate Trump is to violate his “most sacred principle.”

Trump’s nominee to replace Noem brings “a lot of confrontational energy,” said Jim Newell in Slate. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is a former mixed martial arts fighter who “seems eager to merge that fighting background with his politics.” He challenged Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien to “stand your butt up” and fight during a 2023 Senate hearing and said last year that there’d be less “fake news” if people were allowed to use violence against journalists. “Mullin isn’t in any way qualified to be the leader of the nation’s third-largest Cabinet department,” said Garrett Graff in his newsletter. The owner of several plumbing and construction businesses, he has no experience in national security, immigration enforcement, or disaster response—DHS’s key areas of responsibility. Maybe he’ll turn out to be a better department head than Noem, but that’s “the lowest possible bar.”

There will be no reset under Mullin, said Anita Chabria in the Los Angeles Times. A MAGA loyalist, he’s made it clear that he supports “the most extreme immigration policies Trump world can offer.” He’s also an outspoken 2020 election denier and could potentially help Trump “impose his will” on the midterms by sending ICE agents to polling places. Noem was a “train wreck we couldn’t help but watch.” By simply being low-key and less “thirsty for press,” Mullin may have far more success in advancing the goals of an administration that “would prefer we stop looking.”

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