Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security advocated for an abusive government that is pursuing an ever-cozier relationship with a country the president is now bombing enthusiastically.
Markwayne Mullin, set to resign from the Senate to replace the fired Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem and lead Trump’s mass deportation program, has consistently defended a pro-Iranian regime over the past year.
His bizarre approach to global affairs, along with his voting record on those measures in the Senate, raises fresh questions ahead of what could already prove a bruising confirmation fight, given other past controversies since he was sworn in as junior senator for Oklahoma in 2023.
These have included an attempted brawl with a union president during a Senate hearing, concerns over whether he continued running a private business while serving in Congress, claims he misled voters over his official salary, his opposition to COVID-19 measures, and comparing his past work as a plumber to sacrifices made by U.S. military personnel.
Trump launched an all-out war on Iran last weekend, promising to “annihilate” the Islamic republic’s military capabilities and describing the regime as the “world’s greatest state sponsor of terror.” The president has criticized allies for not opposing Iran strongly enough, and threatened tariffs of 25 percent on any country trading with Iranian businesses.
Last year, Mullin helped block measures, known as the MEGOBARI Act, brought before the Senate that would otherwise have imposed sanctions on officials in the Republic of Georgia “to counter the influence” of Iran, Russia and China in the Eastern European country. Mullin has said he believes a “better relationship” with the Georgian government is possible, adding, “I want to be able to work with them before we throw sanctions on them.”
Georgia’s prime minister drew criticism in D.C. by attending the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May 2024 after his death in a helicopter crash. Following the launch of Trump’s new war in the Middle East over the weekend, his government has now issued a statement expressing “condolences to the Iranian people and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” lamenting the deaths of “many innocent individuals, and dozens of children” while lighting up buildings in the capital of Tbilisi in the colors of the Iranian flag.
A former Soviet republic located in the South Caucasus, at the farthest reaches of Eastern Europe, Georgia was previously a close U.S. ally before abandoning those ties to pursue what critics describe as an increasingly pro-Russian agenda following Vladimir Putin’s February invasion of Ukraine, as well as warmer relations with both Iran and China.
Ranking members of the Georgian government have described the MEGOBARI Act as “blackmail,” accusing the U.S. of a “deep state” conspiracy to launch a violent coup against the ruling party and turn the country into a “second front” to the war in Ukraine.
Mullin has not publicly addressed concerns raised over modest donations to his campaigns from U.S. enterprises with longstanding interests in Georgia’s mining sector, who have engaged in private lobbying efforts to block the MEGOBARI Act’s passage through Congress.
The White House and Mullin’s representatives did not immediately respond to a Daily Beast request for comment on this story.
