ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s DHS successor, former plumber Markwayne Mullin, is battling with a leaky department.
Insiders have told the Daily Mail that Donald Trump’s hand-picked Homeland Security chief is merely a “figurehead”—while “the adults in the room” actually make the critical calls.
Border czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles are the true power brokers, sources said, describing Edgar as the shadow chief who runs the day-to-day operation.
“He has a seat at the table… but it’s a table,” a source close to the White House told the Mail about Mullin, who was approved by the Senate in March.
The White House is “gating” the influence of Mullin, who gave up his job as an Oklahoma senator to enter Trump’s inner circle.
“Noem ran DHS like a medieval monarch, a queen with real power. Mullin is more like a figurehead. I don’t think he realized that going in,” one source said, referencing the previous regime under Kristi Noem.
This is evident in the fight to replace acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, 52, whose last day at the agency is May 31. The Daily Beast’s PunchUp revealed that Mullin is pushing for his hometown, scandal-prone MAGA sheriff, Vic Regalado, to be the new boss.
However, insiders have told the Mail that his power is limited in this regard and it will ultimately be the veteran Homan who decides on the successor to Lyons. “Markwayne certainly has a dog in the fight for head of ICE. But he is bringing a little chihuahua, while everyone else is bringing big dogs, like German shepherds or rottweilers,” said one source familiar with the succession battle.
Homan offered an idea of how Mullin’s tenure would be handled within the beleaguered agency. “He doesn’t know the immigration game very well, but he’s counting on people with 30, 40 years of experience to guide him,” he said in March.
A DHS spokesperson told the Daily Mail: “This is one team, and we have one fight to secure the homeland. Secretary Mullin works closely with President Trump, Stephen Miller, and Tom Homan to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country. The results speak for themselves.”
The White House said there were “no factions.”
Mullin took over his family’s business, Mullin Plumbing, in 1997, and grew it to the largest plumbing company in Oklahoma before selling out to a private equity firm. However, he admitted this wasn’t his dream job. “I’d probably say that I was a little bit embarrassed about being a plumber,” he told The Elephant in the Room podcast in 2023.
The departed Noem, meanwhile, is still taking losses even after getting fired. The New York Times reported earlier this week that the Trump administration is quietly trying to shut down the controversial Florida immigration center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” a hallmark of her tenure, which ended at the beginning of March.
Officials at DHS have reportedly determined that the detention center in the Everglades—which has been plagued by allegations of human rights abuses—is also too expensive to continue operating.
