President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem as the next Secretary of Homeland Security coasted through his Senate confirmation, despite the intense challenges the department is facing.
Former MMA fighter, plumber, and Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin was confirmed by his Senate peers on Monday, 54 to 45.
Mullin, 48, who is prone to bouncing a rubber ball in the halls of Capitol Hill and donning a cowboy hat, was confirmed with the help of Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Martin Heinrich despite Democrats and Republicans being at odds over how to fund DHS.
Both Democrats voted to advance the nomination before the full Senate after Fetterman, who sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, was the only Democrat to vote favorably to move his nomination out of committee last week.
While Fetterman has been known to buck party lines, New Mexico senator Heinrich explained his own vote to advance Mullin’s nomination and why he would vote to confirm in over the weekend in a statement.
“This is going to surprise some people, but I consider Markwayne Mullin a friend. We have a very honest and constructive working relationship,“ he said. ”We often disagree and when we do, we work to find whatever common ground we share.“
“I have also seen first-hand that Markwayne is not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views, and I look forward to having a Secretary who doesn’t take their orders from Stephen Miller,” Heinrich added.
Now that he’s been confirmed to lead the embattled department, Mullin has his work cut out for him.
The Department of Homeland Security has been in a partial government shutdown for more than a month as lawmakers on the Hill battle over ICE funding ever since agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens earlier this year in Minnesota.
Trump upended negotiations over the weekend by rejecting an offer to fund every agency in DHS besides ICE. Instead, he has made the path to fund the department even more implausible moving forward by demanding that DHS funding be coupled with the passage of the SAVE America Act, which Democrats firmly oppose.
As the standoff over funding continues, TSA employees have been working without pay, leading to a major uptick in workers calling out. The shortages have led to massive lines at some of America’s busiest airports.
Trump announced on Sunday that ICE would go into airports to assist with the delays, but it’s not clear how much impact they will have as they’re not trained for airport checkpoints and screenings. ICE agents have already been spotted wandering through airports, but critics are concerned their presence will lead to more chaos.
Trump revealed he was nominating Mullin to replace Noem on March 5, just after she clashed with lawmakers on Capitol Hill in a pair of wild hearings where she faced brutal questions about spending $220 million in taxpayer dollars on self-promoting ads, the use and purchase of a luxury jet, and her alleged affair with top aide Corey Lewandowski.
The 54-year-old outgoing secretary became the first Cabinet casualty of the second Trump administration, and investigations into her conduct and the department’s spending will continue despite her being fired.
But Mullin does not come to the job without his own baggage. Democrats have accused him of being completely unqualified for the job as he has never served in law enforcement, having previously expanded his family’s plumbing business before being elected to the House and then the Senate.
During his confirmation hearing, the Oklahoma lawmaker came under further scrutiny for claiming he had been on a “classified” trip abroad while serving in the House after hinting previously that he had been in a war zone despite having never served in the military.
Democrats accused him of not being forthcoming and raised concerns about his transparency and expertise, while committee Chairman Rand Paul also blasted him last week as a liar and a person with anger management issues for his penchant for fighting talk.
The outspoken senator has also had to backtrack on a series of claims he’s made while speaking to reporters, where he has mixed up the presidents, countries, and whether the U.S. is at war in Iran or not in recent weeks.
Mullin also happens to be one of the most active stock traders in the Senate, growing his personal wealth by tens of millions since entering Congress in 2013 to become one of the wealthiest members.
His assets as of 2024 were worth between $29 million and $97 million compared with $2.8 million to $9 million in 2012, according to his financial disclosure forms seen by the New York Times.
The timing of some of his stock trades—including buying shares of Chevron, the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela, just days before Trump attacked the country—has turned heads, though there is no indication that Mullin had any inside knowledge of Trump’s plans prior to the transactions.
The Oklahoma senator signed an ethics agreement on March 17 pledging to divest his massive stock portfolio, which includes shares in more than five dozen companies, within 90 days of being confirmed as homeland security secretary.
