When Donald Trump announced Kristi Noem’s ouster as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, the president didn’t just point to her likely successor, he also shared his vision of the timeline for replacing her.
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Trump declared online, “will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026.”
Whether the president knows this or not, Cabinet secretaries aren’t simply appointed. At least in this country, they’re subjected to the Senate confirmation process, which tends to take more than 26 days.
To be sure, Mullin’s chances of success in a GOP-led Senate are good, but the process still has to happen — and it will give senators an opportunity to grapple with his spectacular lack of qualifications for the position.
The Oklahoman hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory since he won a Senate special election in late 2022. In fact, Mullin is perhaps best known for threatening to get into a fistfight with the head of a labor union during a Capitol Hill hearing in late 2023.
It’s the sort of thing that might lead some to question his temperament during the confirmation process.
Complicating matters further is the senator’s odd worldview and broad ignorance. Mullin has suggested, for example, that journalists would write “less false stories” if violence were used to handle disputes. He’s struggled to understand the basics of inflation. He’s falsely suggested that vaccines cause autism. He’s struggled with how per capita statistics work.
He can’t seem to decide whether the war in Iran is a war or not. He defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s history of alcohol abuse by saying he’s seen senators drunk on the job. When Democrats tried to force greater transparency on the Jeffrey Epstein files, it was Mullin who objected, declaring last year, “What we’re simply wanting to do here is give [Trump] cover.”
Of particular relevance to the position he’s been chosen to fill, this is also the same GOP senator who, just last month, talked about shutting down airports in “sanctuary cities.”
Leading DHS is a profoundly difficult job. This is a massive federal department that does everything from responding to natural disasters to protecting the first family, from overseeing the Coast Guard to deploying federal immigration agents.
There’s nothing in Mullin’s background to suggest he’s prepared to take on such a task.
Just to complicate matters a little further: The first hurdle for the Oklahoman’s nomination is the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is chaired by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — a senator whom Mullin recently described as a “freaking snake.”
Watch this space.
