House GOP Leaders Back Mullin as Trump's Pick to Lead DHS

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Thursday they are confident Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., can lead the Department of Homeland Security.

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social earlier Thursday that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was reassigned to oversee a new Western Hemisphere security initiative. He said Mullin was his nominee to replace her at the helm of DHS.

"Sen. Markwayne Mullin is going to do an extraordinary job in that position," Johnson told Newsmax congressional correspondent Kilmeny Duchardt on Capitol Hill. "He's well suited for it.

"I think he'll do great."

Scalise told Duchardt that he served with Mullin in the House and has worked with him in the Senate since Mullin won a 2022 special election to replace retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe. Mullin is up for reelection this year.

"He's going to do a fine job in that role. He understands what's important about border security and making sure that we protect this homeland," Scalise said.

"The job of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is to protect the homeland, and there are a lot of threats right now," he continued.

"If you look at Sen. Mullin's record, he's been a staunch defender of border security. He worked with us when [former President] Joe Biden was in office to try to reverse the open border policy," Scalise said.

"And then when President Trump came into office, he was right there with us every step of the way, passing the Working Families Tax Cut, which, among many other good things, gave the president all the tools he needed to secure the border, to finish building the wall, to give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need to combat the drug cartels who, frankly, had operational control of our border and had better technology than America, which was embarrassing," he continued.

"We reversed that. ... It's a tough job, but he's going to be up to the job."

Noem had faced criticism, especially following immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.

Two anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters were fatally shot in separate incidents after encounters with federal law enforcement.

Several lawmakers, including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., called for Noem to be fired.

Noem also was criticized for her performance during combative hearings this week before the House and Senate Judiciary committees, where she faced tough questions from Democrats and Republicans.

Johnson declined to comment when asked by Duchardt whether he lost confidence in Noem following the hearings.

Scalise said he didnt participate in the process.

"I didn't participate in the Judiciary Committee hearings," Scalise told Duchardt.

"Secretary Noem had an incredibly tough job. I mean, she was tasked with working with President Trump to secure the border," he continued.

"But also, you know, she inherited a massive mess. For four years, there was a wide-open border with a lot of violent criminals who came into our country," Scalise said.

"And she was tasked with, number one, securing the border, but also going and finding the violent criminals. And they've done that," he continued.

"They've been doing that. They've gotten resistance from a lot of governors along the way."

DHS has been partially shut down since Senate Democrats last month blocked a House-passed appropriations bill for the current fiscal year amid disputes over immigration enforcement policy.

Although the shutdown has not affected the administration's immigration enforcement efforts, it has disrupted operations at other DHS components.

Those include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Transportation Security Administration.