Trump says he's replacing Homeland Security Secretary Noem with GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin
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President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and said he will nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats.
Trump says he’ll make Noem a "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Noem’s departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits.
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Noem has faced waves of criticism as she’s overseen Trump’s immigration crackdown, especially since the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration enforcement officers. The former South Dakota governor was also criticized over the way her department has spent billions of dollars allocated to it by Congress.
Frustrations over Noem’s execution of the Republican president’s hard-line immigration agenda — particularly her leadership after the shooting deaths of the two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis — as well as her handling of disaster response, paved the way for her downfall. She faced blistering criticism from Democrats, and some Republicans, in Congress hearings this week over those issues and others.
On the social media platform X, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Noem “has done a stunning amount of damage, and it’s good she’s gone.”
But Walz said Noem’s departure “doesn’t change the fact that we need a complete overhaul of DHS, impartial investigations into the killings of two American citizens and information on children that were taken from Minnesota.”
Democratic elected officials were quick to express harsh criticism of Noem. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a single-sentence response to her leaving: “Good riddance.”
In a statement, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., called Noem’s firing “welcome news,” but said it comes too late.
Smith said Noem led “a lawless and violent agency that wreaked havoc on our state,” and said her departure won’t bring back Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the two people killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
“Until Congress passes meaningful restraints to rein in ICE’s terror, nothing will substantively change,” Smith stated.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who questioned Noem earlier this week during an oversight hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, said her “overdue” removal from DHS is “a step toward accountability, but it is only the beginning.”
St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her told MPR News in a statement that Noem caused “immeasurable pain and suffering” in her city.
“The economic and personal impacts of Secretary Noem’s actions will be felt for years to come. I am glad to see that there are still repercussions when you direct people to violate our rights and cause harm,” Her said. “To that I say: goodbye and good riddance.”
Aside from immigration, Noem also faced criticism — including from Republicans — over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the Trump administration’s response to disasters.
Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate, but under a federal law governing executive branch vacancies, he would be allowed to serve as an acting Homeland Security secretary as long as his nomination is formally pending.
