Washington, March 23 – The US Senate has advanced Senator Markwayne Mullin’s nomination for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), just over two weeks after President Donald Trump announced that he would replace current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
The upper chamber passed the nomination in a 54 to 37 vote on Saturday (local time). A final confirmation vote is likely to take place in the coming days.
Mullin, 48, has served in the Senate since 2023, having previously represented Oklahoma in the House for a decade.
His nomination came amid growing bipartisan frustration with Noem’s leadership, marking the first Cabinet shakeup of Trump’s second term.
“I am pleased to announce that the highly respected United States Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), effective March 31, 2026,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on March 5.
Noem has been under bipartisan pressure after federal law enforcement officers fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis and further angered Trump with her performance at recent congressional hearings, according to Xinhua news agency.
“Noem’s decision to allocate $200 million for an advertising campaign, featuring herself urging those living illegally in the US to self-deport, had already irked the president for months due to its self-promotional style,” according to an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal.
Her dismissal came shortly after the interview was published.
Noem, 54, is the former governor of South Dakota, a state with a population of less than one million, putting her at a disadvantage in managing a vast federal department.
She attempted to compensate for this by adopting a hands-on approach, appearing in camouflage and accompanying immigration officers on raids in uniform, while also strongly defending Trump and his policies to curb illegal migration.
Trump had praised her success in stemming illegal migration and said that Noem would be appointed to the newly created post of Special Envoy for “The Shield of the Americas”, an initiative to bring together Latin American and Caribbean countries to deal with drug trafficking, illegal migration, and crime.
