President Donald Trump removed Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary after months of controversy and announced he would replace her with Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin.
Trump posted on social media Thursday that the move would take effect March 31. He said that Noem would take a role as a special envoy for the Western Hemisphere. The change marks the first time Trump has replaced a Cabinet member during his 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),” Trump posted. “I thank Kristi for her service at ‘Homeland.’”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a social media post that the administration will work to confirm Mullin “as quickly as possible.” A White House official didn’t respond to a question about whether he would also serve in an acting capacity before a possible Senate confirmation.
Mullin said he got the call from Trump just moments before the president posted the news on social media.
“Noem was tasked to do a very difficult job, and I think she performed the best she could under the circumstances,” Mullin told reporters. “I think there’s an opportunity to build on successes, and there are also opportunities to build on things that maybe didn’t go quite as planned.”
Ongoing Shutdown
The department is already in a three-week partial shutdown amid a funding standoff with Congress, with Democrats demanding additional limits on immigration enforcement to help break the impasse.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries both said Noem’s firing won’t resolve the fight.
“This is a problem of policy, not personnel,” Schumer said. “The rot is deep. No one person can straighten this up until the president changes the whole agency, stops the violence and reins in ICE.”
The change comes after Noem faced bipartisan rebukes during congressional hearings this week. Trump was upset with Noem for telling lawmakers that the president signed off on a roughly $200 million advertising campaign, which featured herself urging migrants to self-deport, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
The president was mad at Noem and considered firing her after that claim, the person said. Trump did not approve the ad, the person added.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who aggressively questioned Noem during one of the hearings, said that Trump asked him what he thought of replacing her with Mullin during a phone call. Trump was “not a happy cowboy” over Noem’s comments about the ad, Kennedy said.
“I remember thinking that the secretary’s pretty much as dead as fried chicken,” Kennedy added.
The senator said he told Trump that he was “fond” of Mullin and asked “is she going to pull down the TV ads? They’re still running.”
Controversial Lieutenant
The controversy follows a sweeping federal immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis area that sent thousands of agents into Minnesota and led to thousands of arrests. Two US citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were fatally shot by federal immigration officers during the operation in January, sparking protests and national scrutiny.
The episode appeared to weaken Noem’s standing inside the administration when Trump dispatched border adviser Tom Homan to Minnesota to help oversee the federal response and he negotiated a pullback — a move that effectively sidelined the Homeland Security chief. At the time, Trump publicly brushed aside questions about Noem’s future, saying he still had confidence in her.
Recent polling has also shown growing public skepticism about the administration’s immigration crackdown. A February Reuters/Ipsos poll found about 38% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, down from 39% in January and as much as 50% shortly after he returned to the presidency last year.
Noem was speaking Thursday at a previously scheduled event, the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference in Nashville, as the announcement was made. She touted the agency’s efforts at fighting cartels.
Trump said he would be naming Noem as an envoy to a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere he plans to announce Saturday at a summit with Latin American leaders.
In a statement on social media after the speech, Noem said in her new role she would build on relationships and national security experience developed during her 13 months as Homeland Security secretary.
“Thank you to President Donald Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” she wrote. “The Western Hemisphere is absolutely critical for US security.”
Noem has been a loyal lieutenant to Trump during his second term. But a number of blunders led to political headaches and negative press for the administration. That includes her suggestion that the two US citizens killed by immigration officers in Minnesota were domestic terrorists.
This week’s Congressional hearings capped months of mounting scrutiny for the 54-year-old former South Dakota governor, who had become one of the most visible faces of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
She was questioned about her relationship with longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, declining to directly answer if it was sexual in nature, and about a dispute with DHS’s inspector general over access to records tied to ongoing investigations. Lewandowski, who was serving as an aide to her at DHS, will also be leaving the department, one of the people said.
‘Systematically Obstructed’
In a letter to Congress, Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said the department had “systematically obstructed” his office by withholding documents needed for several probes.
Lawmakers also raised concerns about delays in federal disaster reimbursements to North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 100 people and caused more than $60 billion in damage in 2024.
Under Noem, the administration reported a sharp drop in illegal crossings at the US southern border and historically low monthly apprehensions. At the same time, critics said its aggressive street-level immigration enforcement campaign has swept up tens of thousands of people without criminal records and fueled confrontations in Democratic-led cities where federal agents conducted large-scale operations.
Noem embraced the hardline approach. During one trip last year to a high-security prison in El Salvador housing deportees from the US, she posed for photographs in front of crowded cells, imagery that supporters said demonstrated toughness but critics denounced as political theater.
Created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security oversees a slew of agencies responsible for border protection, immigration enforcement, disaster response and maritime security.
