WASHINGTON, DC (LOOTPRESS) – President Donald Trump says Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary.
President Donald Trump announced his he will nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace her on Truth Social.
Noem, 54, will likely be at least temporarily replaced by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, a Navy veteran and former mayor of Los Alamitos, California, in the line of succession for the agency.
Noem’s tenure marked a distinct reversal of the open-border policies permitted by predecessor Alejandro Mayorkas during the Biden administration, and DHS has notched record drug interdictions totaling more than half a million pounds of illegal drugs in her first year.
Her management of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda has also led to more than 2 million reported self-deportations in 2025 and about 670,000 removals of illegal immigrants, a figure supporters have hailed as the most successful immigration enforcement operation in history.
Her agency has also been unafraid to hit back at high-profile critics, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz; and 2026 midterm candidate David Trone of Maryland, who accused DHS of “executing people in the streets” as he filmed a protest ad outside a Williamsport compound recently purchased for use as a detention facility.
Such criticisms of her mass deportation operations, particularly in Minneapolis, appeared to somewhat sour public sentiment on the administration’s handling of the immigration issue, as U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino — a DHS subordinate — was replaced in the Twin Cities by Border Czar Tom Homan amid the firestorm.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced Thursday that Trump is “furious” with Noem over her performance in bicameral Judiciary Committee hearings this week, particularly over a contract for an advertisement that Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and others grilled her on.
Trump reportedly took issue with her suggesting to Kennedy that he approved a taxpayer-funded ad subcontracted to a firm connected with her inner circle, according to National Review, which also reported that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., is being considered a top candidate for her replacement.
