Markwayne Mullin

Markwayne Mullin is U.S. Pres. Donald Trump’s secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During his time in Congress—first in the House of Representatives (2013–2023) and then in the Senate (2023– 2026)—the Oklahoma Republican drew attention for his hot temper and unpolished manner. A former mixed martial arts fighter, he once challenged the president of the Teamsters Union to a fight during a hearing. The New York Times has described him as “the senator perhaps most closely aligned with the president.”

Early life

Mullin was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1977, the youngest of Jim and Brenda Mullin’s seven children. His father owned a small plumbing company. Markwayne Mullin grew up on a ranch in Westville, Oklahoma, a small town on the Arkansas border, near the Ozark Mountains. Mullin’s family belongs to the Cherokee Nation, and most people he knew growing up were also Cherokee. He is the second member of the Cherokee Nation to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Mullin’s parents planned to name him either Mark or Wayne, for one of his uncles. His mother put both names on the birth certificate, and she meant to change it later, but she never did. “I hated that,” he told The Spectator in 2023, “because I was in trouble so often as a kid in school, everyone knew when my name was on the loudspeaker.”

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Mullin battled a host of medical conditions as a child, including a clubfoot, which required him to wear leg braces and undergo several operations. He also dealt with a speech impediment. “I couldn’t fight with my mouth,” he told High Country News in 2019. He wrestled in high school and attended Missouri Valley College on an athletic scholarship. A recurring shoulder injury forced him to quit the sport, and he dropped out of school to take over his father’s business when his father’s health started to fail. The business grew rapidly under Mullin’s leadership, eventually employing hundreds of people.

Radio host, MMA fighter

Mullin also began cohosting a radio show in Tulsa, House Talk, meant to mimic National Public Radio’s (NPR) popular Car Talk. Listeners called in for advice about home improvement projects. His cohost, Daryl Brown, later told The New York Times that Mullin required every guest he invited on the show to be meticulously prepared.

In his late 20s Mullin briefly resumed his wrestling career, this time as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He competed in five matches, winning them all, and he earned a reputation as one of the best welterweights in his region, which spanned parts of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

A key part of Mullin’s political development was his experience dealing with health care and environmental regulations as a small business owner. In addition to the plumbing business, which he sold in 2021, Mullin owns a 1,600-acre (650-hectare) ranch that serves as an event venue, and until 2024 he owned a steakhouse in Oklahoma. He has said Barack Obama’s administration shut down one of his businesses for compliance issues.

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Political career and controversy

In 2011 a congressional seat opened in Mullin’s district, and a political consultant who admired his MMA career approached him about running. Mullin campaigned on promises to fight the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and reduce government regulations and spending, and he won the election in November 2012. He was part of a wave of Tea Party candidates elected during this time. As a member of the House, he backed a government shutdown in 2013 as part of an effort to repeal Obamacare. But he became better known for his personal style—the cowboy hat he wore on Capitol Hill, for instance, and the bipartisan workouts he led in the House gym—than for lawmaking.

In 2022, as Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe was retiring, Mullin campaigned to succeed him. He defeated a number of Republican challengers and won the special election with almost 62 percent of the vote.

In 2023 Mullin drew attention for challenging Teamsters president Sean O’Brien to a fight during a committee hearing. “Stand your butt up,” he said to the union leader. O’Brien mocked him, and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, the committee chair, ordered Mullin to calm down. Video clips of the exchange went viral and were shown on late-night TV segments, with Jimmy Kimmel referring to it as “U.F.C.-SPAN.” During a Fox News interview, Mullin reminisced about violence that occurred on the Senate floor in the 1800s, saying, “maybe we should bring some of that back.”

Mullin, who is a millionaire, has been accused of several ethical breaches during his time in office. For several months in 2022, he aired a political ad in which he identified himself as the owner of Mullin Plumbing, though he had sold the company to a private equity firm the year before. In 2025 he was late reporting business transactions that presented possible conflicts of interest. During his years in the Senate, he became close with Trump and met with him often. He has echoed Trump’s claims about election fraud and has sought to help Trump build support among Native American voters.

Homeland security

In March 2026 Trump announced on social media that he was firing Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and replacing her with Mullin.

Although Mullin has not worked significantly on immigration policy, the comments he has made suggest that his views are closely aligned with those of Trump and Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller. After Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January 2026, Mullin defended the agents, describing them as “red-blooded American patriots doing a tough job to keep our nation safe.” He added that Pretti was a “deranged individual” and said of Good, who was shot while driving away from an altercation with an officer, “It is mind-blowing to me why we are defending someone that was acting in this manner.”

He has also expressed skepticism about birthright citizenship and advocated removing Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents from airports in “sanctuary cities.” As head of DHS, Mullin would oversee the TSA as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Despite these statements, when Trump announced his nomination on social media, Mullin vowed to keep all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, safe. “When I go into this position, yes, I’m a Republican, yes, I’m conservative, but the Department of Homeland Security is to keep everybody [safe], regardless of if you support me or you don’t support me.” After a somewhat contentious hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee in March 2026, Mullin’s nomination was sent to the full Senate on a vote of 8-7, with Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voting against Mullin and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voting for him. His nomination was approved by the Republican-controlled Senate on a vote of 54-45 in March 2026.

In July 2026, Mullin found himself at the center of controversy in the wake of two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. On July 13, ICE agents shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero while he was driving in Biddeford, Maine. It was the second time in a week agents had killed people driving in their communities. Guerrero, a Columbian national who had a Social Security number and the right to work in the United States, was 26 and a father. On July 7, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, a Mexican national who had lived in the United States for decades. In both cases, ICE agents were seeking to serve arrest warrants. Neither Guerrero nor Araujo was the subjects of the warrants. Araujo’s death came six months to the day after ICE killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. A day after the shootings, Mullin ordered ICE to temporarily suspend traffic stops as part of their operations.