Kristi Noem will be replaced as the Secretary of Homeland Security, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday, and will be succeeded by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
"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 said in a social media post.
In the post, Trump called Mullin, a Republican, a "MAGA Warrior," referencing his professional mixed martial arts career and his identity as the only Native American in the Senate.
"Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security," Trump said. Noem will be moved to a yet-to-be announced security initiative called "The Shield of the Americas."
Here's what to know about Mullin.
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Who is Markwayne Mullin?
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) during a business meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in Washington, DC, March 13, 2025.
Markwayne Mullin is an American and Cherokee politician based in Oklahoma. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on July 26, 1977, Mullin served as the U.S. representative for Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2023 before being elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 2022.
Mullin is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, according to his website biography, and is the first Tribal citizen to serve in the U.S. Senate in nearly two decades since the retirement of Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 2005. He is the second Cherokee citizen to serve in the Senate, according to the U.S. Senate.
Before his career in politics, Mullin was an undefeated professional MMA fighter with a 5-0 professional record.
Mullin shares five children with his high school sweetheart, Christie Renee Rowan. He left college to take over the family business, Mullin Plumbing, when his father became ill in 1997, and he helped open several more businesses in the coming years, including a steakhouse.
Mullin is a Republican who has publicly supported Trump and his ideologies, including repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and introducing a resolution to expunge Trump's impeachments from the Congressional Record. Along with former Rep. (now Director of National Intelligence) Tulsi Gabbard, Mullin introduced the "Protect Women's Sports Act" in 2020, seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in sports based on their gender identity instead of sex at birth.
