headline: Trump fires DHS Secretary Noem, nominates Sen. Mullin as replacement slug: 2026-03-05-trump-fires-dhs-secretary-noem-nomina…

  • Noem’s firing comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 20 days in a funding dispute, with many employees conti…
  • President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, announcing via social media that Oklahoma Republican Se…
  • Trump made the announcement after Noem appeared before congressional committees for two days of hearings during which Republican and Demo…
  • Trump said in his announcement that Noem “has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results especially on the Border!.” He…

Noem’s firing comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 20 days in a funding dispute, with many employees continuing to work without pay. Mullin, if confirmed, would inherit the third-largest federal department at a contested moment for the administration’s immigration agenda.

President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, announcing via social media that Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin would be nominated to replace her. Noem, the former South Dakota governor who was a close ally of the president and oversaw his immigration enforcement agenda, became the first Cabinet secretary to depart during Trump’s second term.

Trump made the announcement after Noem appeared before congressional committees for two days of hearings during which Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized her leadership, including her department’s spending decisions and its handling of immigration enforcement operations.

Trump said in his announcement that Noem “has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!).” He said he was appointing her as “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative he described as focused on the Western Hemisphere.

Noem, who was at a law enforcement event in Nashville, Tennessee, when the announcement came, did not address her ouster there and read from prepared remarks. In a subsequent social media post, she thanked Trump and pointed to her record at the department. “We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again,” she wrote.

The ad campaign dispute

A central point of congressional scrutiny was a $220 million ad campaign featuring Noem that her department ran to encourage people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily. Noem told lawmakers that Trump had been aware of the campaign before it ran. Trump disputed that account in an interview Thursday with Reuters, saying he did not sign off on it.

Minneapolis enforcement operations and congressional backlash

Noem also faced criticism over public statements she made following the shooting deaths of two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis. Noem portrayed both Good and Pretti as aggressors, a characterization that contradicted widely viewed videos of the incidents and accounts from bystanders. She declined over two days of congressional testimony to apologize for her remarks.

Republican senators had privately been anticipating Noem’s departure, particularly after her handling of the Minneapolis operations, according to two people familiar with discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity. As senators sought to end the ongoing DHS shutdown, some Republicans told their Democratic counterparts that Noem was likely on her way out — a signal, they suggested, that should prompt Democrats to agree to fund the department again. Democrats did not regard that as a genuine concession, the people said, given that Noem had become a political liability for Republicans as well.

DHS shutdown and spending

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 20 days amid a congressional funding dispute, with many employees continuing to work without pay. Beyond immigration, the department also faced criticism — including from some Republicans — over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the administration’s response to disasters.

Mullin nomination

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Mullin as “extraordinarily qualified” and said the administration would work with the Republican-led Senate to confirm him “as soon as possible.”

Mullin, speaking while voting in the Senate shortly after the announcement, said he had “no idea” how quickly his confirmation would proceed. “The president and I are good friends. So we look forward to working closer with the White House, and obviously I’m gonna be over there a lot more,” he said.

Under federal law governing executive-branch vacancies, Mullin could serve as acting DHS secretary while his nomination remains formally pending before the Senate. DHS is the third-largest department in the federal government.

Mullin would take over a department whose immigration enforcement operations had been defined, during the first year of Trump’s second term, by high-profile operations in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis — operations that frequently led to confrontations with protesters captured on video.

Reactions

Critics welcomed Noem’s departure. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote “good riddance” on social media, a sentiment Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer echoed.

Immigration advocacy groups expressed skepticism that the change in leadership would alter administration policy. “This is not accountability, just a reshuffling of the enablers of the agenda of President Trump,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice. She said Noem’s tenure had been “marked by cruelty.”

Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official elevated under Noem to lead immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis, offered a different assessment. “She is the best Secretary I ever worked for, period. The others weren’t even close. Noem is the ultimate patriot,” Bovino told the Associated Press.