Trump fires US Homeland Security Secretary, why?
President of the United States (US) Donald Trump has fired the US Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, from her post. Trump announced Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin as his replacement.
“With great pleasure I announce that the Honorable 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 Truth Social post, as reported by NPR, on Friday, March 6, 2026.
He praised Mullin as a MAGA warrior who has defended the President and the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. Mullin still needs to be confirmed by the US Senate before he can be sworn in as DHS Secretary permanently.
“Markwayne will be an outstanding Secretary of Homeland Security,” Trump extolled.
In his announcement, Trump stated Noem would take on a new role. He praised Noem’s performance as DHS Secretary, despite controversy surrounding the Department of Homeland Security tied to Trump’s brutal immigration policy.
“The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well and achieved many spectacular results (especially at the border), will be moved to Special Envoy for the American Shield, our new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere, which we will announce on Saturday (7/3) in Doral, Florida,” he said.
“I thank Kristi for her service at the ‘Department of Homeland Security’,’ Trump said in his statement.
Noem becomes the first cabinet member in Trump’s second term to be ousted from office. The announcement came after Noem spent two days grilled by US lawmakers over her leadership of the US Department of Homeland Security.
Noem, who previously served as Governor of South Dakota, has been at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation efforts. She became the face of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. She has become the most prominent figure to leave DHS in recent weeks.
Earlier in the second year of serving as DHS Secretary, Noem was bombarded with criticism over her leadership in increasing immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, where she deployed 3,000 immigration agents and ended in the deaths of two US citizens in a brutal incident with federal immigration agents.