How Markwayne Mullin Lost MAGA

WASHINGTON—In March, the Senate confirmed one of its own, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

President Donald Trump announced Mullin’s nomination on Truth Social, in a post that also served as a pink slip for scandal-plagued Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem, many in the president’s orbit felt, had hindered the administration’s deportation agenda with her flashy media appearances and personal blunders. Surely Mullin, the hardcore MAGA legislator, would not make the same mistakes.

Less than five months into his tenure, it seems Mullin may have made mistakes of his own.

Speaking over the weekend at a National Governors Association meeting in Oklahoma City, Mullin recommended revising employment-based work visa programs to fix labor shortages, saying: “If we’re looking to grow our economy, then we need more permanent solutions on this.”

“This narrative that it steals American jobs is true in some industries, it’s not true for all industries,” he noted. “It is America. We want to take care of Americans first. It’s our economy, it’s our homeland, but there’s a way to utilize labor where we’re not having the participation rate we need to, and we can plug those holes.”

Mullin quickly clarified his remarks on X, posting: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever.”

But the remarks spread like wildfire on social media, drawing fierce criticism from commentators like Laura Loomer.

“Markwayne Muslim [sic] got rich in industries that depend on cheap illegal alien labor,” she posted on August 3. “Now, as DHS Secretary, he’s refusing to deport illegals at the scale President Trump promised because those same businesses still ‘need’ illegal alien workers.”

“This is not what we voted for. Once again, Markwayne wants to appease liberal media and big labor,” Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren said of Mullin’s remarks.

Lahren’s “once again” points to growing dissatisfaction with Mullin among the MAGA hardliner crowd, whose ranks are frustrated with what they perceive as his unwillingness to aggressively carry out Trump’s promised deportation agenda.

The president has repeatedly expressed frustration with Mullin in private, two sources familiar with the situation shared, not only over immigration policy, but also over the secretary’s attempt to cancel the “Salute To America” fireworks display on July 4 due to severe weather.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told The Daily Wire that Trump “has confidence in his Cabinet to carry out the agenda the American people voted for.” But one source with knowledge of the president’s frustrations shared that Trump has already considered replacing Mullin.

Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon would like to see Mullin replaced with Bill Pulte, a Trump enforcer whose brief stint leading the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was marked by aggressive staffing purges. Bannon says Pulte is seen as a “folk hero” with the MAGA base — but Pulte said Tuesday that he isn’t interested in the job.

That’s not going to stop Bannon, who has been pushing the White House to oust Mullin before the Republican Party’s September midterm convention in Texas.

“Hardcore MAGA base has two core central issues,” Bannon told The Daily Wire Tuesday. “The stolen 2020 election and the invasion of the southern border predicated upon the stolen election and the illegitimate Biden regime.”

“We’re 90 days out from a midterm that could end the presidency with impeachment and try to end Trumpism, it has to be all hands on deck seven days a week,” Bannon said. “To know that he went after some governors’ conference in Oklahoma and had time to be up there with [Oklahoma Governor Kevin] Stitt, who’s another squish, right … I understand he’s your buddy from Oklahoma, but if you’re that f*cking dumb, right? You should be fired.” 

Loomer echoed that point, saying, “He’s ignoring why President Trump made him DHS Secretary to begin with and what wins midterms: MASS DEPORTATIONS!” 

The Trump administration has deported more than 605,000 illegal aliens this term, according to the White House, and an additional 1.9 million have self-deported. That brings the total number of illegals leaving the United States since the president returned to the White House to over 2.5 million. But for many in the MAGA base, those numbers fall short.

“Every young voter I talk to is asking where the mass deportations are,” conservative commentator Jack Posobiec told The Daily Wire. “This is easily a number one issue with many, many among the grassroots who are feeling like the domestic policies have taken a backseat.”

A DHS spokesman told The Daily Wire that Mullin has been very clear in his message to illegals: that they will be detained and deported if they come to the U.S. illegally. The Department of Homeland Security is “focused on delivering on the president’s mission to deport illegal aliens and protect the homeland,” the spokesman added.

“Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to sow division and create an illusion of chaos.”