Trump Fires Kristi Noem After Louisiana Sen. Kennedy’s Brutal Hearing Grilling Backfired on Her

WASHINGTON (KPEL News) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he’s pushing out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and replacing her with Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, capping a disastrous week of congressional testimony that saw the embattled secretary draw fire from members of her own party.

The move came just two days after Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy delivered a pointed line of questioning during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that sources say infuriated the president and sealed Noem’s fate.

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What Did John Kennedy Say That Got Noem Fired?

Kennedy zeroed in on a $220 million DHS ad campaign that featured Noem prominently, telling migrants to go home or face deportation. The ads went to contractors with direct ties to Noem’s inner circle, including a subcontract awarded to the husband of a former DHS spokesperson. Kennedy told Noem one of the companies involved had been formed just days before it landed the deal.

Kennedy pressed Noem on whether Trump personally approved the massive expenditure. Noem insisted he had.

Kennedy wasn’t buying it.

He told the secretary the spending put Trump “in a terribly awkward spot” and said he found it hard to believe the president would have signed off on a quarter-billion-dollar ad blitz starring his own Cabinet secretary. He also noted the ads did one thing very well: they boosted Noem’s name recognition.

After the hearing, Kennedy told reporters that Trump called him directly. Kennedy said he wouldn’t speak for the president, but offered a telling summary: “His recollection and her recollection are different.”

Trump himself later told Reuters flatly: “I never knew anything about it.”

That contradiction between Noem’s sworn testimony and the president’s own account effectively ended her tenure. Multiple Republican lawmakers told NBC News Trump had been calling around Capitol Hill asking if he should fire Noem, with one senator describing the hearings as “water boiling over the edge of the pot.”

Kennedy Wasn’t the Only Republican Who Went After Noem

The Louisiana senator’s questioning was devastating, but it wasn’t the only blow Noem absorbed from her own party that day. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who is retiring and has nothing left to lose, delivered a 10-minute tirade he called a “performance evaluation” rather than a question-and-answer session.

Tillis called Noem’s leadership of DHS “a disaster,” accused her of detaining American citizens during immigration enforcement operations, and blamed her for stalling FEMA disaster relief funding to storm-ravaged North Carolina communities. He cited a letter from the DHS Inspector General claiming department leaders had “systematically obstructed” the office’s investigations.

Tillis renewed his call for Noem’s resignation, which he’d first issued after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year. Noem initially labeled both as “domestic terrorists,” a claim that bystander video and witness testimony quickly contradicted.

The following day, Noem appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, where Democrats asked her directly whether she’d had a sexual relationship with top adviser Corey Lewandowski. Noem called the question “tabloid garbage” but never delivered a direct denial.

Who Is Markwayne Mullin?

Trump announced Mullin’s nomination in a Truth Social post Thursday, calling the Oklahoma Republican “a MAGA Warrior” who “truly gets along well with people.”

Mullin, 48, is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate in nearly two decades. He served 10 years in the House before winning a 2022 special election to fill Jim Inhofe’s Senate seat. He’s also a former undefeated professional MMA fighter and a successful business owner who built his family’s plumbing company into a multimillion-dollar operation.

Mullin has aligned himself closely with Trump throughout his political career. He made national headlines during the president’s State of the Union address this year when he confronted Democratic Rep. Al Green over a protest sign. He also nearly got into a physical altercation with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien during a 2023 Senate hearing.

When reporters asked Mullin earlier Thursday whether he was under consideration for the DHS job, he played coy. “I haven’t talked to the president all week,” he said. Asked if he’d be open to serving in the Cabinet, he said, “I’m actually absolutely not dealing with hypotheticals.”

Kennedy, for his part, offered his own assessment of Mullin when asked by reporters: “He’s a very able, capable guy. I mean, I’m not going to say anything bad about him. He’ll whip my ass.”

What Happens Next?

Mullin will need Senate confirmation, and Trump set his start date for March 31. In the meantime, Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, a Navy veteran and former California mayor, is expected to lead the department.

The transition happens during an extraordinarily turbulent time for DHS. The department has been operating under a partial shutdown since February 14 after Congress failed to agree on funding. Democrats have demanded changes to immigration enforcement as a condition for reopening the agency. The shutdown affects the Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and cybersecurity operations, all while the U.S. is engaged in military operations against Iran.

Trump framed Noem’s departure as a lateral move rather than a firing. He said she “has served us well” and will transition to the role of Special Envoy for “The Shield of the Americas,” a new Western Hemisphere security initiative the administration plans to unveil Saturday in Doral, Florida.

But the writing has been on the wall for months. Noem’s handling of the Minneapolis shootings, her relationship with Lewandowski, her approval of a Boeing 737 fitted with a bedroom for executive travel, and her clashes with border czar Tom Homan had all created friction with the White House.

In the end, it was Kennedy’s questioning that tipped the scales. By pressing Noem to say on the record that Trump approved the ad campaign, the Louisiana senator forced a choice: either the president signed off on $220 million in self-promotional spending, or Noem misrepresented his involvement under oath. Trump made clear which version he believes.