New Secretary of Homeland Security

His home improvement radio show had just gone into commercial break when Markwayne Mullin turned to his co-host and told him he was considering a career change.

It was 2011, one of Oklahoma’s congressional seats was open, and the Republican Party was asking him to run.

“I said, ‘Don’t get into this,'” recalls Daryl Brown, his friend and co-host. “You’re a good guy, you’re successful, politics will just ruin things.” »

Successor to Kristi Noem

On Thursday, Donald Trump nominated Mr. Mullin, 48, to head the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Brown is glad his former co-host didn’t listen to him.

“It was clear that he would go far (in life),” explains Mr. Brown, reached by telephone in Coweta, a suburb of Tulsa. “I had no idea what he would do, but you could see that big things were waiting for him. »

Mr. Mullin, a die-hard conservative, would win his first race for Congress, serve there for 10 years, then be elected to the Senate in a byelection in 2022.

An image of an anti-politician

From the start, this entrepreneur presented himself as an anti-politician. His fairly square approach has won him many admirers in the MAGA base. But it also got him into trouble with the Congressional Ethics Committee regarding his finances. And a high-profile incident where he nearly got into a fight in the Senate raised questions about his temperament.

For better or worse, Mullin has said before, he is a product of his Oklahoma upbringing. He comes from a small rural town in the rolling hills at the foot of the Ozarks, right near the Arkansas state line.

It is Cherokee Nation territory, and Mullin is an enrolled member, making him the second Cherokee citizen to serve in the Senate.

As a child, he had a club foot, wore leg braces and had to undergo several operations, according to Mr. Mullin, cited in 2019 by High Country News. He also worked to overcome a speech impediment. “I couldn’t fight with my mouth,” he told the magazine.

Mullin the fighter

Instead, young Mullin learned Greco-Roman wrestling, where he excelled. He attended college in Missouri on an athletic scholarship, but dropped out to take over the family plumbing business when his father became ill.

In 2006 and 2007, he had a brief but successful career in mixed martial arts, with five wins and no losses.

“He was dominant, he was strong,” says Bobby Kelley, one of his opponents, who knows what he’s talking about: Mullin put him in a chokehold and beat him in less than a minute.

Mr. Kelley, who today goes by “Huggie Bear” in the ring, was an 18-year-old rookie at the time and Mr. Mullin was “one of the best welterweights” in their area, he said.

Mr. Mullin later returned to college, but never graduated.

Only senator without a diploma

He was the only senator without a degree in 2023, the year he was sworn in. Before his political career, Mr. Mullin quickly increased the size of the family business tenfold, says his friend Darryl Brown: “I’ve never seen a guy work harder than him. With Markwayne, it’s all about the floor. »

Even with the demands of his plumbing business, Mullin found time almost every Saturday for his show House Talka telephone forum inspired by Car Talk from NPR (American Public Radio). During the show, Mullin and a team of co-hosts answered listeners’ questions and advised them on their renovations.

Over the course of their time together in the studio, Mr. Brown watched Mullin find his voice and refine his public image, says Mr. Brown, who describes him as passionate and unafraid to speak his mind.

Mullin’s supporters appreciate his qualities, but his temperament has sometimes been a problem. At a 2023 Senate hearing, he called on Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union, to fight after an exchange escalated.

Mr. Mullin stood up at the podium and appeared ready to remove his wedding ring to throw a punch before Democratic Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders interjected.

These two supporters of Donald Trump seem to have reconciled. Asked about this spat, Mr. O’Brien asserts that “if there is anyone ready to stand up to protect the United States, it is Markwayne Mullin. »

Mr. Mullin’s business practices have attracted the attention of the Congressional Ethics Committee. His personal fortune has increased since his start in politics: in 2022, he checked “from 32 to 76 million dollars” in the declaration of interests form.

Some Indigenous people have criticized Mr. Mullin throughout his career, accusing him of using his Cherokee status for political purposes while supporting policies that harm Indigenous communities.

Indeed, Mr. Mullin’s policies are opposed to those of Chuck Hoskin Jr., Grand Chief of the Cherokee Nation, considered a progressive. But in a statement following his appointment Thursday, Mr. Hoskin praised Mr. Mullin, who is also known as a defender of the nation’s sovereignty.

If confirmed, Mullin would become the first Indigenous person to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

In announcing his choice, the president chose – unsurprisingly – to highlight certain elements of Mullin’s biography. “A MAGA warrior, and undefeated former professional mixed martial arts fighter,” Trump wrote on social media.

This article was published in the New York Times.

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