Four months into his tenure as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin is not meeting White House expectations.
According to a report from NBC News, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma serving as secretary of the troubled agency is getting buffeted on all sides over making moves that have not been okayed by the White House.
Mullin's problems stem from a fundamental violation of White House protocol: making major policy decisions without explicit presidential approval. Administration officials are openly critical of his independence, viewing it as tone-deaf to the way things are handled.
The breaking point came when Mullin unilaterally ordered ICE agents nationwide to halt vehicle stops following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine. The policy pause was announced without White House consultation—a cardinal sin in Trump's command structure.
As the report noted, Trump reversed Mullin's decision within 24 hours, publicly contradicting his own DHS secretary and asserting that traffic stops remain essential to immigration enforcement.
"We must be strong, tough and smart and we CANNOT give up one of ICE's most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!" Trump declared on social media. "Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands."
Administration insiders were blunt about Mullin's "misstep," telling NBC News, " "The decision to pause vehicle stops was '100%' a bad move and that it was done without White House sign off."
The message to cabinet secretaries is unambiguous: check with the president before implementing major policy shifts. "Every Cabinet secretary knows that they have to come to the White House for major policy decisions," the official stated. "The president sees, hears, reads everything."
According to NBC News, "Mullin misspoke in a CNN interview last month about a Supreme Court ruling on immigrants from Haiti and Syria, saying roughly 350,000 could be eligible to apply for legal status when they weren’t, annoying some in the administration, the DHS official said."
Questions about Mullin's fitness for the role are mounting like his predecessor, Kristi Noem, with NBC pointing out that Trump cycled through four homeland security secretaries during his first term, frequently blaming them when border crossings spiked.
There are currently no announced plans to replace Mullin, the report states, but internal concerns are escalating over his choice of Lance Schroyer to lead ICE. Schroyer, nominated as ICE director, is viewed as dangerously "unprepared" for the role.
DHS insiders describe Schroyer's knowledge of immigration law and policy as "extremely limited." Multiple officials privately worry his nomination hearing will expose dangerous gaps in his expertise.
The nomination has generated friction at the highest levels. White House border czar Tom Homan and other senior officials are reportedly unenthusiastic about Schroyer's selection.
"Homan and others aren't particularly thrilled with him," according to administration sources.
