From Axios -Senate GOP cheers Noem's firing.Looks like MAGA split is accelerating. War in Mid East can only widen.

Mullin is "pretty well vetted around here, so hopefully we can get the process going because I think that's a position that's going to need to be filled quickly," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said.

utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-u https://www.axios.com/2026/03/05/senate-gop-cheers-trumps-decision-to-dump-noem?s

State of play: Democrats, while declaring good riddance to Noem, insisted that a change at the top would not unlock funding for DHS, which has been shut down since Feb. 14.

"No one person can straighten this up until the president changes the whole agency," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). "This is not an issue of personnel. This is an issue of policy."

"I'm not going to vote for $1 more for that agency as long as they are body-slamming American citizens, barging into American homes without warrants or murdering Americans," Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said.

Still, Booker acknowledged that Mullin's confirmation is likely a foregone conclusion.

"If it's a 50-vote threshold, I would imagine he will be confirmed," Booker told Axios. Cabinet nominations require only a simple majority.

The intrigue: There's a serious beef between Mullen and Sen. Ran Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, which will handle Mullin's nomination.

"Rand Paul's a freaking snake," Mullin told a group at home in Tulsa last month. "And I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did," he said, apparently referring to a 2017 assault on Paul that left him with five fractured ribs.

"And I told him that to his face," Mullin said.