00:00President Trump has fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It's the first high-profile
00:04dismissal of his second term, following weeks of immigration enforcement chaos. He named Oklahoma
00:11Senator Mark Wayne Mullen as his pick to succeed her. The move came one day after Noem said this
00:17on Capitol Hill. The president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads
00:26across the country in which you are featured prominently. Yes, sir. We went through the
00:31legal processes. Did it correctly work with OMB? Yes. He did? Yes. Well, I guess not. The president
00:39told Reuters that he never knew anything about the ads, and two sources close to the White House said
00:44Trump was furious when Noem testified that he did. But that wasn't the only reason she was shown the
00:49door. A source told The Post exclusively, quote, the question about the affair at the hearing was
00:55actually the final straw. It was effing brutal. Now, that, of course, is a reference to this.
01:01Have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?
01:07Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we're going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today.
01:13Reclaiming my attorney.
01:14And ma'am, one thing that I would tell you is that he is a special government employee.
01:18You should be wanting to answer that question.
01:20As garbage?
01:20Because it is not about your sex life. It is about your judgment.
01:25Trump took a more, let's call it, congenial tone on Truth Social, lauding Noem for her
01:30accomplishments, quote, especially on the border, and said that she would be named special envoy for
01:36the Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere that he will
01:40officially announce tomorrow. Noem, for her part, expressed gratitude in an ex-post, writing in part,
01:47quote, thank you, President Trump, for appointing me as the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
01:52Then she tagged Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and said, quote,
01:58I look forward to working with them closely to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation
02:03and killed our children and grandchildren.
02:05So what is the Shield of the Americas?
02:08Here's the Post's chief Washington correspondent, Stephen Nelson.
02:12The Shield of the Americas, which Kristi Noem will now lead, is going to be launched on Saturday in
02:18Miami with President Trump in attendance. Leaders from many Western Hemisphere countries are coming
02:24together to talk about cooperation on fighting international criminal organizations.
02:29But you may also be asking yourself now, who is Mark Wayne Mullen, the man poised to run
02:34Homeland Security and the many, many vital agencies under its umbrella? I'll let Stephen fill us in on that
02:39one, too. Mark Wayne Mullen, President Trump's nominee to be the new Homeland Security Secretary,
02:44is a Oklahoma Republican senator. He is a tough-talking conservative supporter of President Trump.
02:51Mullen is presumably going to be confirmed by his Senate colleagues and take over the department
02:57later this month. Mullen has had some notable interactions that have caught media attention.
03:04He nearly got in a fight with the head of the Teamsters Union during his Senate hearing,
03:09and he's called Senator Rand Paul, who will lead the committee that is going to confirm him,
03:15a freaking snake. So he's a colorful character, staunch conservative. He's currently the only Native
03:22American serving in the Senate. He is a father of six. Two of his children are adopted.
03:28And Mullen is expected to continue President Trump's efforts at mass deportation,
03:36continue his efforts at border security, and continue his efforts to fight crime.
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