Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before a ​House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, Wednesday, March 4, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

President Donald Trump has fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and says he’ll nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats.

Trump says he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.

Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Noem’s departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits.

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Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks to the press outside of the Capitol, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

What is the ‘Shield of the Americas?’

Trump said he is appointing Noem to serve as his “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas” as he announced her ouster from DHS.

Trump is gathering with the leaders of 11 Latin American countries for a “Shield” summit on Saturday at his golf club in Doral, Florida.

The name of the gathering is supposed to reflect Trump’s vision for U.S. national security strategy to put a greater emphasis on the Western Hemisphere, as he looks to leverage U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen in the region since the end of the Cold War. The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago have confirmed they’ll attend, according to the White House.

Noem, speaking in Nashville, confirmed she will be at the summit and that Trump will announce “a big agreement” that will detail “how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.”

Noem reacts to her ouster

“Thank you @POTUS Trump for appointing me as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” Noem wrote on X. She added that she looked forward to working with top administration officials “to dismantle cartels that have poured drugs into our nation and killed our children and grandchildren.”

“In this new role, I will be able to build on the partnerships and national security expertise, I forged over the last 13 months as Secretary of Homeland Security,” Noem wrote. She also said that, during her tenure, the department “delivered the MOST secure border in American history” and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had “delivered disaster relief at a 100% faster rate.”

The post followed Noem making no mention of being ousted during a more than 30-minute address and question-and-answer session at a law enforcement event in Nashville.

Noem was the face of immigration enforcement

Noem made hers the face of immigration enforcement, often putting herself in the center of the action.

She sometimes dressed in a flack jacket and accompanied agents on immigration raids as cameras recorded, though she does not have a law enforcement background.

She also posed in front of a group of shirtless, tattooed men behind bars during a March visit to an El Salvador prison where the Trump administration sent people it accused of being gang members.

Noem doesn’t mention her firing during speech

Noem spoke for more than 20 minutes, but didn’t mention her firing as she spoke to the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference in Nashville on Thursday.

Even when she began answering audience questions, no one mentioned it. Asked about future law enforcement grants, Noem seemed to suggest that she would continue to be on the job.

“I think your best options for funding alternatives would be through some grants that with the department, we have specific grants towards, terrorism grants,” she said at one point. “So maybe what I’ll do is I will forward those grant opportunities to all of you so that you can share them with your departments and have that opportunity.”

Mullin would take office at a pivotal time

Mullin would take over the third largest department in government that has responsibility for carrying out Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. And he takes the office at a pivotal time for that agenda.

Immigration enforcement during the first year of Trump’s administration was largely defined by high-profile, made-for-social-media operations with flashy names that were often led by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who reported directly to Noem.

Noem herself often went out on those operations, riding along with officers when they went out to make arrests.

But those high-profile operations in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, often led to clashes with activists and protesters that were captured on video and drove opposition to the president’s immigration agenda.

That culminated with the shooting deaths in Minneapolis after which Trump sent in his border czar Tom Homan to take direct control of the operation in Minneapolis. Bovino was also reassigned.

Noem becomes another Trump official to be offered a soft landing

Noem is the first Trump Cabinet member to be ousted from her post, but the president lining up a new job for her is actually part of a trend.

Trump announced that Noem will become a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas.” That’s a new security initiative that the president said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.

Former national security adviser Mike Waltz was nominated as United Nations ambassador after he mistakenly added a journalist to a Signal chat discussing military plans last year.

Trump also tapped IRS Commissioner Billy Long to be his ambassador to Iceland after Long contradicted the administration’s messaging in his less than two months in the job.

And Trump said in August that State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce would be deputy representative to the U.N. after leaving the State Department.