Nick Miroff

He got Senator Fetterman and Senator Heinrich from New Mexico to support his confirmation.

And he does have this reputation as a kind of jocular, back-slapping, friendly guy.

And I think that that is the persona he's trying to bring into DHS at a time when the department is—

is looking for a kind of reset and a rebranding of its own.

And most importantly, the career workforce at the department that has been demoralized by what they've seen over the past year, where a lot of people were very

disgusted with Kristi Noem and most importantly, her chief advisor, Corey Lewandowski, a lot of those people have been telling me that they're very eager for a fresh start and that Mullen is saying all the right things to kind of win them over so far.

Well, it's been very interesting because, you know, Mark Wayne Mullen has never run a federal bureaucracy.

He doesn't have a law enforcement or military background.

And so he's coming into DHS, you know, as a newbie and clearly needs some kind of mentor.

It's no surprise that the border czar, Tom Homan...

who retains a lot of support among the kind of DHS workforce and represents a kind of institutional continuity at DHS and who clashed bitterly with Noam and Lewandowski.

So it's no surprise that Homan seems to be kind of taking Mullen under his wing.

He's been talking to Mullen multiple times a day.

And so I think this signals that, you know, Homan is going to retain a lot of influence at DHS this year.

And, you know, what has been Homan's job since the president put him in charge of Minneapolis after the debacle there?

You know, Homan has been trying to turn down the temperature.

He's been trying to make, you know, these kind of conciliatory statements.

He's been trying to reassure Americans that, you know, the uglier scenes that have been politically damaging to the White House and the president's deportation agenda.

are going to go away.

And that's why you saw Mark Wayne Mullen during his confirmation hearing say, look, in six months, my goal is for DHS not to be the headlines every day.