Mullin responds to MAGA blowback over remarks at governor’s meeting

Administration Mullin responds to MAGA blowback over remarks at governor’s meeting Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 08/04/26 4:56 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 08/04/26 4:56 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday pushed back against the blowback he received from President Trump’s MAGA allies over comments he made to state governors in an exclusive interview with NewsNation’s Ali Bradley.

Mullin spoke out about the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Oklahoma City. His remarks asking for governors to work with DHS and urging migrants on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) were hit with a wave of backlash from MAGA voices online, accusing him of being conciliatory to Democrats.

“Well, they took everything I said out of context,” Mullin told Bradley. “I made it very clear that if the cities and states will work with us to get worse, we won’t have the issues we have right now. That was very clear. They can take whatever they want out of context.”

Mullin touted the number of deportations under President Trump compared to former President Biden, saying these deportations were “hitting record numbers, and I don’t know why we wouldn’t want to partner with our cities and states.”

“It’s frustrating to me that someone would take a 15-second clip and blow it way out of proportion,” he later said. “The fact is we are fighting against illegals harder than we ever have, and we’re not going to stop. There is no room, zero room for illegals here. If they are here illegally, go home, or we will arrest you and send you.”

During the meeting on Sunday, Mullin urged governors of Democratic states to let “me work with you on” immigration and help get the “worst of the worst off the streets.” He also encouraged migrants in the TPS program to “go through the system legally” to obtain citizenship.

“I’m not handling things like maybe the past secretary had,” he said, referring to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

Comments like these led to a MAGA storm that crashed down on Mullin online. Far-right influencer Laura Loomer posted on the social platform X that Trump should fire Mullin, using the word “Muslim” as a slur in place of Mullin’s last name.

“When we have another 9/11 or Americans are attacked with drones by Islamic communists, Markwayne Muslim is going to be to blame,” Loomer wrote.

Far-right podcaster Jack Posobiec told Politico that “there is a growing wave among MAGA to find a DHS secretary who puts deportations first.”

“Every time I look up, I see a new terrible answer or thought coming out of Mark Mullin’s mouth in this interview,” former U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino wrote on X. “… This is the man running our Department of Homeland Security. And we wonder why we’re going to lose the midterms?”

Bovino, once a prominent face of Trump’s deportation agenda, retired in March after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal immigration officers during separate incidents in Minneapolis.

Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Bannon said to Politico that Mullin was “the wrong guy at the wrong time for the wrong job — a time when we need focus on ‘mass deportations,’ we get an amnesty advocate.” He suggested that Trump’s MAGA base wants the president to “detail ‘Pitbull’ Pulte to DHS,” referring to acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte.

Trump has stood by Mullin during his tenure so far at DHS, with deportations and arrests at record or near-record levels, with more than 350,000 migrants deported so far in 2026.