Kamal Ghorui
Markwayne Mullin, Republican senator of Oklahoma was recently sworn in as the new Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem, who was fired this month after a succession of controversies. However, it seems that the new DHS leader arrives with his own villain arc followed by a series of viral and widely circulating social media posts hinting at his physically abusive past.
‘I can spank them…’: Discipline or abuse?
The most significant outcry stems from a video of Mullin speaking at a church-hosted “City Elders” event held on October 6, 2023. In his address, he talked about discipling children adding that he was raised by the “fear of a belt.” “The discipline was just, wasn’t overreacted. …So I learned respect from the discipline,” he said. He went on to share how he disciplines his twin daughters by spanking them, deepening the controversy. “I can spank them and I’m still upset and they’ll come and crawl in my lap two minutes later and just hug on me. I’ve got to learn how to forgive more,” he added. Then, he went on to imitate his daughter Lara, saying, “She’s like, ‘No, Daddy. No, Daddy, No, Daddy, No. I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m sorry, Daddy.’ …She just couldn’t bring herself to even bend over for me to be able to bust her butt.” He then mentioned his son Andrew and how it was hardest for him to spank him since he was “so hard on himself” and had “huge crocodile tear running down his eyes.”Numerous netizens called out Mullin for using spanking to discipline his children while others were enraged at his vocabulary to explain the situation. “Is it just me or does his description of this sound sexual (“bust her butt”)” one user wrote on X. “Does Trump intentionally pick the most unqualified people for his administration?” asked another. Even Democrats jumped on the trolling train to write, “He’s bragging about hitting his daughter. This is who’s running ICE for Trump now.”
‘I loved to fight…’: A history of physical confrontation
Not just one, in another clip from an event he attended with his wife Christie Mullin, the former MMA fighter told the audience how he physically threatened his wife’s boyfriends in school.Mullin said he didn’t date since he was focused on getting a scholarship but knew that he was going to marry Christie since the 8th grade. Thus, when she would have boyfriends he would hang out with the couple and threaten them to leave. “I never drank but I loved to fight,” he said while adding that “I simply told them if they didn’t I was going to place them in the car myself.”This is not the first time Mullin’s tendency for physical fights and angry persona have come out in public. The same year, he challenged Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to a physical fight during a Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee hearing. “You wanna run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” he said to O’Brien. When asked in an interview if he would have followed through, Mullin said “I would have jumped over the dais at that point.”
‘I prefer the David method…’
During a November 2023 at Kyle Thompson’s ‘Undaunted.Life: A Man’s Podcast’, Mullin was questioned about whether Republican senators should engage in such squabbles and he defended his actions by mentioning that there was a time in history when men used to duel and that was the way to settle their differences. He said if people expected him to ignore O’Brien’s comments, then he was not a good Christian. “I try to be a good Christian, and I know people say you are supposed to turn the other cheek and I prefer the David method. I won’t start it but I’ll sure do everything I can to finish it,” he said. “Maybe I’ll lose who knows, but I guarantee you, you’ll know you have been in a fight.”Recently on March 18, 2026, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Rand Paul confronted Mullin during a nomination hearing. He questioned Mullin over his remarks on his injury suffered in a November 2017 attack when he was assaulted by his neighbours and suffered six broken ribs. Paul played clips of Mullin’s past remarks, questioning if a man with such a “temperament” was fit to lead the DHS. Mullin stood to his point and stated that he “understood” the attack but did not “support” it. Paul further asked him if he believed that political disputes could also be solved with violence. Mullin maintained his stance while adding that as the Secretary of DHS, he was going to bring “peace of mind and security” to America. Owner of his family’s plumbing business and a cattle rancher, Mullin ran for Oklahoma’s Second Congressional District in 2011 and won it. He had a brief stint as a professional mixed martial arts fighter and won three professional bouts between 2006 and 2007. While the ‘ICE Barbie’ as Noem was controversially called, may have come with her baggage of campaigns, it seems Trump still has his hands full with a new secretary who is willing to trade the vest for a pair of gloves. Whether this will aid in the Trump propaganda or hinders its success remains to be seen.
