President Donald Trump’s supporters and aides are calling for the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — with a senior White House official saying there’s a consensus he “sucks donkey butt,” according to a report Monday.
Mullin drew the ire of MAGA influencers over a Saturday discussion in which he supported migrant work visas to address labor shortages in the U.S., according to Politico.
Right-wing podcaster Jake Posobiec told Politico that Mullin’s remarks at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association fed a “growing wave among MAGA to find a DHS secretary who puts deportations first.”
A senior White House official also sarcastically said that Mullin “deserves credit” for uniting the Trump “administration around a cohesive point of view.”
“Everyone agrees he sucks donkey butt,” the official said.
In a statement to The Independent, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “The President has confidence in Secretary Mullin and his entire Administration to carry out the agenda the American people voted for.”
A DHS spokesperson also told The Independent: “Secretary Mullin has been clear: if you come to the United States illegally, you will be detained and deported.”
“Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to sow division and create an illusion of chaos,” the spokesperson added.
The controversy came just days after Mullin reportedly was behind “growing tensions” in the White House after unilaterally ordering ICE to cease making traffic stops following the fatal shootings of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, and Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán in Biddeford, Maine.
Trump later contradicted Mullin, formerly a Republican senator from Oklahoma, saying on social media that “we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”
Mullin's critics include former high-profile Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who reposted a video clip of the DHS secretary’s speech on social media Sunday.
“He proudly announces nearly 900,000 naturalizations in 12 months (95% third world immigrants), then lectures us about the legal process,” Bovino wrote.
Bovino retired from the Border Patrol in March after being removed from his position as “commander at large” for immigration enforcement operations following the fatal shootings of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti during anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.
Trump picked Mullin to replace former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who was also removed from her post in the wake of the killings by federal law enforcement officers.
Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon floated the notion of replacing Mullin with acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte.
“MAGA wants President Trump to detail ‘Pitbull’ Pulte to DHS,” Bannon told Politico. “Mullin is 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.”
Hours after his appearance before the National Governors Association, Mullin posted on social media: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever.”
“We are a nation of laws. If you are illegally present in the United States of America — you will be detained and deported. Period,” he added.
ICE figures show that more than 356,000 people have been deported from the U.S. since October 1, with almost 66,000 in custody pending deportation proceedings, ABC News reported last month.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to carry out the “largest mass deportation program in history,” with multiple reports saying the White House has set a goal of expelling 1 million people a year.
