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New reporting indicates that Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Oklahoma) — who is President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — profited from stocks in oil and security companies that he invested in just days before U.S. military strikes in Venezuela and Iran.
In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump said that he would be reassigning current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and announced Mullin as his new pick to lead the agency. Mullin’s tenure will be “effective March 31, 2026,” Trump said.
Mullin, a far right Republican and Trump loyalist, is unlikely to change much in terms of DHS policy, as he has expressed strong support for the administration’s brutal immigration crackdowns under Noem. Like Noem, he has baselessly claimed protesters killed by immigration agents were “domestic terrorists.” He has also peddled Trump’s falsehoods about election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Mullin’s stock investments suggest that his tenure, like Noem’s before him, will be mired in controversy, if the Senate does indeed approve his appointment.
Reporting from The Daily Beast showcases how Mullin — a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and thus privy to the administration’s reports to Congress on possible military planning — may have used his insider knowledge to make gains on his stock portfolio.
Five days before the U.S. military invaded Venezuela, deposing its leader, Nicolás Maduro, from his office without congressional approval, Mullin purchased stock in RTX Corp., a defense contract company, as well as in oil companies Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Those three companies have seen their stock prices increase since that time, going up following that military action in Venezuela and rising more after Trump launched an unauthorized war in Iran. As of Monday, Conoco’s stock was up by 30 percent, Chevron’s by 26 percent, RTX’s by around 15 percent, since the time Mullin made his stock purchases.
According to the publication, Mullin may have earned as much as $35,050 from the three investments — the equivalent of one-fifth of his total annual salary as a senator.
Mullin, an avid trader, has continued to make stock purchases since that time. In early February, he made at least 17 purchases in various companies, spending between $227,000 and $780,000 total on the markets. And that’s just the purchases that are publicly known — current federal law only requires lawmakers in Congress to disclose stock purchases within 45 days of making them, meaning Mullin may have made additional buys — potentially before the start of the U.S.’s war with Iran — that will only be revealed in the next month or so.
Mullin is not reliable when it comes to reporting his stock purchases. Last year, it was reported that the Oklahoma senator failed to report on at least seven of his stock trades more than two years after he had initially purchased them.
Despite the potential conflicts of interest posed by his stock trading, Mullin is expected to win confirmation as head of DHS, as it is rare for the Senate not to confirm one of its own members. At least one Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has said that he’ll vote to support Mullin, increasing the chances of his confirmation.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, suggested on Monday that there is a plan to fast-track Mullin’s nomination, as Trump has indicated that he wants his DHS pick to take over the department by the end of the month.
“We’re shooting for a week from Wednesday if all the paperwork comes in,” Paul said earlier this week, indicating that the confirmation hearing is scheduled for March 18.
If approved by the committee, a full Senate vote for Mullin would likely happen soon after, allowing the confirmation process to fit within Trump’s desired timeline.
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