ICE Barbie Is Out At DHS; But I'm Not Optimistic About How Replacement Will Manage FEMA

ICE Barbie is out, and this guy, Markwayne Mullin is
nominated as the new Secretary of Homeland Security.
That position also oversees FEMA. It's unclear how
he'll do as that agency deals with an increasing
number of disasters, some of them climate-
related. These might be famous last words
but he likely can't do a worse job than
Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem. 

As I'm sure you heard on the news, Donald Trump finally had enough and is firing Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi "ICE Barbie" Noem and is going to replace her with a dude named Markwayne Mullin. 

Mullin is a Republican U.S. Senator from Oklahoma and is definitely right up Trump's ally. 

Trump's statement was "A MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter, Markwayne truly gets along well with people and knows the Wisdom an Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda."

Part of the DHS Secretary's job is overseeing the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is why this news story landed in a weather and climate blog.

With an ever rising tide of weather and climate calamities, FEMA's role is incredibly important in helping people recover from those disasters. The nation's spring severe weather and tornado season this year appears to be gearing up to start literally today and tomorrow with a likely significant severe weather outbreak. 

Oklahoma is in the path of these storms, so I suppose Mullin will be at least a little sympathetic if the storms get too bad.

ICE BARBIE'S DEPARTURE

I'm definitely getting a "Ding dong the witch is dead" vibe coming from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington now that ICE Barbie is headed out the door. 

FEMA mismanagement was the least of the problems people had with Noem. She oversaw the siege of Minnesota by ICE agents this winter. Two border security officers shot and killed two American citizens. Noem lied about those deaths, and oversaw the chaos in Minneapolis and other cities in the past year, Chicago, Charlotte and Los Angeles and others come to mind.  

Pretty much everybody, including Trump, was getting more and more dissatisfied with ICE Barbie. It appears what finally drove Trump to dump Noem was all about him, of course. It always is.  

ICE Barbie testified in front of U.S. Senate and House committees this week and it did not go well.  The part that Trump didn't like, according to NBC News were her answers regarding her role in a $220 million ad campaign encouraging immigrants to self-deport. 

Funding for the ad campaign seemed shady, as is usual in this administration, but Trump was described as "pissed" that Noem said during the hearing that Trump new about her decision to approve the ads.

Speaking of pissed, that can describe likely thousands of disaster victims.  The FEMA work force is decimated, and the Trump administration is still trying to find ways to either get rid of the agency or gut it into near-nothingness. 

Even GOP political were annoyed by ICE Barbie's micromanaging, which seriously delays help for disaster victims. Barbie decreed that she must personally approve each expenditure amounting to more than $100,000. As you can imagine that created huge bottlenecks in getting help to people who lost their homes or livelihoods to extreme weather. 

Noem's interference with FEMA payments might have violated the law. 

ICE Barbie has also advocated eliminating or severely downsizing FEMA. 

WHAT ABOUT MARKWAYNE?

All eyes of course remain on immigration agencies and their lawless campaign to rid the U.S. of non-whites. But FEMA is also an important part of the DHS Secretary's oversight role. 

Frankly, I couldn't find much on Mullin or how he would deal with FEMA and disaster relief. I found a Fox News interview with Mullen in the autumn of 2024 where he said it's the neighbors that help during calamities like Hurricane Helene, and the response if there is any is too bureaucratic.

Reading between the lines, it felt to me like Mullin was advocating a far smaller role for FEMA rather than reforming its bureaucracy, which certainly needed and still needs reform. 

Climate change is driving many of our disasters, and Mullin's record there isn't great, to say the least. He has a 100 percent rating from Independent Petroleum Association of America. He was opposed to the Biden administration's rejoining of the Paris Climate Agreement, and presumably approved of Trump's decision to leave it. 

There is a bipartisan effort in Congress to take FEMA out of the control of DHS and make it an independent agency. It really has withered every since it was put under the DHS purview in the early 2000s.

Mullin needs Senate confirmation before he gets the job, though he could serve as "acting secretary" if confirmation doesn't happen by the end of the month. 

I've found Mullin to be a jerk at times on the Sunday morning news talk shows. But I can't picture him mugging for the cameras and cosplaying like ICE Barbie did all the time. I'll hope that he'll at least be a better administrator that Noem.

In interviews today, Mullin and both GOP and Democratic Congress creatures pledged to play nice during the confirmation process. Let's see how that turns out.