President Trump is growing increasingly frustrated with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin after Mullin made a series of off-message remarks recently that angered many of the president’s outside allies, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump tapped Mullin, a close ally when he served in the Senate, to take over the homeland security post after he fired Kristi Noem in March. At the time, Trump told advisers he had tired of the infighting and drama at the Department of Homeland Security. When Mullin started the job, he told associates his marching orders were to keep the agency out of the news.
But a little more than four months into Mullin’s tenure, the president is souring on him, viewing Mullin as weak and off message, the people said.
A senior Trump administration official acknowledged that frustration with Mullin had grown but said the president had no plans to fire him.
The frustration reached a peak in early August when Mullin, speaking in Oklahoma City at a meeting of the National Governors Association, said that while the narrative that immigration “steals American jobs is true in some industries, it’s not true for all industries” and suggested immigration could be a way to make up for low labor-force participation rates in some areas.
The comments drew an immediate backlash from Trump’s most vocal outside backers, who viewed them as out of step with the administration’s mission to deport as many immigrants as possible and reduce overall immigration numbers to the U.S. Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer who speaks to Trump regularly, has called for the president to fire Mullin, writing on social media that he has “done absolutely nothing to increase the rate of mass deportations.”
Hours after his remarks, Mullin posted on social media: “NO amnesty for illegal aliens. Ever.”
The episode followed several other decisions that put Mullin out of step with the president. After two back-to-back fatal shootings of immigrants in the span of a week, Mullin temporarily halted most vehicle stops by federal immigration officials, only to have the president reverse the policy a day later in a social-media post. A senior administration official said that the president was annoyed that he didn’t know about the policy change ahead of time.
Trump was also frustrated that Mullin wanted to cancel the Fourth of July fireworks show on the National Mall in the midst of lightning, according to the people familiar with the matter. Trump said in his speech that evening that one of his advisers suggested postponing the celebrations, but was overruled.
“One of my very brilliant people backstage said, ‘Don’t worry about it, sir. We can do it maybe next week,’” Trump told the crowd. “I said, ‘It doesn’t work next week. This is the big day. We want July Fourth. We’re not looking for July something else.’”
In late June, after the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could end temporary immigration protections for 350,000 Haitians living in the U.S., Mullin suggested in a television interview that some Haitians might be able to remain in the country. “Either try to fill out the paperwork and be here underneath a permanent status, or we’ll help you get back to your country,” he said.
The comments were seen by some inside the administration as out of step with its messaging. Deporting the Haitian population had been a promise on the campaign trail, and the Supreme Court had just handed the administration a victory on the issue.
Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, didn’t mention Mullin directly in a statement, but said the president “has confidence in his Cabinet to carry out the agenda the American people voted for.”
Bis added: “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership we have the most secure border in history, we are deporting record numbers of illegal aliens, we have cracked down on illegal alien fraud, and we are denaturalizing individuals who illegally procured American citizenship.”
A DHS spokeswoman said the administration is “one team, and we have one fight.”
The perceived missteps highlight the tightrope Mullin has been asked to walk. Though he came into office with the mission of changing his department’s public image, particularly after immigration officials shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis, that goal has sometimes been at odds with Trump’s continued desire to appear committed to his mass-deportation agenda.
Under Mullin’s watch, arrests and deportations initially dipped, but have since climbed to some of the highest daily totals of the administration to date, with ICE arresting between 1,500 and 2,000 immigrants a day, according to an administration official familiar with the data. DHS hasn’t been publicizing the arrests.
The backlash also underscores the challenges that come with being Trump’s homeland security secretary. While the president has made hard-line immigration policies a priority in both of his terms, his DHS secretaries haven’t lasted long in the job. Noem was the first cabinet secretary to be fired during Trump’s second term. In his first term, Trump had two Senate-confirmed DHS secretaries and four acting secretaries.
Mullin has faced particularly strong internal opposition over his selection for the permanent head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Lance Schroyer. Rank-and-file officials at ICE have balked over Schroyer, a veteran of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol who led Mullin’s security detail during his tenure as a senator. ICE officials have said they think Schroyer lacks federal government or immigration experience.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, is opposed to the pick, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Mullin made a direct appeal to the president on the nomination, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Senate has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Schroyer.
Write to Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com and Marianne LeVine at marianne.levine@wsj.com