'Jerk of the week': Ex-GOP rep blasts Trump's 'disgraceful' Cabinet pick

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) used to support President Donald Trump, but in recent years has become one of his most outspoken critics. Now he is accusing Trump of appointing as the next Homeland Security Secretary someone so unqualified, it is literally “disgraceful.”

“Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Donald Trump’s new DHS pick, sat for a confirmation hearing this week, and even some Republicans think he has ‘anger issues,’” Walsh wrote on Sunday. “Mullin previously went on record calling Alex Pretti, the VA nurse killed by ICE agents in Minnesota, a ‘deranged individual.’ But the only deranged individual I see here is Mullin.”

Walsh went on to describe how in 2025 Mullin posted on X that journalists should write “less false stories” if they do not wish to encounter violence.

“If you think that’s bad, Mullin, briefly an MMA fighter, previously attempted to fight Teamsters Union president Sean O'Brien right in the Senate chamber during a hearing,” Walsh wrote. “Okay, Mr. Tough Guy. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, of all people, had to step in to diffuse the tensions, but later butted heads with Mullin when discussing Obamacare, which Mullin blamed for the country’s ‘broken’ healthcare system. Talk about an utterly disgraceful first impression.”

Despite these ample drawbacks, Walsh pointed out that Mullin’s nomination will proceed to a full confirmation vote on the floor. For this, Walsh placed the blame at the feet of the president himself.

“The biggest jerk of the week, month, year, and decade is always Donald Trump, but there’s only so much space here to write about all the horrible things he does in a single day, much less a week,” Walsh wrote. “F— — Trump.”

Walsh is not the only conservative commentator to denounce Mullin. The Bulwark’s Tim Miller observed that Mullin lacks any qualifications for the role he has achieved.

“At the same time, [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth is a meathead, and the shoe designer at the top of the FBI [Kas Patel] is preoccupied with visiting all the places on his bucket list,” Miller wrote, adding that Mullin is “a masculine Kristi Noem” and not much brighter than her.

“I'm not sure exactly the differences between the two of them,” Miller concluded. His guest David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, expressed alarm at Mullin’s lack of relevant experience.

“The leading state-sponsored terrorism uses a lot of terrorism, and Iran has a long history of activating terror networks all over the world, including in the United States,” Frum said. “So you would think it would be, for the administration leading the war, a matter of vital concern to have a non-bozo as head of the Department of Homeland Security and maybe also a non-bozo at the FBI.”

Mullin was also heavily criticized earlier this month for seemingly padding his resume in order to get confirmed. He claimed he had

"You stated your special assignments occurred intermittently between 2006 and 2011," Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said at the time. "My letter did not exclude official travel and it also give you explicit instructions for providing classified information, how we could do that, and do it in a way that protects the classified information. You did not provide any of that. Today is the first time I'm hearing about your classified activities from 2015 to 2016. Quite frankly, as we have these conversations, you have not been forthcoming with me and the committee."

He continued, "The story always seems to kind of change. As you know, candor, honesty, transparency are absolutely critical to try to build trust as the secretary of Homeland Security. We have to clear this up. We feel pretty strongly we have to understand exactly what this is."

Despite asking Mullin to clarify what he had done overseas, the Oklahoma senator declined.

"Sir, I think this committee made it clear with the paperwork they give me that I do not have to disclose my official travel. That was part of the documents," Mullin told Peters. "It went over two or three times. I complied exactly with what the committee said. There is no area for mission work and mentorship that was a volunteer basis [that] I did on my own time. It was specific, over and over again, that you do not have to claim official travel."

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