President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Westville) for a position in his cabinet.
Mullin is being considered for Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Veterans Affairs, according to reporting by NOTUS.
“Senator Mullin and President Trump have not spoken about any cabinet positions,” a spokesperson for Mullin said.
If he manages to land a cabinet position, NOTUS reported that Mullin is most likely to land the Secretary of Interior position.
The Department of Interior oversees public lands, national parks and numerous agencies relevant to Native Americans including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Trust Funds Administration and the Bureau of Indian Education.
The Bureau of Indian Education’s mission is to provide quality education opportunities in accordance with tribal needs. The Bureau of Trust Funds Administration manages the financial assets of Native Americans held in trust by the Department of Interior.
Mullin has been a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs since 2023.
During his time in the House, Mullin was also a member of the House Natural Resources Committee Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee.
When he was appointed to the committee, Mullin said in a statement that he is honored to serve Oklahomans by being on the committee.
“The Indian Affairs Committee plays a vital role in ensuring that the federal government upholds its trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations,” Mullin said. “I look forward to strengthening tribal sovereignty, pursuing self-determination policies and fostering economic growth in Indian country.”
Mullin has worked across the aisle to fight for tribal sovereignty during his time in the Senate. In 2023, he introduced S.1780, the Promoting Regulatory Independence, Mastery and Expansion for Meat Processing in Indian Country Act. The bill aimed to direct the Department of Agriculture to enter into self-determination contracts with tribal organizations, upon request, to carry out the authority of the Food Safety and Inspection Service of meat processing operations.
The bill did not make it to the Senate floor.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, in October, he said then-Presidential Candidate Trump understands the importance of Tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
“Why is Tribal land treated like public land? Think about this. Why is it that the reservations that we have are treated like national parks? If we’re a sovereign nation and it’s self-determination, then who does that belong to? It belongs to the tribes,” Mullin said at an event in North Carolina. “So why does the tribes have to go through the same systems that get turned down constantly then they would a private owner to go get the same resources that’s underneath their feet. You have natural resources being pulled out of the ground right across the fence from reservations.”
“You have private landowners that are extremely wealthy and you have people that are literally starving inside our reservations.”
At the same event, Mullin said Trump would have a large understanding of self-determination and that he would be working side-by-side with Trump as either a Senator or in another capacity.
Mullin, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation, would be the second Native American cabinet member in the country’s history. The first is the current Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland.
Before becoming a Senator in 2023, following a special election after the death of longtime Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, Mullin represented the Second Congressional District.
Following the Supreme Court of the United States decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, much of his former Congressional district was deemed tribal land, suggesting his aptitude for working with Native Nations.
During Trump’s campaign, Mullin led the campaign’s Native American outreach effort alongside former Democratic presidential candidate and former Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
The effort was successful with Native American majority counties swinging 10 points to the right in the 2024 election. In 2020, Native American votes in Arizona helped put President Joe Biden over the top in the state and secure his win.
Kevin Eagleson is reporting from Gaylord News’ Washington bureau this fall as part of an OU Daily scholarship.
Gaylord News is a reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News go to GaylordNews.net
