Tom Homan Admits Deportations Are ‘Slightly Down’
'Am I happy ... right now? No'
Another top Trump official is on the way out
Markwayne Mullin, who took over as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security following Kristi Noem's ouster in March, announced Thursday that there is going to be another senior personnel change at his agency.
Todd Lyons will leave the role of acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, effective May 31.
'A phenomenal patriot and dedicated leader.'
"Director Lyons has been a great leader of ICE and key player in helping the Trump administration remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, and gang members from American communities," said Mullin. "He jumpstarted an agency that had not been allowed to do its job for four years."
"We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector," added Mullin.
Lyons is a veteran ICE official who has served with the agency since 2007.
Around the time he entered the role of acting director in March 2025 — following the demotion of his predecessor, Caleb Vitello — Noem characterized Lyons as a work horse who, with border czar Tom Homan, had done "incredible work cleaning up our communities and making them safer."
In the months since, Lyons has been on the receiving end of relentless abuse by anti-ICE activists such as New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver (D), who subjected him to a 3.5-minute rant during a congressional hearing in February. After questioning Lyons' religiosity, McIver asked him, "How do you think Judgment Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?"
The radical Democrat who allegedly assaulted ICE officers last year, asked further, "Do you think you're going to hell, Mr. Lyons?"
When disgraced ex-California Rep. Eric Swalwell (D) demanded Lyons' resignation in February, he refused, later stating, "I will not resign, because I believe in the rule of law and will continue to uphold my oath."
A pair of unnamed U.S. officials told CBS News that Lyons was planning to leave the federal government to spend more time with family, including his sons, in Massachusetts.
Prioritizing family was also DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin's apparent reason for resigning earlier this year.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said in a statement that Lyons is "a phenomenal patriot and dedicated leader who has been at the center of President Trump's historic efforts to secure our homeland and reverse the Democrats' sinister border invasion."
Homan said in a statement obtained by CNN, "I commend him for a distinguished law enforcement career and the countless contributions he has made to protect our country and advance its interests."
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'I think it's time': The 4 words that reportedly fired Bondi, and Trump's possible picks to replace her
President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on a short ride to the Supreme Court on Wednesday with just four words, a report says, and now rumors about her potential replacement are swirling around Washington.
Trump reportedly told Bondi, "I think it's time," to notify her of her firing the day before formally announcing her removal in a Truth Social post. Trump later announced her departure on Thursday, calling her a "Great American Patriot and a loyal friend" but reportedly privately expressing frustration with the lack of prosecutions against Democrats and her botched handling of the Epstein files.
'I'm not going anywhere.'
Needless to say, Bondi had become a sore spot for the administration, prompting her to become the second departure from Trump's Cabinet following former Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem.
Trump has since announced that Todd Blanche, Bondi's former deputy, would temporarily step in as attorney general while the president continues weighing his options to fill the slot long-term.
Trump's top pick continues to be EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who met with the president on Tuesday, according to one administration official. The meeting was about an unrelated topic, but the official told Blaze News that Trump floated the idea of Zeldin replacing Bondi. The next day, Trump informed Bondi of her firing.
RELATED: Bondi is OUT — and Trump already has a replacement in mind
While Zeldin is widely regarded to be the top choice, Trump has not yet made a formal announcement.
Other names have been circulating, although most of them would be considered long shots. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas had been floated by onlookers, both of whom would likely sail through Senate confirmation. Critics quickly called out anonymously cited senators endorsing Lee for the role, saying they just want to get rid of one of the most conservative lawmakers.
"Senators who prefer working two and a half days a week are probably Lee’s biggest cheerleaders in taking another job," a senior Republican source told Blaze News.
Lee later set the record straight in a post on X, saying, "I'm not going anywhere."
RELATED: Bondi speaks out after ouster, still may have to testify before Congress
Another rumored candidate to be top cop has been Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently running a fierce campaign to oust Republican Sen. John Cornyn. The two have been facing off in a high-stakes primary that Trump was expected to weigh in on but so far has not done so.
Although Paxton is popular with the base, he would have to first be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on which his opponent sits. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina would also be a challenging committee vote to secure, not to mention Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have known to defect on key floor votes.
Other possible candidates are some of Bondi's top DOJ officials, including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and even Blanche. While Blanche has assumed the role in the interim, he has shut the door on any future Epstein investigation, telling Fox News that "it should not be a part of anything going forward."
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Bondi is OUT — and Trump already has a replacement in mind
President Donald Trump has officially fired Pam Bondi from her post as attorney general, and another administration official is expected to replace her.
Several reports indicated that Bondi's firing was imminent after months of prolonged scrutiny, particularly over her mishandling of the Epstein files, which quickly became an Achilles' heel for the administration. An administration official told Blaze News that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is Trump's top pick to replace Bondi after the two met and discussed the role on Tuesday.
'We love Pam.'
Bondi is expected to become the second Cabinet official to leave the administration, following the departure of former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year," Trump announced in a Truth Social post. "Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900."
RELATED: 'Catching you red-handed!' Massie gets sassy with Bondi over Epstein redactions
"We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General," Trump added. "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Tensions over the attorney general's performance reached a fever pitch after Bondi apparently failed to adequately comply with the law, which Trump himself signed, requiring the release of all Epstein files, prompting calls for her removal.
RELATED: Trump makes big appearance in Epstein files — just not the way Democrats may have hoped
Critics noted that the release of these files was repeatedly delayed and that the files had been at times improperly redacted to protect potential co-conspirators while revealing the identity of alleged victims. In a heated House Oversight hearing back in February, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) ripped into Bondi over the Epstein files rollout, saying it was "literally the worst thing you could do to the survivors."
During this hearing, Bondi also attempted to argue that the Epstein files were just another Democrat ploy to distract from Trump's accomplishments, infamously noting that the Dow Jones had surpassed 50,000 points.
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Report REVEALS Kristi Noem's husband's alleged secret 'bimbofication' fetish
Social media was taken by storm this week when reporting by the Daily Mail revealed that Kristi Noem’s husband, Bryon Noem, was allegedly chatting up women from the “bimbofication” fetish scene.
However, not only was he allegedly praising the heavily augmented appearances of the women he spoke to — but he was allegedly sending them photos of himself wearing leggings, a flesh-colored, skintight suit, and what appear to be balloons mimicking large breasts under his top.
“I heard a really, really interesting story about this. So he [allegedly] liked to message online porn performers and send them money. Allegedly, he sent them up to $25,000. And the obvious place you go with this is, ‘Hey, his behavior could have left Kristi Noem vulnerable to blackmail,’” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments.
And according to an article from the New York Post, Noem herself responded that she was “blindsided.”
However, Gonzales isn’t buying it.
“Are you really blindsided by something like that? Like, you really have no idea that your husband likes to cross-dress and he’s sending up to $25,000 to online porn stars?” Gonzales asks.
“In our marriage,” Gonzales tells her husband, Stephen, “that just literally would not be possible to be blindsided by.”
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4 Republicans join Democrat effort to shield 350,000 Haitians from deportation
Four Republican lawmakers joined Democrats’ effort to keep 350,000 Haitians from losing their deportation protections.
Haiti was initially designated as a country with Temporary Protected Status by the Obama administration in 2010, following an earthquake that killed over 200,000 people and injured another 300,000. The administration contended that the 18-month designation was necessary because Haiti’s critical infrastructure had been severely impacted.
'For more than a year, my bill to extend TPS for Haiti has sat without a vote in the House of Representatives. That’s unacceptable.'
Following that initial designation, Haiti’s TPS status was extended and redesignated many times, with officials citing national disaster recovery, gang violence, and instability.
Under President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem terminated TPS for Haiti, announcing that the designation would expire in February 2026.
The DHS estimated that roughly 353,000 Haitian nationals and other foreign nationals who last resided in Haiti hold TPS.
Noem’s DHS declared that “there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety.”
“Moreover, even if the Department found that there existed conditions that were extraordinary and temporary that prevented Haitian nationals ... from returning in safety, termination of Temporary Protected Status of Haiti is still required because it is contrary to the national interest of the United States to permit Haitian nationals ... to remain temporarily in the United States,” the DHS stated.
However, in February, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stayed the termination, allowing the TPS designation to remain in effect.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) previously introduced H.R. 1689, a bill that would require DHS to designate Haiti for TPS for 18 months.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) presented a discharge petition in January to compel the House to vote on Gillen’s bill.
On Friday, the discharge petition received exactly the 218 House signatures required to move forward, after four Republicans — Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Penn.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), and Don Bacon (Neb.) — joined Democrats in signing it.
RELATED: Noem prepares to deport 500,000 immigrants from one long-troubled island
“Throughout the nation, Haitians are parents, workers, caregivers, faith leaders, business owners, and children who are deeply rooted in our communities, essential to our economy, and are shamefully at risk of being deported to an island grappling with a devastating humanitarian crisis," Pressley stated. "Today we are a critical step closer to saving lives and delivering the protections they deserve."
The House will vote on Pressley’s discharge resolution within the coming weeks. If it passes, lawmakers will hold a vote on H.R. 1689.
Lawler, who co-sponsored H.R. 1689, referred to the bill as “bipartisan legislation," insisting that the situation in Haiti remains "dire" due to "rampant gang violence, political instability, and a worsening humanitarian crisis."
“For more than a year, my bill to extend TPS for Haiti has sat without a vote in the House of Representatives. That’s unacceptable," Lawler stated after signing Pressley’s petition.
Salazar also released a statement in response to her decision to support the discharge petition.
“From Haiti to Venezuela, we have to get this right,” Salazar wrote in a post on social media. “TPS exists for a reason, to protect people who cannot safely return home.”
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The SAVE America Act won’t be enough to save the GOP from a midterm bloodbath
Turn on Fox News, scroll social media, or listen to talk radio, and one message comes through loud and clear: Many Republicans think the SAVE America Act is the key to saving the GOP in the November midterms.
It is not.
The SAVE America Act is not a magic wand. It will not erase 14 months of drift, dysfunction, and broken promises.
Yes, requiring proof of citizenship to register and identification to vote is necessary. Yes, most Americans, regardless of party, support the idea. But Republicans are kidding themselves if they think that alone will persuade voters to reward them in November.
The rot runs much deeper, and no “one simple trick” will fix it.
Trump surged to victory in 2024 on promises to change the country’s direction in dramatic ways. Fourteen months later, too many of those promises remain unfulfilled. Some died at the hands of weak and ineffective congressional leadership. Others were thwarted by feckless Cabinet officials, such as the new czarina of the Shield of the Americas, Kristi Noem. Others fell victim to Trump’s own choices.
The core promises were clear: mass deportations, a stronger economy, lower inflation, and no new long-term foreign entanglements. Those themes helped Trump assemble a broad coalition, including a majority of young men, and deliver the biggest Republican Electoral College victory since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Now, with just over seven months until the midterms, nearly all of those promises remain unmet or badly compromised. Facts aren’t partisan — they are just facts.
Start with immigration. For all the left’s hysteria over ICE raids, Trump has deported fewer people than Barack Obama did in the first year of his second term. That came after four years of unprecedented illegal immigration under Biden. The promise of mass deportation remains unfulfilled.
Congress hasn’t helped. Ineffective Republican leadership has let the Department of Homeland Security go without funding for over a month, slowing deportation efforts while creating chaos at airports as TSA employees go unpaid. The public sees dysfunction, not competence.
RELATED: Mullin inherits a mess at DHS. Here’s how he can still save Trump’s legacy.
Then comes the economy.
The cost of living has not gone down. Signs point the other way. Inflation could surge past 4% as energy prices rise because of the war with Iran. Food prices remain high and may climb higher as petroleum-based fertilizer gets more expensive just before planting season. Homes remain unaffordable to most Americans. The job market sits on the edge of an AI-fueled bust. The promised relief in the form of larger tax refund checks has not materialized.
The labor market struggles as rampant H-1B visa abuse keeps importing cheaper foreign labor into high-paying STEM jobs that Americans want and are trained to do. Trump and Republican leaders still talk about H-1B as though it were a strategic advantage rather than a direct threat to their own voters.
Guess what? Voters have noticed.
Recent polling shows Democrat James Talarico leading both Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn in Texas. Former Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper holds a commanding lead in the race to replace Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina. Even in Maine, the Democrat challenger accused of sporting a Nazi tattoo leads Sen. Susan Collins.
RELATED: Texas Democrats just gave Republicans a gift-wrapped hypocrisy story
The bad numbers do not stop there. A glance at RealClearPolitics tells the terrifying tale.
Special elections are just as ugly. In those races, including the district that encompasses Mar-a-Lago, Democrats have run strongly among independent voters, the very bloc that helped solidify Trump’s 2024 coalition.
That is the problem Republicans refuse to face. The SAVE America Act is a common-sense bill, and Congress should pass it. Elections should be protected from ineligible voters. But the bill is not a magic wand. It will not erase 14 months of drift, dysfunction, and broken promises. It will not lower prices, deport illegal aliens, fix the job market, or persuade disillusioned independents to come back home.
Republicans do not face a midterm problem because they have failed to pass one bill. They face a midterm problem because they have failed to deliver on the reasons voters put them back in power.
Oklahoma governor names political outsider to replace Markwayne Mullin
Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma went outside the world of politics to fill the Senate seat of newly confirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
On Tuesday morning, Stitt tapped energy executive Alan Armstrong following Mullin's Senate confirmation Monday night. Mullin is now set to be sworn in Tuesday afternoon to replace current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who leaves the department on March 31.
'He's a strong business leader.'
Stitt first praised President Donald Trump in a press conference Tuesday morning, applauding him for selecting Mullin to head the DHS. He also congratulated Mullin before naming Armstrong as his temporary replacement.
"I'm incredibly proud now to announce that my pick as the next U.S. senator of the state of Oklahoma is Mr. Alan Armstrong," Stitt said at the press conference.
RELATED: Trump's new DHS pick sails through Senate confirmation despite lone GOP defection
Stitt referred to Armstrong's extensive career in the energy industry, serving as CEO and president of Williams Companies, a Tulsa-based energy firm. He later stepped down to serve as executive chairman of the board of directors at Williams Companies last year and previously chaired the Department of Energy's National Petroleum Council.
"He's a strong business leader who understands the power of free markets and limited government," Stitt said. "He's spent his career fighting for Oklahoma's energy industry and providing affordable, reliable energy to all of America."
RELATED: Trump adds new condition to ICE airport plan in DHS shutdown fight
Armstrong will serve the short remainder of Mullin's term, which ends in January 2027.
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Kristi Noem Speaks Out After Claims Her Husband Lives a Cross-Dressing Double Life | 4/1/26