Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., on Thursday indicated that he had not expected President Donald Trump to contact him for the Department of Homeland Security secretary post, after the president tapped him to replace DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting the call today. But super excited,” he said, according to The Hill. “There’s a lot of work we can do to get the Department of Homeland Security working for the American people. The Department of Homeland Security has a very broad jurisdiction and I think there’s a lot of work we need to do and I’m excited."

Trump announced Noem's firing on Thursday and Mullin's selection as her replacement. The move followed Trump's reported fury with Noem over her telling Congress he had signed off on a $200 million ad campaign she launched, featuring herself.

Noem had faced backlash over her response to the deaths of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demonstrators in Minneapolis, Minn.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.