Sen. Mullin highlighted for his efforts to boost Trump's nominees and document the confirmation process
Despite Senate Democrats exploiting every procedural rule imaginable to block or delay President Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, Senate Republicans have worked consistently over the past few weeks to see each and every one of those nominees confirmed thus far.
Cheering on and documenting the at-times grueling confirmation process nearly every step of the way has been Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who's made effective use of his social media accounts to provide real-time updates to his followers multiple times per day, according to The Oklahoman.
Mullin's efforts have not gone unnoticed, including by some of his fellow Republican senators, one of whom credited his Oklahoma colleague with helping to keep him informed of the ever-changing schedule for upcoming confirmation hearings and votes.
Thoroughly documenting the confirmation process
"It gives me something to do," Sen. Mullin told reporters this week of his busy social media activity about the confirmation process for President Trump's Cabinet nominees. "I’m not kidding … It gives me a purpose, a drive, but I’m more personally connected than I’d say most people are."
Given that he was first elected in 2022, this is the first time that Mullin has been able to participate in the full confirmation process for a new administration, and he has made the most of it by getting personally involved in boosting the nominees with the media and other senators while tracking their progress through meetings, hearings, and eventual floor votes.
He has even helped guide some of the nominees around Capitol Hill as they meet with other lawmakers and attended hearings at committees he's not a member of to speak in support of some of those nominees.
All of that and more has been documented at length in dozens of posts on the senator's X account over the past month, which has come in handy for some of his colleagues who aren't keeping as close of an eye on what is happening and when.
"If I want to know what the schedule is, I can check out my Twitter feed, but obviously we all kind of do our own thing when it comes to social media," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said. "And [Mullin]’s found a niche that he seems to enjoy, and I think it can prove to be useful."
Previously befriended many of the eventual nominees
The Oklahoman reported that one of the reasons why Sen. Mullin appears to be so invested in the confirmation process for President Trump's nominees, per the senator himself, is that he got to know and became friends with many of them while traveling together during Trump's re-election campaign last year.
"President Trump never wanted to put the cart before the horse, so he never talked about cabinet positions at all, but us on the plane did," Mullin revealed in the interview.
"Just a group of us talking just about it. 'Who do you think would be good at this one?' It was a constant conversation," he added. "And I’m not saying everybody we discussed, obviously, got in, but a lot of them we just -- like I said, it’s been an intriguing nomination process my first time to go through it."
Celebrating the wins
Most recently, Sen. Mullin made at least a dozen or more X posts in support of FBI Director Kash Patel, including a video posted on Thursday following the controversial nominee's 51-49 confirmation vote in which the senator spiked a football in his office in celebration of the victory.
On Friday, Mullin posted a collage of all 19 of President Trump's Cabinet nominees who've been confirmed thus far and wrote, "Next week, @POTUS will host his FIRST cabinet meeting. It's a full house. @SenateGOP is 19-0 on confirmations, and the clock is still running on the remaining 4 cabinet-level spots: UN, TRADE, LABOR, & ED."
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a friend and ally of Mullin, told reporters of his colleague's extra efforts, "He’s been very active in cabinet nominees, and that’s good. He’s helped President Trump, as we all have tried to, and he’s done a good job -- as well as everybody else in our conference."