President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem from the Department of Homeland Security purchased shares in American oil firm Chevron five days before the U.S. attacked Venezuela, which subsequently saw the company’s stock price surge.
Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin purchased stock of the only major American oil company producing in Venezuela, on Dec. 29, 2025, according to disclosure reports. The purchases were valued between $15,001 and $50,000, according to investment research site Quiver Quantitative.
On Jan. 3, 2026, Trump attacked Venezuela and kidnapped its president, Nicolás Maduro, and extradited him to the U.S.
Since Mullin, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, purchased the Chevron shares in late 2025, they have leapt from $150.99 to $196.82 — an increase of 30.4 percent, as of March 13.
There is no indication that Mullin had insider knowledge of Trump’s plans to attack Venezuela before he bought the shares.
The revelation, first reported by The Oklahoman in January, comes as Mullin is scheduled to go before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to become Trump’s new Homeland Security Secretary.
Mullin was described as “one of the most prolific stock buyers in Congress” in a report this weekend by The New York Times, which also revealed that the Republican has bought and sold shares in companies that have held contracts with the department he is seeking to run.
They include Microsoft, aircraft repairs firm VSE Corporation and defense contractor RTX, the Times reports.
“Senator Mullin uses an independent, third-party operator firm that manages all stock investments on his behalf,” Mullin’s spokesperson said in a statement to The Independent.
“This independent firm currently reports with Senate Ethics in compliance with federal law,” the spokesperson continued. “If confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Senator Mullin will act to ensure full compliance with all ethics and conflict of interest rules.”
Mullin has seen his personal wealth soar since he joined the Senate three years ago. In 2024, his assets were worth between $29 million and $97 million compared with $2.8 million to $9 million in 2012, the Times reports, citing financial disclosure forms.
In recent years, stories of members of Congress trading stocks and potentially using information they are privy to as lawmakers, particularly from the committees they sit on, has raised the urgency level of the issue.
Mullin, a former MMA fighter, also sits on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Committee on Indian Affairs and the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
While members of Congress are not legally prohibited from trading stock, there is overwhelming public support to ban them from doing so.
The president called for action on congressional stock trading during his State of the Union address last month. “Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay to ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information,” he said.
And Noem was ousted following scrutiny of conflicts of interest over contracts and spending during her tenure at the DHS.
Ethical watchdogs say that the freedom members of Congress enjoy to buy and sell stocks “make it hard for Americans to know if their representatives are acting in the public interest or making decisions to benefit themselves,” the Times noted.
“These people have whole staffs dedicated to collecting information and putting it in a neat pile on their desk,” Delaney Marsco, director of ethics for the non-profit Campaign Legal Center, told the outlet. “They have access to members of industry, lobbyists who are talking to them all day, trying to get their ear.”
Mullin is expected to be confirmed by the Senate this week, while Noem will leave her post on March 31.
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