Second Trump administration
In the second Trump administration, McLaughlin served as spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the first year of the administration and became one of its most vocal defenders. [5] [6] [7] [8] In an interview with The New York Times in January 2026, she described herself as "in charge of everything" that the Department of Homeland Security put on social media. [9] She became the face and voice of the administration's aggressive immigration enforcement. [10] [11] [12] [3] [13] MS Now called her "possibly the most quoted person in the administration besides Trump". [14] The Washington Post said she had "built a reputation as a fierce defender of the administration’s handling of immigration and of the secretary’s leadership". [10] She often issued statements in support of actions of federal officers before incidents had been investigated; in some prominent cases her statements were later contradicted by video footage or court testimony. [10] [15] [13]
In a December 2025 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, McLaughlin said of her communications approach: "Is it often aggressive? Yes, but I think it's also incredibly effective." [2] The New York Times reported in February of 2026 that the DHS said McLaughlin "had received an increasing number of threats, including those made to her family". [16] On January 13, 2026, Ricardo Antonio and Emilio Roman-Flores, twin brothers from Absecon, New Jersey, were arrested for threatening to hang McLaughlin. [17] [18] [19]
Following the killing of Renée Good, McLaughlin wrote on social media: "Dangerous criminals — whether they be illegal aliens or U.S. citizens — are turning their vehicles into weapons to attack ICE". [20] [21] Following the killing of Alex Pretti, McLaughlin told news outlets that Pretti "violently resisted" immigration officers and appeared to be "an individual [who] wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement". [22] On January 27, 2026, Fox News host Dana Perino pressed McLaughlin on her labelling of Pretti as a "domestic terrorist". [23] McLaughlin did not directly answer Perino's question. [23]
Following January 2026 posts from official DHS accounts that included the slogan "WE'LL HAVE OUR HOME AGAIN.", the name of a song written by members of a self-described "pro-White fraternal order," The New York Times characterized McLaughlin as "mainstreaming racism" by tying the agency's posts to the anthem. [9]
McLaughlin characterized federal judges who had issued rulings limiting the powers of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers as “unhinged,” “deranged”, "out of control", "craven" and “disgusting and immoral” and accused them of engaging in "judicial sabotage". [10] [24] Her public statements about the administration's motivations "undermine[d] the administration's legal arguments" according to Mark Joseph Stern, writing for Slate ; attorneys suing the administration used her statements to refute federal attorneys' arguments in court in multiple prominent cases. [24] [13]
On 17 February 2026, Politico reported that DHS officials, speaking anonymously, said McLaughlin would be leaving DHS the following week. [25] [26] The report indicated McLaughlin had started planning her exit from DHS in December 2025 but had delayed her departure after the Good and Pretti killings in Minneapolis. [25] McLaughlin told the Cincinnati Enquirer her last day would be February 27. [2] McLaughlin's deputy Lauren Bis was named as her replacement and Katie Zacharia as Bis's replacement as deputy assistant secretary. [27] [28] [29]
