'Every week, the president would call': Mullin recalls Trump’s kindness during son’s health crisis

WASHINGTON, DC: Senator Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla, revealed during his Senate Homeland Security nomination hearing on Wednesday, March 18, that he became close to President Donald Trump after he cared for and helped him and his family following his son’s severe brain injury.

During the hearing, Senator Gary Peters (D) asked Mullin, “How would you characterize your relationship with President Trump?”

Markwayne Mullin calls Donald Trump his friend

“He's a he's a friend,” the 48-year-old politician replied. He also noted that he mostly speaks with the Republican leader “about my family.”

Mullin then became visibly emotional as he shared, “It's not about President Trump, it's about my son. So my son was a really world class athlete and January 17th of 2020, which mind you was an election year, he had a really serious brain injury. Woke up 26 hours later, he's a different kid. We almost lost him.”

Markwayne Mullin recalls Donald Trump's act of kindness

He further said how Trump became a pillar of support for him and his family. “The president found out about it and he gave me a call immediately. The president didn't understand the severity of it, but he heard it in my voice and immediately went to work,” he noted.

Mullin said that he informed Trump that he had to take his son “to Bakersfield, California, to the Center for Neural Skills, which is one of the best neural rehabilitation places in the world. And the president offered to send his plane, his personal plane, this is the president of the United States.”

The businessman also told the members of the hearing that though he did not use Trump’s plane, the commander in chief used to call him everyday “for two weeks checking on Jim. And then he says, I'm going to come see. And now this is the middle of the election. This is Bakersfield, California. Really not an area he's got to go campaign.”

Markwayne Mullin says Trump's worried for his son because he 'cared'

Mullin noted that despite running “one of the toughest elections,” Trump was worried about his son.

He added, “He didn't do it for any other reason. I mean, here's the president of the United States and he did it just because he cared and so when you want to say why he's a friend. Yeah, we were acquaintances before that. We've been friends ever since. Thank you.”

During the hearing, Mullin said Trump even came to visit his son once. “For the next 15 minutes, he did nothing but love on my son,” he stated.