FEMA chief – Gregg Phillips, the FEMA official who previously claimed he could teleport, has been removed as head of the agency’s Office of Response and Recovery after leadership frustration over his public remarks and clashes with senior officials. DHS and FEMA gave diffe
Gregg Phillips didn’t just end up in the middle of a bureaucratic fight at FEMA—he arrived there with a controversy already following him.
Phillips was pushed out as head of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery after leadership became frustrated with what it viewed as ongoing problems tied to his past public statements and repeated clashes with senior officials. The departure came after he joined FEMA in December 2025, when he was appointed by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Homeland Security said Phillips left FEMA due to “personal reasons.” FEMA. however. offered a different tone in its statement: the agency thanked Phillips for his “service. dedication and leadership” as he took leave for personal reasons. and credited him with having “played a pivotal role in stabilizing the Office of Response and Recovery and advancing key reforms to strengthen our mission delivery.” It added that his leadership was “instrumental in guiding FEMA’s response to Typhoon Sinlaku and the 2026 winter storm in the Southeast.”.
Phillips’s exit also lands in a larger political churn around Noem. Noem was later removed by Trump in March after criticism over her handling of the killing of U.S. citizens by ICE.
Phillips’s appointment became a flashpoint almost immediately. His background included work as a conservative activist who promoted election fraud conspiracy theories, made inflammatory political remarks, and—most dramatically—publicly claimed he had the power of teleportation.
Before joining FEMA. Phillips led the Mississippi Department of Human Services and served as deputy commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. He also authored a widely shared, evidence-free tweet claiming that between three and five million noncitizens voted in the 2016 election.
He later served as executive producer of Dinesh D’Souza’s film 2000 Mules, a project that promoted a discredited conspiracy theory about the 2020 election, in partnership with the Texas-based group True the Vote.
The teleportation story itself wasn’t a one-off joke. On a January 2025 episode of the “Onward” podcast cohosted by conservative activist Catherine Engelbrecht. Phillips recounted what he described as multiple teleportation experiences. He said he was with “my boys” and told them he was going to Waffle House. then ended up at a Waffle House about 50 miles away from where he said he started. which he placed in Georgia. He added that his sons questioned how he could have gotten there so quickly. and he said. “But it was possible.”.
Phillips also described teleporting as uncomfortable. saying. “teleporting is no fun.” He elaborated: “It’s no fun because you don’t really know what you’re doing. You don’t really understand it. It’s scary. but yet — but so real. ” adding that he believes he’s teleported multiple times and has questioned whether the experiences were “evil” or “good.”.
When Trump was asked about Phillips’s teleportation remarks, he appeared unfamiliar with the claims. In comments tied to the questions. Trump said he found them “strange. ” asked what “teleport” even meant. and told reporters. “Was he kidding?” After being told Phillips appeared serious. Trump replied. “I don’t know anything about teleporting. … It just sounds a little strange, but I know nothing about teleporting or him. But I’ll find out about it right now.”.
A reporter who attempted to verify Phillips’s story was unable to find employees at any of the three Waffle House locations in Rome, Ga., who remembered seeing him or recalled any teleportation incident.
Despite that, Phillips has continued to defend his claims publicly, pointing to biblical accounts of supernatural transportation. When faced with criticism, he summed up his response in an online comment that read, “Haters gonna hate.”
Even as the teleportation controversy lingered. the stakes in this new chapter inside FEMA were blunt: Phillips’s leadership—his role in stabilizing the Office of Response and Recovery and guiding response efforts to Typhoon Sinlaku and the 2026 winter storm in the Southeast—is now paired with an abrupt end to his tenure after internal frustration and repeated clashes with senior officials.
Gregg Phillips FEMA Office of Response and Recovery teleportation claims Typhoon Sinlaku 2026 winter storm in the Southeast Kristi Noem Donald Trump Waffle House teleportation story election fraud conspiracy theories 2000 Mules