President Donald Trump‘s top federal disaster response official, who previously claimed he possessed the power of teleportation, has been pushed out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Gregg Phillips was removed as head of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery after leadership grew frustrated with the controversy surrounding his past public statements and repeated clashes with senior officials.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, offered a different explanation for his departure.
“FEMA thanks Mr. Phillips for his service, dedication and leadership as he takes leave for personal reasons,” the department said.
A separate FEMA statement provided to The Washington Post, which first reported Phillips’ departure, 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 had been “instrumental in guiding FEMA’s response to Typhoon Sinlaku and the 2026 winter storm in the Southeast.”
Appointment and controversy
Phillips joined FEMA in December 2025 after being appointed by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Noem was later removed by Trump in March following criticism over her handling of the killing of U.S. citizens by ICE.
His appointment immediately drew scrutiny because of his history as a conservative activist who promoted election fraud conspiracy theories, made inflammatory political remarks and publicly claimed he had teleported.
Phillips previously 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.
Phillips later served as executive producer of Dinesh D’Souza‘s film 2000 Mules, which promoted a discredited conspiracy theory about the 2020 election, in partnership with the Texas-based group True the Vote.
The teleportation claims
On a January 2025 episode of the “Onward” podcast cohosted by conservative activist Catherine Engelbrecht, Phillips recounted one of his several alleged experiences with teleportation.
“I was with my boys one time and I was telling them I was gonna go to Waffle House and get Waffle House. And I ended up at a Waffle House — this was in Georgia, and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was,” he claimed.
The restaurant was in Rome, Ga., he said, adding that his sons questioned how got there so quickly. “But it was possible,” he said.
He then claimed that “teleporting is no fun.”
“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,” Phillips continued, noting that he believes he’s teleported multiple times and has questioned whether the experiences were “evil” or “good.”
Trump appeared unfamiliar with Phillips’ claims when asked about them by CNN.
“What does teleport mean? Was he kidding?” Trump asked. 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’ 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.
Still, Phillips has continued to defend the claims publicly, citing biblical accounts of supernatural transportation. He summed up his response to the criticism in one online comment, writing simply, “Haters gonna hate.”