ICYMI: The Daily Show Roasts Trump's FEMA Chief Who Claims He Teleported to Waffle House
WASHINGTON, DC - In case you missed it, the Trump administration placed Gregg Phillips—a self-described "very vocal opponent of FEMA"—in charge of the agency's Office of Response and Recovery, the position that controls the federal government's entire disaster response operation. Phillips has no documented professional experience in emergency management at any level. What he does have is experience in conspiracy: Phillips has claimed to have been involuntarily teleported on multiple occasions—including 50 miles to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.
The Daily Show has turned Phillips's bizarre claims into a devastating sketch that highlights just how unqualified and unserious Trump's disaster chief really is. This isn't incompetence by accident—it's a deliberate pattern of the administration putting ideology over the lives of disaster survivors.
Phillips's resumé reads like a greatest hits of extremism and conspiracy theories:
He's a central figure in the 2020 election-denial movement who was jailed for contempt of court in 2022 after defying a federal judge's order.
Just weeks before assuming his FEMA role, he said of President Biden: "I would like to punch that b*tch in the mouth right now. He deserves to die."
The Department of Homeland Security defended these comments as "personal, informal, jovial, and somewhat spiritual."
Phillips’ role is to manage search-and-rescue deployments, emergency aid distribution, and the allocation of billions in disaster assistance when communities are at their most vulnerable. He is a danger to communities across the country and a danger to FEMA’s relief efforts as a whole.
###
