Gregg Phillips has gone on leave from FEMA after controversy over his claim that he teleported to a Waffle House, reports. The agency said Thursday that he is no longer serving in his former office, and an acting successor has taken over.
Phillips had been tapped to lead FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, one of the agency’s most consequential posts. reported in March that he had claimed more than once that he was involuntarily teleported, including one episode that sent him to a Waffle House 50 miles away.
FEMA Office of Response and Recovery
The office Phillips led handles search-and-rescue operations, emergency aid, infrastructure restoration and the distribution of billions of dollars in disaster assistance. That put him in charge of decisions affecting how FEMA responds when disasters strain local capacity and when federal aid has to move quickly.
The timing also matters inside FEMA. Politico reported in late May that the Trump administration was approaching hurricane season with the smallest disaster workforce since 2021, a huge backlog of state aid requests and 15 vacancies in top emergency management jobs.
Trump and the White House
Phillips had already drawn scrutiny before Thursday’s change. In April, Donald Trump said his assertions were “a little strange,” and the White House contacted the Department of Homeland Security and urged officials to either “remove Phillips or keep him out of public view.”
The Washington Post reported that the FEMA official had gone on leave, while the agency’s statement said he was no longer serving in his former office. That leaves the practical result in place — he is out of the job he held — even if the label on the departure is still split between leave and removal.
For FEMA, the immediate question is operational, not political: who is making the day-to-day calls in a role that moves disaster aid and recovery money. The acting successor now holds Phillips’ seat, and the agency has shifted on from the official whose Waffle House claim became the defining detail of his tenure.
