Trump FEMA Official Has History of ‘Violent Rhetoric’ and Claimed He Teleported to a Waffle House

Screenshot via CSPAN

Gregg Phillips, the head of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, has a history of violent political rhetoric and claims of teleporting to a Waffle House that are now out in the open, thanks to a new report.

CNN’s KFile released a report on Friday that included a deep-dive into Phillips’s past social media posts and podcast appearances. Phillips has talked in recent years about everything from his supposed teleporting adventures to 2024 election conspiracies and more. Phillips moved into his position in December.

Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck, and Gabe Cohen reported extensively on Phillips’s past comments just one week before he’s set to testify to the House Homeland Security Committee about the current Department of Homeland Security shutdown. Lawmakers may also end up asking Phillips about some his wilder and more extreme comments when that time comes.

In a January 2025 appearance on the Onward podcast, Phillips claimed he teleported when he was just trying to get some Waffle House:

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. And they said, “where are you?” and I said, “A Waffle House.” And “a Waffle House where?” And I said, “Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.” And they said, “That’s not possible, you just left here a moment ago.” But it was possible. It was real.

“Teleporting is no fun,” Phillips warned. “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 um – but so real.”

He called it an “incredible adventure.” He also claimed that his truck was once lifted 40 feet off the ground and he was carried from somewhere in Albany, Georgia to a ditch outside of a church.

Phillips also often spoke about his 2024 presidential election conspiracy theories, sometimes growing particularly angry with Democrats like former President Joe Biden.

“I would like to punch that b*tch in the mouth right now,” Phillips said in January 2025 about Biden. “He is a nasty, sh*tty, crappy human being, and he deserves to die. And I hope he does.”

In a 2019 post from a deleted social media account, Phillips also raged at Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

“You to to [sic] hold yourself responsible and lose 100 pounds you fat*ss. Seriously, don’t you care about yourself, your family, the Congress? Being a pig is a choice,” he wrote.

Phillips’s concerns went beyond the election, with him also urging listeners in 2023 to learn to shoot and maneuver tactically because a Chinese army was being secretly put together inside the United States.

“We’ve got Chinese migrants or foreign fighting force moving into the United States and about to cross our border from Texas to California. And there’s really not much we could do about it, y’all,” he said.

A FEMA spokesperson responded to the report, dismissing it as “silly.”

The spox said:

This is so silly it’s barely worth acknowledging. DHS, FEMA, and Mr. Phillips are focused on the critical mission of emergency management and ensuring the safety of the American people. Many of the comments cited are taken out of context or represent personal, informal, jovial, and somewhat spiritual discussions made in the context of barely surviving cancer; in a private capacity prior to his current role.

The report also notes that officials within FEMA had initial concerns about Phillips and his lack of experience, “[b]ut after a few weeks, several of them told CNN that, to their surprise, Phillips’ hands-on involvement during the spate of storms had softened some of their doubts.”

Check out the full KFile report here.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!