Trump Appoints 22-Year-Old Former Grocery Store Clerk to Run DHS Terrorism Unit

Screenshots via LinkedIn.

The person President Donald Trump appointed to head a key anti-terrorism unit is a 22-year-old recent college graduate whose résumé is mostly short-term internships and working in a grocery store.

Oh, and two months mowing lawns.

But no apparent national security experience, other than what one might learn in an undergraduate political science class.

Thomas Fugate, who graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio last year, is now heading the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (commonly referred to as “CP3”) at the Department of Homeland Security.

A ProPublica report Wednesday on Fugate’s appointment noted that CP3’s mission had shifted under the Trump administration, pivoting away from domestic terrorism, hate crimes and extremism, and school shootings to instead focus on immigration issues like drug cartels and border security.

According to ProPublica, Fugate was first hired as a “special assistant” on immigration within DHS in February. He was appointed to head CP3 in May after the previous director — an Army veteran with over two decades of national security experience — resigned in May amid the sweeping staff and budget cuts implemented by the new administration. Originally employing roughly 80 people, CP3 is now down to fewer than 20.

Regardless of how CP3’s mission is defined or reduced, Fugate seems woefully unqualified to hold a significant role there, much less lead it. Sources familiar with CP3’s operations told ProPublica that someone with so little experience would never have even gotten an interview for a junior position there in the past:

“Maybe he’s a wunderkind. Maybe he’s Doogie Howser and has everything at 21 years old, or whatever he is, to lead the office. But that’s not likely the case,” said one counterterrorism researcher who has worked with CP3 officials for years. “It sounds like putting the intern in charge.”

When contacted for comment by ProPublica, a senior DHS official defended Fugate’s hiring in a statement that said that “[d]ue to his success, he has been temporarily given additional leadership responsibilities in the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships office,” as “a credit to his work ethic and success on the job.”

Scrolling through Fugate’s LinkedIn page, it’s difficult to interpret anything posted there as supporting his professional elevation by the Trump administration.

His listed experience is merely a series of short-term internships and entry-level jobs, described with the sort of flowery language that is often deployed to bolster a thin résumé. There are a total of nine internships, all five months or less, except one ten-month program through an institute at the University of Texas at Austin. One of those internships was at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the news for its role in spawning Project 2025.

For example, Fugate described two internships he held for three months and five months, respectively, as exhibiting skills in “Community Outreach” and “Networking” but it sounds like he was answering the phones and serving as a research clerk.

He also declared himself to be a “Landscape Business Owner” for mowing and weeding his neighbors’ lawns for two months as a teenager.

Screenshot via LinkedIn.

And note how Fugate described his part-time job during college at H-E-B, a Texas-based grocery store chain. What he is calling being a “cross functional team member” and “fulfilling key duties contributing to store operations” sure sounds like stock clerk, a role that would entail changing sale price signs, replenishing items on shelves, “blocking” products (pulling them to the front of the shelf and lining them up neatly), cleaning up spills and litter, and other general housekeeping tasks. It is not in any way a managerial role.

Screenshot via LinkedIn.

This part-time grocery store gig overlapped with two other short-term internships with the Texas Legislature, again sounding like he was answering phones and doing basic research. Perhaps he made some photocopies on occasion.

Screenshot via LinkedIn.

The last job Fugate held before getting on the DHS payroll was five months as an “advance team member” on Trump’s presidential campaign. Fugate would have been one of the many staffers sent around the country “in advance” of campaign events, performing tasks like setting up chairs and check-in tables, testing lights and sound systems, and unpacking and hanging campaign signage and merchandise.

Again, this was not in any way, shape, or form a management role.

Screenshot via LinkedIn.

Fugate may wish to consider updated his LinkedIn profile not just to add his new job, but also to edit his welcome post, which touts his time in the Model United Nations Club “leading a diverse group of over 100 members,” since “diversity” is now the sort of word being targeted for purges by this White House.

Screenshot via LinkedIn.

If Fugate’s heretical support for “diversity” doesn’t get him excommunicated by this White House, ProPublica’s reporters described several theories circulating among former DHS personnel and counterterrorism experts to explain why such a rookie was hired to head CP3, neither of which are particularly flattering for Fugate.

One theory is that it was just an empty title awarded to an enthusiastic Gen Z campaign staffer to hold “little real power because the office is in shambles” after all the budget cuts. Another related theory is that the White House’s intention is to wind down CP3’s counterterrorism work, shift resources to “MAGA-friendly sheriffs and border security projects,” and then terminate CP3’s functions completely, with Fugate serving as a “minder” or “babysitter” for the shutdown.