{"id":42047,"date":"2025-05-08T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42047"},"modified":"2025-05-08T23:05:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T04:05:35","slug":"fema-chief-fired-after-breaking-with-trump-on-disaster-agencys-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42047","title":{"rendered":"FEMA chief fired after breaking with Trump on disaster agency&#8217;s future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Summary<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Acting head of FEMA fired day after saying he opposes abolishing agency<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Trump and Homeland Security chief Noem have suggested FEMA could be scrapped<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Abrupt leadership change comes weeks before start to critical hurricane season<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Cameron Hamilton, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been ousted from his position by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a day after he told lawmakers in a hearing that he did not support eliminating his agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The leadership change comes at a time when the agency, which is in charge of coordinating the federal government&#8217;s response to disasters, is helping states and local communities prepare for the onset of hurricane season on June 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Hamilton, a former Navy SEAL who was tapped to lead FEMA in January at the start of President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term, will be replaced by David Richardson, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Trump and Noem have been critical of FEMA and both have suggested shrinking or eliminating the agency entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Hamilton appeared to go&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/head-disaster-relief-agency-fema-reassures-staff-after-trump-criticism-2025-01-26\/\"><u>against Trump<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;and Noem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,&#8221; Hamilton said in response to a question by Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Hamilton acknowledged it was not his decision to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;That is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEEP LEARNING CURVE<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Hamilton had been leading efforts to reform the agency, overseeing steep cuts to staffing and proposing that FEMA reduce assistance to states for less serious disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Some 2,000 FEMA employees have accepted&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-emergency-agency-plan-requires-nearly-all-staff-be-deployed-draft-memo-shows-2025-04-24\/\"><u>incentives to leave or were terminated<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;since the start of the Trump administration, shrinking its full-time staff by about one third, according to Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff under the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Deanne Criswell, who led FEMA for four years under Biden, said Richardson faced a tough challenge in quickly learning how the agency operates and establishing relationships with key staff with just weeks before hurricane season hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;He&#8217;s probably got less emergency management experience than Hamilton did,&#8221; Criswell said. &#8220;It just really puts them in an even more vulnerable and weaker spot come June 1.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">FEMA staff were informed of Hamilton&#8217;s departure and Richardson&#8217;s appointment in a brief message from the acting chief of staff on Thursday afternoon. A FEMA spokesperson did not provide a reason for the leadership change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Richardson, who did not immediately respond to call or email requests for comment, is a former Marine officer and combat veteran, according to his DHS profile. He was most recently assistant secretary for DHS&#8217; office for countering weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Hamilton was seen by some FEMA officials as a leader who was supportive of the agency and who understood the importance of its work, despite Trump&#8217;s public criticism of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;President Trump fires anyone who is not blindly loyal to him. Acting Administrator Hamilton has proven his dedication to serving the American people,&#8221; DeLauro said in a statement, calling on the administration to explain why he was removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Hamilton&#8217;s image had been missing from FEMA&#8217;s intranet for several days, leading some staff to suspect he would be leaving, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, U.S. Representative Mark Green, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, posted on X that Hamilton &#8220;has done a fantastic job.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Hamilton reposted the comment on Thursday morning, adding, &#8220;Thank you, I look forward to our continued work.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/acting-fema-chief-abruptly-ousted-ahead-us-hurricane-season-2025-05-08\/\">reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Cameron Hamilton, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been ousted from his position by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a day after he told lawmakers in a hearing that he did not support eliminating his agency. The leadership change comes at a time when the agency, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":42048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21812,1609,1230],"class_list":["post-42047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-fema","tag-fired","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42049,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42047\/revisions\/42049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}