President Donald Trump has responded to bizarre claims made by one of his top FEMA officials

Gregg Phillips, a far-right conspiracy theorist who now leads FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, has previously claimed to have teleported multiple times, including once to a Waffle House 50 miles away

"It just sounds a little strange," Trump said when asked about Phillips' statements, "but I know nothing about teleporting or him"

President Donald Trump has responded to bizarre claims made by one of his top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Gregg Phillips, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has been previously cited by the president for his baseless claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election, was tapped to lead FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery in December 2025.

However, months prior, Phillips made some eyebrow-raising statements on his Onward podcast with Catherine Engelbrecht. He claimed that he had teleported multiple times in the past, including once to a Waffle House "like, 50 miles away from where I was."

Trump was asked about Phillips' now-viral comments in a brief phone interview with CNN last week. “What does teleport mean? Was he kidding?” the president, 79, asked.

The interviewer said that Phillips, 65, was not kidding. In fact, after the initial comments made headlines, he doubled down on the claim, posting on Truth Social, “God will not be mocked. People can debate me. Question me. Even ridicule what they don’t understand... I know what I’ve experienced. I know Who I serve.”

In response, Trump admitted, “I don’t know anything about teleporting. … It just sounds a little strange, but I know nothing about teleporting or him, but I’ll find out about it right now.”

Despite the president's claim that he "knows nothing" about Phillips, the former human services official in Mississippi and Texas would theoretically have undergone extensive vetting to earn a senior position at FEMA, which falls under the purview of the formerly Kristi Noem-led Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management lays out the requirements for vetting federal employees on its website.

"The vetting process is crucial to maintaining the public’s trust in the federal workforce," it reads. "It typically includes a background investigation to decide whether an individual can be trusted. The depth of the background investigation increases with the level of responsibility and trust a position requires."

As one of the top-ranked FEMA officials, Phillips' appointment last winter was a crucial hire, with blizzards and severe storms causing issues across the country. His bizarre claims and background in peddling election conspiracy theories have since raised concerns about how effective he would be in a nonpartisan crisis management role.

In the same January 2025 episode of Onward, according to CNN, Phillips also threatened violence against former President Joe Biden, saying, “I would like to punch that b---- in the mouth right now. He is a nasty, s---y, crappy human being, and he deserves to die. And I hope he does.”

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Phillips has previously worked with True the Vote, a nonprofit Engelbrecht founded, which purports to focus on "empowering citizens to safeguard the electoral process and to protect their vote from fraud."

They were featured in Dinesh D’Souza's since-discredited 2022 documentary 2,000 Mules, claiming to have uncovered widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Those claims were later refuted by the rulings in more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump and his supporters.

A CNN KFile review of Phillips also found "deleted posts... directing deeply personal attacks at Democratic officials and spreading a conspiracy theory following President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election."

A FEMA spokesperson responded to CNN at the time about their claims regarding Phillips with a statement saying, “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," the FEMA spokesperson said. "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.”

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