Turnover In FEMA: Qualified Administrator Dismissed Because He Defended FEMA’s Existence

Jun 3, 2025 06:57 PM EDT, Tue

Why a Trump-appointed FEMA chief was unexpectedly ousted

One day after acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton defended the agency’s existence to Congress, he was kicked out of his job.

May 8, 2025, 3:16 PM EDT By Steve Benen

At face value, Cameron Hamilton seems like the kind of person who Donald Trump and his team would like. Hamilton not only has experience as a Navy SEAL and former combat medic, but just last year, he also ran a Republican congressional campaign in Virginia.

In fact, when the president appointed him to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Hamilton actually seemed like one of Trump’s more qualified personnel choices, given his background as an emergency management specialist at the State Department during Trump’s first term and his work as the director of the Emergency Medical Services Division at the Department of Homeland Security.

And yet, Hamilton has been fired anyway. Politico reported:

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was fired Thursday morning, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Cameron Hamilton, FEMA’s acting administrator, has told people that he was terminated, leaving the nation’s disaster agency without a top official three weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and as Congress scrutinizes FEMA’s proposed budget for fiscal 2026.

A Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Hamilton’s departure to NBC News.

The timing of the developments is striking: Just one day before his ouster, Hamilton testified before a House Appropriations Committee panel and defended FEMA’s existence, telling lawmakers, “I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”

That might not seem especially notable, since it stands to reason that FEMA’s chief would express public support for FEMA. However, Hamilton’s comments were at odds with Trump’s stated position of wanting to eliminate FEMA — the president has said he sees the agency as an unnecessary department that should be “TERMINATED” — and so, one day later, Hamilton has found himself out of a job.

Oddly enough, the morning after the congressional hearing, Rep. Mark Green (T-TN7), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, wrote online that Hamilton’s leadership at FEMA has been “nothing short of amazing.” Green added, “Since taking the helm at FEMA, thousands of Americans have seen FEMA’s promises fulfilled, from housing to disaster relief. President Trump made the right choice!”

Right around the time the congressman published that message, Hamilton was kicked out of FEMA.

For what it’s worth, a DHS spokesperson told NBC News that Hamilton’s ouster was unrelated to his testimony. Or put another way, the official line is that the firing of the acting FEMA director just one day after he took a public position that Trump didn’t like is a coincidence.

Hurricane season begins on June 1.

Steve Benen Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

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