As 2025 got underway, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had a perfectly fine administrator in place. Two days after Donald Trump’s second inaugural, the White House appointed Cameron Hamilton as the acting FEMA chief, and he appeared to be a reasonable choice. He not only had experience as a Navy SEAL and former combat medic, but he was also the emergency management specialist at the State Department during Trump’s first term and worked as the director of the Emergency Medical Services Division at the Department of Homeland Security.
Hamilton, however, was fired in May because he testified before Congress that it would be in the public’s interest if FEMA continued to exist.
He was soon after replaced by David Richardson, who had no background in emergency management and who, on his first day as the agency’s acting chief, told the agency’s staff that he would “run right over” anyone who got in his way.
Richardson’s tenure wasn’t exactly a great success. Indeed, The Washington Post reported that FEMA insiders found their unqualified boss was “often inaccessible.” After deadly floods swept through parts of Texas Hill Country in July, the agency struggled to coordinate a response — because they couldn’t reach Richardson.
Now the only running Richardson is doing is running for the exit, after just six months. The Washington Post reported:
David Richardson on Monday resigned as acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to people familiar with the situation, ending a brief tenure leading an agency the administration had publicly expressed a desire to dismantle. … In recent months, current agency employees said Richardson spent limited time in daily operations meetings and shrank away from his role.
It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for the agency. Not only have some senior FEMA officials resigned in frustration in recent months, but dozens of employees warned Congress and the public in late August that the Trump administration’s plans for the agency run the risk of creating another Katrina-level disaster in the coming months and years.
Highlighting additional red tape and bureaucracy imposed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, NOTUS published a brutal report along these lines in September, noting, “The Trump administration has the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a doom loop, according to current and former employees frustrated with its direction.” All of this, of course, comes months after Trump said he saw FEMA as an unnecessary department that should be “TERMINATED.” Around the same time, Noem, whose department oversees the emergency response agency, added, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.” The White House has since hedged on the agency’s demise — but all things considered, it’s hardly unreasonable to wonder whether the agency can survive Trump’s second term. Watch this space. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW 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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