Person Fired For Contradicted Trump Is New FEMA Leader; "Teleporting" Administrator Is Ousted

Cameron Hamilton, fired in May, 2025 as acting FEMA
director for contradicting Trump, has now been
appointed the head of that agency. 

The administration had wanted to get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But it's still around. Hobbled, but there. 

Which is a fortunate victory against Donald Trump, who started his second term stridently calling for FEMA's abolishment, or at least seriously downsized. 

So much so that in May, 2025, the acting FEMA administrator, Cameron Hamilton was fired. That came a day after telling Congress FEMA should not be disbanded. 

Hamilton ended up winning out in the end  

He has just been named the new head of the agency

 Per the Washington Post: 

"Hamilton returns after the ouster of ...Noem as homeland security secretary and a significant shift at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA. He will inherit a shrunken agency whose future continues to be uncertain. FEMA has lost thousands of staffers, including many senior officials and veterans, which churning through leaders during a time of low morale at the agency." 

FEMA is a critical agency helping victims of the increasing number and severity of weather and climate disasters in the United States. It's a lifeline that has been hobbled by the Trump administration.  The help the agency provides, which was already bureaucratic and sometimes ineffective before Trump, is even more so now. 

TELEPORTING OUT OF FEMA

Remember the FEMA teleporting guy?

His name is Gregg Phillips, who last December was appointed to FEMA's office of Response and Recovery, a top, consequential position. He was known for the strange things he said, most notably his story that he had been mysteriously teleported 50 miles to a distant Waffle House. We're not sure where he got that. 

Well, he's gone. In June, he was apparently forced out of the agency, according to CNN.  The report gave no particular reason why he's gone, but I imagine because the dude is just strange. 

Trump Administration To Retaliate Against Nations That Fight Climate Change

The Trump administration opposes efforts within the'
shipping industry for a net-zero plan The Trumpster
think it will raise costs, and the administraiton
falsely says climate change is a 'hoax.'

The Trump administration doesn't want anybody to fight climate change it seems.

They are now going as far as to punish nations that do take up the cause. This latest bit of bad news originates from an obscure shipping group.    

Per Reuters from last week:

"The U.S. on Tuesday rejected the 'Net-Zero Framework' proposal by the International Maritime Organization, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from the international shipping sector, and threatened measures against countries that support it."

So, we've gone beyond the Trump administration sitting out any climate policy. It's a matter of course that Trump and his minions won't lift a finger to combat climate change. 

After all, Trump famously keeps saying it's a hoax, despite all evidence to the contrary.They're now going after anybody who does anything about the climate policy. 

Although the Reuters article doesn't specify exactly what the Trump people will do, but they love tariffs, so that's probably where they will try to go. 

The Trumpsters are portraying they're position as an attempt to save consumers money, saying that the proposed Net Zero idea is carbon tax on Americans levied by an unaccountable UN organization.

 "The Trump Administration unequivocally rejects the proposal before the IMO and will not tolerate any action that increases costs for our citizens, energy providers, shipping companies and their customers, or tourists," according to a statement released by U.S. government leaders, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

Coming in October the 108 member states in this organization will vote on whether to ratify the measure to diminish carbon emissions from shipping. 

Ocean vessels transport around 80 percent of world trade and account for nearly 3 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, according to Reuters. 

 

New Head of FEMA Apparently Did Not Know U.S. Has A Hurricane Season. He's Also A Bit Of An A$$hole

Not exactly inspiring confidence here,
acting FEMA director reportedly said that
he did not know the United States 
has a hurricane season.

Acting FEMA director David Richardson, who should know better being, you know, with FEMA, reportedly just said he was unaware of the United States has a hurricane season.  

It is another example of how the Trump administration thinks that in general, the best people to lead the U.S. government are white, boorish airheads. 

According to an incredible report in Reuters:

"The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context."

As pretty much everybody except Richardson knows, especially those living along the Gulf Coast, Florida and much of the East Coast, hurricane season in the United States runs from June 1 through November 30, with the peak of the season hitting in August and September. 

The Department of Homeland Security, headed by Kristi ("ICE Barbie") Noem, which oversees FEMA, did some furious backpedaling, which only seemed to make matters worse. 

Reuters reports that a Homeland Security spokesperson said FEMA is indeed prepared for hurricane season. "FEMA is shifted from bloated DC-centric dead weight to a a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for its citizens."

The translation of that statement is, FEMA officials will make photo ops and do practically nothing else in disaster zones while local and state official try, and fail, to gather enough local resources to handle the crisis. You're on your own, disaster victims! 

Yes, I'm exaggerating, but not by much, I don't think.

FEMA staffers, at least the ones who are left after a Trump administration staff purge left them shorthanded, were reportedly stunned by the "I've never heard of hurricane season" remark by Richardson. 

Many fear the cutbacks will make FEMA unprepared for the expected busy hurricane season, and this would just make it worse,

Not surprisingly, sarcasm reigned after Richardson's apparent hurricane ignorance. 

Turns out Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer was unaware of something, too, though the Senator does seem to have a working knowledge of hurricane season. Schumer said of Richardson that he is "unaware of why he hasn't been fired yet."

Maybe Richardson thought that hurricanes are not those very big bad, dangerous tropical storms but instead  a Hurricane, that fruity rum drink mentioned in the famous Alan Jackson/Jimmy Buffett collaboration "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere."

Sure, those hurricanes are always in season, as far as I'm concerned. Especially after a long day of listening to Trump administration news.  

RICHARDSON BOORISH AS A BOSS 

Earlier this spring, Richardson  made quite an impression on his FEMA staff at their first all hands meeting. "Don't get in my way," he barked. 

"Obfuscation, delay, undermining," Richardson complained about at least some of his staff. "If you're one of those 20% of the people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president's intent."

Richardson really does like the autocratic tone endemic in the rest of the Trump administration.  "I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA," he said, according to CBS, warning staffers not to leak any of their own opinions to the public. 

Richardson is a former U.S Marine Corps ground combat officer and commander, which explains a lot   What works well in the military isn't necessarily appropriate for the civilian work space. I mean, I'd quit my job if it resembled a Marine boot camp.

Yes, the reasonable expectation at any job is for staff to work hard and well.  But what is Richardson going to do. Have FEMA staff march out in formation into a hurricane storm surge when he finally disbands the agency?

CBS reports, tellingly, that Richardson said during the earlier meeting with staff, "I have never read a book on leadership."  Great. Which probably also explains his obliviousness to hurricane season. 

Regarding other types of disasters, I hope Richardson isn't like the lunatic in Pennsylvania a few years back who claimed an increase in tornadoes in his state was because the Pennsylvania DOT was building more traffic circles. (The cars going around in circles apparently spin the air into these "tornaders" as the dude explained on a radio show).   

In any event, Richardson also told the spring staff meeting that "I'm fine operating in chaos and a very ambiguous environment."  That makes him perfect for the Trump administration anyway and for managing those mysterious hurricanes later this summer and fall.

Don't Say "Climate": Trump Administration Scrubbing Climate Information From Federal Websites,

Don't say climate change!  Trump administration scrubs
mention of it from everywhere, because if you don't 
see the words then it doesn't exist, apparently. 

 If you don't say "climate change" then it doesn't exist.  

That, apparently is the logic of our lovely Trump administration as federal websites across the board remove pretty much all references to climate change over the course of his first month in office. 

Trump's first term played fast and loose with lots of information including items related to climate change. 

But this time, it's a full throttled Orwellian vision in which "facts" are whatever the Trump administration wants them to be. Reality is besides the point.  

This post isn't even talking yet about anticipated firings at NOAA and NWS that will hobble the nation's weather forecasting and warning system. That' update is coming in a future post arriving pretty soon. I'm just talking in this post about the Trump administration's thought that if you don't ever think about climate change, then it will never be a problem. 

Or something like that. 

Among the harmful firings at the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA are staffers that worked on climate change related issues. Since climate change affects the severity, location and types of disasters the U.S. faces, you'd think you'd need these staffers,

You know, to anticipate where and how disasters might strike so the agency can more readily help victims of these calamities. 

But I guess not 

The sprawling federal Agriculture Department has been ordered to scrub references to climate change as well, as Politico reports. 

The directive "could affect information across dozens of programs including climate-smart agriculture initiatives, USDA climate has, and Forest Service information regarding wildfires the frequency and severity of which scientists have linked to hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change."

For now, some climate related material is still available from the Agriculture Department. USDA Climate Hubs, for example, was still up as of Wednesday (FEB5

NASA's Global Climate Change website is about to transition away, it it hasn't already.    It's been a handy source of climate information, including a dashboard on the home page that gives you the current amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere and their trends, global temperature and its trend and what direction Arctic sea ice is headed. Spoiler: Down.

There's now suddenly a disclaimer on the NASA Global Climate Change website that says "NASA's Global Climate Change website is going to look a little different in the coming months because we're headed to a new home, a more integrated portal on science.nasa.gov. Keep your eyes on our new space as we transition."

Yeah, love the attempt at the PR language (eye roll).  I'm not going to make a definitive conclusion on what the Trump administration is going to do with this site, but I bet it's not good. 

Climate information is disappearing from a lot of federal government websites, not just NASA. As Inside Climate News reports:

"The Trump administration is also removing climate information and documents from the U.S. State Department website, which (several days ago) had a climate section filled with documents related to U.S. climate policies aimed at meting the terms of the 2014 Paris climate pact, as well as materials outlining reaching plans to cut emissions of greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide, including methane.

But searching the current State Department website for the term 'global warming' just now leads to a long list of non-functioning links, with the Biden-era climate materials relegated to archives that have to be searched for separately."

 Even experienced scientists are now beginning to have trouble finding climate info on government websites. As Inside Climate News reports:

"Some of the changes may already be making it harder for U.S. climate scientists to collaborate internationally. 

David Ho, a University of Hawaii at Manoa climate researcher, said last week he found an error message when he tried to look for reports related to his work on ocean carbon cycles on the White House Office of Science and Technology website."

There are efforts to preserve web material that already exists before it is completely scrubbed. There's End of Term Web Archive, which is a collaboration of nonprofit groups, universities and two federal agencies to preserve scientific data. 

Other organizations have been combing government websites, preserving science data before it can be scrubbed by the Trump administration. 

I worry it's a matter of time that we won't be able to see basic climate data like the monthly reports NOAA"s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) regularly releases.

Or even just the huge waves of routine daily data all the National Weather Service offices release. After all, some rogue scientist could use and compile that data to find temperature trends (which is part of what the NCEI does now.

Guy Walton, the dude from Guy on Climate agrees, as this lack of information hurts everyone, from citizen scientists like me to experts like Walton. 

"....if the NCEI surface temperature records site gets taken down, I can't do my research. Only a few months ago, ,I was thinking that after the election of Kamala Harris, the NCEI record site might be improved with some of my input. Now I will feel fortunate if it and other tools for research used by many other scientists are not touched. We will see." 

Any truthful information is suspect in the Trump administration. You probably don't even have to use "banned"words or phrases like climate change or global warming. 

Merely mentioning a record hot day, month or season might well get you in trouble 

Even collaboration of any kind is out. As CBC reported, any cooperation between Canadian scientists or Environment Canada and NOAA are pretty much verboten. 

NOAA scientists now just submit for review if any discussions with Canadians include climate, energy, offshore wind, ocean mapping and exploration, competitive seafood, aquaculture, ocean plastics, the World Meteorological Organization, Arctic security and Arctic energy, notes CBC. 

A side effect of all this would be a brain drain from the United States to Canada and European countries, perhaps Asia too.

Most scientists want to seek the truth of the world around them. If that becomes impossible to do in the United States, then do it elsewhere, right?

The Trump administration's scrubbing away of any references to climate change won't just hurt Americans subject to the direct disasters and dangers created by global warming. Our economy, our innovation, our safety, our own wallets are all at risk. 

All because the merry band of oligarchs want to make a few more trillion dollars.