Fired FEMA chief recounts 'hostile relationship' with Trump officials

Source: Politico

09/08/2025 10:49 AM EDT


Cameron Hamilton will probably be an asterisk in the history of President Donald Trump’s second term. But the former Navy SEAL, whom Trump hired and fired as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is writing his own chapter by highlighting what he says was administrative dysfunction following Trump’s assertion in January that FEMA should be abolished.

In a podcast interview, Hamilton revealed that he had a “very hostile relationship” with the Department of Homeland Security as officials pushed to shutter FEMA.

“The relationship with DHS and myself really became adversarial in a way that was really unnecessary,” Hamilton said Wednesday on the Disaster Tough Podcast in his first interview since being fired in May. Hamilton said he warned DHS officials that their comments about abolishing the agency was “really divisive language” and “extremely unwise.”

“That’s when the divide started to happen between myself and DHS leadership, [which was saying], ‘No, we don’t want it. We want it cut, shut down,’” recalled Hamilton, a conservative supporter of Trump. “My argument was, ‘This is extremely irresponsible.’”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/08/fired-fema-chief-relationship-trump-officials-00548907