President Trump intends to nominate Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, bringing back the same official who was fired from that exact position less than a year ago after openly opposing White House plans to dismantle the disaster relief agency.
Hamilton met with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin at the White House on Wednesday, April 15, where the president offered him the job, according to sources familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Hamilton would become the first full-time FEMA administrator of Trump’s second term, taking the helm at an agency whose parent department, DHS, has remained shut down since mid-February.
The former Navy SEAL initially served as acting FEMA administrator from January to May 2025 before being ousted just one day after delivering controversial testimony to Congress. On May 7, 2025, Hamilton appeared before a House Appropriations subcommittee and publicly broke with the administration’s agenda.
“As the senior advisor to the president on disasters and emergency management, and to the secretary of homeland security, I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate FEMA,” Hamilton told lawmakers, with the knowledge that his firing loomed just hours away.
The comeback nomination represents a major political blow to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who engineered Hamilton’s dismissal. During Hamilton’s brief initial tenure, he clashed repeatedly with Noem and Corey Lewandowski, the longtime Trump ally who worked as a special government employee and top adviser to Noem at the Department of Homeland Security. Hamilton described his relationship with DHS officials as “very hostile” and later told NBC News that Lewandowski pushed him out. Noem even ordered Hamilton to take a lie detector test in an effort to discover whether he had leaked information about an internal meeting regarding FEMA’s future.
Hamilton’s defiant congressional appearance occurred as the Trump administration aggressively pursued plans to eliminate FEMA and transfer disaster response duties to individual states. President Trump had floated the idea within days of beginning his second term, stating the administration would start “phasing out” the agency after hurricane season.
The stunning reversal appears to signal a broader change in the administration’s FEMA strategy. Secretary Mullin has been systematically reversing several policies from the Noem era, adopting a markedly different approach by praising FEMA’s work and pushing to streamline disaster aid to communities. Mullin visited North Carolina in early April to discuss recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene in 2024, drawing public praise from Hamilton on social media.
“This is leadership in action,” Hamilton wrote about Mullin’s North Carolina visit, signaling a warmer relationship with the current DHS leadership.
During Noem’s time at the helm, FEMA endured a radical overhaul that resulted in more than 2,400 employees leaving through voluntary programs and terminations, gutting senior leadership, and generating a multibillion-dollar backlog in disaster funding. She also implemented a rule requiring any DHS spending over $100,000 to receive personal approval from the secretary, effectively grinding operations to a halt — a policy that Secretary Mullin has since reversed. The restructuring sparked fierce backlash from state and local officials across the country, including prominent Republican lawmakers who rely on federal disaster assistance for their constituents.
Hamilton’s background is unconventional for a FEMA chief. The former combat medic spent a decade in the Navy SEALs, serving on SEAL Team Eight with four overseas deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom between 2005 and 2015. Following his military service, he worked at the State Department supporting crisis response teams and the Bureau of Counterterrorism, and later served as an emergency management specialist. Before his first stint leading FEMA, Hamilton oversaw DHS’s division for emergency first responders. He also lost a Republican primary bid for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District in 2024. Critics have noted his limited experience managing natural disasters before being tapped to lead the nation’s primary disaster response agency.
In early April, Hamilton thanked President Trump on social media for the previous opportunity to lead FEMA. “I wish my tenure had been longer, as there is still much more work to do for reform,” he wrote. He added that under Mullin’s leadership, “good things will come.”
The administration appears to be pulling back from its most sweeping plans for FEMA, though the agency still awaits a final report from the FEMA Review Council that could recommend significant reforms. The proposal to cut $646 million in non-disaster grants during the 2026 fiscal year remains under consideration.
Both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security declined to officially comment on the nomination. A DHS spokesperson told NBC News, “DHS has no personnel announcements to make at this time.”
Hamilton’s transformation—from fired bureaucrat to presidential nominee in less than a year—underscores the chaotic personnel management that has characterized this administration’s approach to disaster response, leaving FEMA without permanent leadership during a critical period when communities across the nation continue recovering from recent catastrophes.