President Trump plans to nominate Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, marking a remarkable turnaround for the former Navy SEAL who was fired from that exact position less than a year ago after publicly opposing White House plans to eliminate the disaster relief agency.
Hamilton met with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin at the White House on Wednesday, April 16. The president offered him the job during that meeting, 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. The agency has been led exclusively by acting leaders since January 2025 and is currently on its third temporary administrator, while its parent department, DHS, has remained shut down since mid-February.
Hamilton spent a decade in the Navy SEALs as a combat medic, serving on SEAL Team Eight with four overseas deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom between 2005 and 2015. After leaving the military, he worked at the State Department supporting crisis response teams and the Bureau of Counterterrorism, eventually serving as an emergency management specialist. Before his first stint leading FEMA, he oversaw DHS’s division for emergency first responders.
Hamilton’s firing in May 2025 came just one day after he delivered explosive testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee on May 7, 2025, breaking ranks with the White House over its plans to dismantle the agency. As acting FEMA administrator from January to May 2025, he opposed the administration’s sweeping plans to phase out FEMA and shift disaster response responsibilities to individual states.
“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 decision to nominate Hamilton again delivers a sharp political embarrassment to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who orchestrated his removal, and raises fresh questions about leadership stability at an agency that has weathered unprecedented turmoil since early 2025.
During his brief tenure, Hamilton increasingly clashed with Secretary Noem and Corey Lewandowski, the longtime Trump ally who served as a special government employee and top adviser to Noem at the Department of Homeland Security. Hamilton has said his relationship with DHS officials became “very hostile,” and he later told NBC News he was pushed out by Lewandowski. Before his dismissal, Noem also ordered Hamilton to take a lie detector test in an attempt to determine whether he had leaked details of an internal meeting about FEMA’s future.
Under Noem’s leadership, FEMA underwent an aggressive overhaul that saw more than 2,400 employees depart through voluntary programs and terminations, hollowed out senior leadership, and created a multibillion-dollar backlog in disaster funding. Noem also imposed a rule requiring any DHS spending over $100,000 to be personally approved by the secretary, effectively grinding operations to a halt — a policy Secretary Mullin has since reversed. The overhaul triggered fierce backlash from state and local officials nationwide, including prominent Republican lawmakers who depend on federal disaster assistance for their constituents.
Since taking the helm at DHS, Secretary Mullin has begun rolling back several Noem-era policies, striking a markedly different tone 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.
In early April, Hamilton thanked President Trump on social media for the previous opportunity to lead FEMA, writing that “I wish my tenure had been longer, as there is still much more work to do for reform,” and expressing confidence that “good things will come” under Mullin’s leadership.
Critics have noted his limited experience managing natural disasters before being tapped to lead the nation’s primary disaster response agency. He also lost a Republican primary bid for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District in 2024.
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 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.”
The rehabilitation of Hamilton—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.