FEMA Official Who Once Claimed To Have Teleported To A Waffle House Departs Agency

Gregg Phillips, the third-highest ranking FEMA official, has reportedly been forced from the agency due to wild past claims of teleporting to a Waffle House.

Phillips was the leader of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, appointed in December by the White House. He held one of the most “consequential roles” in the agency. However, Phillips has raised eyebrows in the past with outlandish claims, such as one stating he’d “teleported” to a Waffle House.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday that Phillips was leaving the agency, citing “personal reasons,” according to CNN. However, sources told CNN that Phillips did not leave of his own accord. Instead, they said he’d been forced out because his image had created a lot of embarrassment and exhausted the new DHS leadership.

Phillips made the claims about teleportation in January of 2025 on a conservative podcast called “Onward,” informing the host that “teleporting is no fun,” according to the New York Times. There were multiple incidents when Phillips said he physically teleported to a Waffle House 50 miles from his previous location. 

The New York Times investigated the claims, asking roughly two dozen Waffle House employees at three different locations about the alleged incident. None of them remembered anything like that happening.

Phillips later clarified on social media that he had been “heavily medicated” when the episode took place due to his cancer treatment, and argued the experiences mirrored biblical examples of supernatural transportation. In a post on Truth Social, Phillips said that he’d turned to alternative routes after conventional cancer treatments failed him, and the incident in question had occurred during the first week of this new treatment. 

“I was in the opening days of intensive treatment, heavily medicated, not thinking about future headlines,” Phillips said. “That context was nowhere in the reporting.”

Phillips also pointed out that he did not use the word “teleportation.” Instead, it was “used by someone else in the conversation reaching for language to describe something with no easy name.”