I know it’s difficult to accept at this point, but apparently there is such a thing within the Washington hierarchy as being too far around the bend to be ignored any longer. And it appears that a rubber room may be the next stop for the No. 3 man at FEMA, Gregg Phillips, who currently serves as head of the Office of Response and Recovery.

I first mentioned Phillips last month (“3/21/26: Just When You Think It Cant Possibly Get Any Worse . . .”), as the ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorist who claimed to have been teleported 50 miles to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia, and another time some 40 miles in his car, landing in a ditch near a church. As he described it in a podcast:

“Teleporting is no fun. It’s no fun because you don’t really know what you’re doing. You don’t really understand it, it’s scary, but yet um — but so real. And you know it’s happening but you can’t do anything about it, and so you just go, you just go with the ride. And wow, what just an incredible adventure it all was.” [Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Gabe Cohen, CNN, March 20 2026.]

At the time, a FEMA spokesperson said that it was “barely worth acknowledging,” “taken out of context,” “or represent[ing] personal, informal, jovial, and somewhat spiritual discussions.” [Id.] It seems that Phillips had been doing a good job at FEMA — at least, when he has both feet on the ground — and his idiosyncrasies could be overlooked in the interest of mitigating the Agency’s shortage of effective personnel.

But apparently Phillips’ podcasts have continued, and word is spreading of his claims, including:

• That a dead girlfriend once lifted his car off the road to avoid a crash.
• That Satan once spoke to him while he was walking across Spain.
• That he once collapsed inside a Lowe’s store in Indianapolis, regaining consciousness across the street in a McDonald’s parking lot with “15,000 steps logged on his health app, a Big Mac in his lap, and little understanding of what had just happened.”
• That he was once awakened in the middle of the night by God, who sat on his bed and told him his cancer had returned. As Phillips described it, “He sat me up in the bed and he sat cross-legged with me, I’ll never forget it. And he said, ‘Hey, your cancer’s back, but don’t worry, I’ve got this.’”
• That he said in April 2025: “I’m actually dead. But I’m here doing God’s stuff. And so we laugh about that a little bit.” [Andrew Kaczynski and Gabe Cohen, CNN, April 14, 2026.]
  

As mind-boggling as all of that is, what really concerned me was yesterday’s report of a telephone interview between CNN and Donald Trump, in which Trump said:

“What does teleport mean? Was he kidding? . . . I don’t know anything about teleporting. . . . It just sounds a little strange, but I know nothing about teleporting or him, but I’ll find out about it right now.” [Id.]

To begin with, the very idea of Donald Trump admitting there is some subject on which he is not the world’s leading authority is big news in itself. You don’t suppose he’s losing his grip, do you?

But then he apparently did follow up on it, because a White House official later told CNN that they had contacted FEMA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.

If that sounds too good to be true, it sort of is . . . because there was more to the White House’s comment. According to the same official, they urged DHS “either to remove Phillips or keep him out of public view.” [Id.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

(That might be what they ultimately have to do to Trump, who thinks he actually is God. And it’s not an original concept. Does anyone remember the 1993 Kevin Kline movie, “Dave”?)

Apparently, the contact at DHS who spoke with CNN was somewhat more familiar with teleporting than Trump, because — again according to the White House official:

“Everyone’s thoughts were, ‘What the hell is this? This guy has got to go.’” [Id.]

Well . . . duh!

As far as I know, Phillips is still employed at FEMA. But at last report, he had been significantly sidelined from parts of the Agency’s operations, left out of proceedings, and directed to stop posting about teleportation on Truth Social (Trump’s social media platform).

Sources have reported that Phillips is furious, and is convinced that officials at FEMA and DHS are out to get him. His co-workers say that he has grown increasingly agitated and suspicious.

As an appointee, and not an elected official, it should be easy to remove Phillips from FEMA. After all, who is better at firing people than Donald Trump? And if I were his boss, I would also be contacting his next of kin to urge that he be admitted to the nearest psychiatric facility, for his own and everyone else’s safety. Otherwise, who knows where his next “teleportation” might take him? He could wake up in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House, lobbing spitballs at the West Wing.

But that is just what I would do if I were in charge, which (mercifully) I am not. In real life, we must keep in mind that Phillips’ ultimate boss is the acting Secretary of DHS (and the inimitable Kristi Noem’s interim replacement), Markwayne Mullin — not the most stable of geniuses himself. So we can only wait to see what transpires.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/15/26