President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a dramatic return for the former Navy SEAL who was fired as interim leader of the agency last year after defending its existence.
His nomination comes as the Trump administration increasingly signals that it is backing away from its commitment to dismantle FEMA, which has faced harsh criticism from the president. Hamilton’s nomination is the latest sign of that change, arguing that abolishing FEMA is not in the nation’s best interest.
If confirmed, Hamilton would become the chief adviser on emergency management to Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the first permanent administrator of FEMA during Trump’s second term. The agency has replaced three interim leaders, including Hamilton, who served briefly from January to May 2025.
He will take over a troubled agency still reeling from Kristi Noem’s turbulent leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, of which the Federal Emergency Management Agency is part. FEMA’s workforce is already exhausted due to mass employee turnover, policies that hamper operations and a 75-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that ended on April 30.
Hamilton needs to ensure the agency is ready for the summer disaster season in just weeks, while also responding to Trump, who is likely to expect major changes after a committee he appointed recommended an overhaul on Friday.
“Now is an opportunity to stabilize FEMA,” said Michael Cohen, the agency’s chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations.
Fired after defending FEMA
Hamilton, who has never served as a state or local emergency management director and has publicly criticized FEMA in the past, was a controversial choice when Trump appointed Hamilton as interim leader in January 2025, just days before the president floated the idea of ”getting rid of” FEMA.
His break with Homeland Security officials began when he defended the federal role in supporting disaster-stricken states, tribes and territories.
“As soon as the conversation turned to ‘Now we’re going to repeal,’ I immediately expressed concern,” he said last September on the “Disaster Tough” podcast co-hosted with John Scardena, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) incident management team.
Homeland Security officials even gave him a polygraph test, accusing him and other officials of leaking details of a private meeting. He passed but said he knew his dismissal was inevitable.
On May 7, during an appearance before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked Hamilton if she thought the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be abolished.
“I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the American people to eliminate FEMA,” he responded. The next day, he was fired.
Hamilton must rebuild trust
Scardena said that despite knowing that defending FEMA could cost him his job, he has earned the respect and trust of those tasked with leading communities through the crisis.
“He won over myself and a lot of people for what he did,” Scardena said.
But multiple current FEMA employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation for speaking out publicly, told The Associated Press they were concerned about some of the actions taken under Hamilton.
In 2024, Hamilton shared posts on X promoting misinformation about FEMA’s spending during Hurricane Helene.
During his interim leadership, the Federal Emergency Management Agency halted door-to-door lobbying for disaster survivors and eliminated a multibillion-dollar resiliency grant program that was later reinstated by a federal judge. The Department of Government Effectiveness gained access to FEMA’s internal network containing survivors’ private information. FEMA workers were laid off for paying compensation to New York City for housing undocumented immigrants as part of FEMA’s shelter and services program.
Hamilton said he believes FEMA needs major reform. He has said he wants FEMA, which has responsibilities that he says exceed its purview and on which some states have become too reliant, to move more quickly. A Trump-appointed committee last week urged an overhaul of FEMA that would require congressional action.
“I think he needs to rebuild trust across the agency,” said Dean Criswell, the former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Joe Biden, adding that she believed Hamilton cared about FEMA and appreciated the engagement he made with emergency management directors and former officials during and after his term.
Senate confirmation process may raise experience questions
Hamilton may face resistance in the Senate confirmation process because he has never led an emergency management agency, a common stepping stone to becoming the head of an agency with more than 21,000 employees.
Federal law requires that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrators have “competence and knowledge in emergency management and homeland security” and at least five years of “executive leadership and management experience.”
Hamilton trained as a Navy hospital corpsman before spending ten years as a SEAL in SEAL Team 8. He subsequently became the U.S. Department of State’s emergency management specialist, responsible for overseas crisis response and directing the Department of Homeland Security’s emergency medical services.