President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, putting the former temporary administrator back in line for the job after he was fired last year for defending the agency’s existence.
Hamilton, if confirmed, would become the principal adviser to Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on emergency management and FEMA’s first permanent administrator in Trump’s second term. He would also take charge of an agency that has already been through three temporary leaders, including his own brief tenure from January to May 2025, and is still trying to steady itself after a 75-day-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown that ended Apr. 30.
Hamilton was removed from the post after he said abolishing FEMA was not in the country’s best interests. That position put him at odds with a White House that had already criticized the agency and, for months, signaled it was moving away from promises to dismantle it altogether. The shift leaves Hamilton in the unusual position of potentially leading an institution that the president had openly questioned just as he was pushed out of it for defending it.
The timing is immediate. FEMA’s workforce has been worn down by mass staff departures, policies that hamstrung operations and the shutdown that ended less than two months ago, and Hamilton would be expected to make sure the agency is ready for summer disaster season, which is just weeks away. His nomination also comes after Kristi Noem’s leadership of the Department of Homeland Security was described as turbulent, adding another layer of strain around the agency that sits inside DHS.
For Hamilton, the nomination is both a return and a test. He was once cast aside for saying what he believed about FEMA’s future; now he is the person Trump has chosen to decide whether the agency can survive the season ahead in working order.
