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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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President Donald Trump appeared confused Tuesday when he was told that one of his FEMA officials had claimed he teleported to a Waffle House 50 miles away.
Trump was speaking to CNN when he was asked about Gregg Phillips' claim last month that he had somehow traveled to the restaurant in Georgia.
“What does teleport mean? Was he kidding?” the president said, before being told Phillips had not been kidding.
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Phillips, who leads the federal government's disaster response unit at FEMA, has defended his claims, which he first made on a podcast in January 2025. In a post on social media, he said, "Haters gonna hate," per CNN.
A former top health official in Texas, Phillips was appointed to lead FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery in December, a department with over 1,000 employees. Before his appointment, Phillips was known to make other uncorroborated claims, including about election fraud.
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Gregg Phillips' Claims: What To Know
In March, a CNN investigation found that Phillips, 65, had risen to prominence not through working his way up at FEMA but through posting about far-right conspiracy theories online. He had also used violent rhetoric toward political opponents, the outlet found.
Among the revelations was that in an appearance on the Onward podcast early last year, Phillips detailed multiple instances in which he said he had teleported, including to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.
“I was with my boys one time and I was telling them I was gonna go to Waffle House and get Waffle House. And I ended up at a Waffle House—this was in Georgia and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was,” he said.
He said his sons had responded asking where he was. When he said he was at the Waffle House, they did not believe him.
“Teleporting is no fun,” Phillips said on the podcast. “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.”
Staff at the restaurant later told The New York Times that they had never seen Phillips there, with one worker saying: "I’ve seen it all, but I’ve never seen that."
When news of his claims spread, Phillips took to Truth Social to defend his words, saying he was heavily medicated for cancer treatment at the time of recording but that "things happened that I can't explain."
"The word 'teleportation' was not mine. It was used by someone else in the conversation reaching for language to describe something with no easy name," he said in the post on April 1. "The more accurate biblical terms are 'translated' or 'transported' — not new ideas for people of faith."
When CNN first reported the remarks, a FEMA spokesperson said the story was "so silly it's barely worth acknowledging" and that Phillips and the rest of FEMA were focused on "the critical mission of emergency management and ensuring the safety of the American people."
How Did Trump Respond?
Trump was asked about Phillips' claim in a brief phone interview with CNN on Tuesday.
After asking if Phillips was kidding, Trump said: “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.”
A White House source also told the outlet that officials had asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to either remove Phillips from his position or keep him from the public. The department reportedly opted for the second choice, telling him to stop posting on social media about teleportation.
Phillips' account was not publicly visible Tuesday morning.
Newsweek reached out to FEMA and its parent agency, DHS, for comment via email on Tuesday morning.
Update 4/14/26, 10:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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