As it continues to platform conspiracy theorists who gained MAGA prominence during the 2020 election, the Trump administration has tapped 2020 election denier (and 2016 conspiracy theorist) Gregg Phillips for a leadership position in the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Aside from having little to no official emergency management experience — beyond reportedly working with non-profits and religious groups to help victims of natural disasters — Phillips is a known conspiracy theorist who has publicly posted about his opposition to FEMA and interest in a “Christ centered approach” to emergency management. The Handbasket was first to report that Phillips will be the administrator of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, FEMA’s largest department. He reportedly starts his new role on Monday.
Phillips, a member of the conservative Texas-based, right-wing conspiracy organization, “True the Vote,” was featured prominently in the widely-debunked documentary film “2,000 Mules,” a film that elevates conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, created by MAGA-ally and fellow conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza.
The film relies heavily on supposed data collected by True the Vote that, according to the film, involves phone geolocation data and video surveillance of mail-in ballot drop boxes that purportedly show that the 2020 election was systematically rigged in favor of Joe Biden. The film has been discredited countless times. The film’s own distributor, Salem Media, stopped promoting the film and removed it from its platforms and, in 2024, D’Souza himself admitted it was produced “on the basis of inaccurate information provided to me and my team.”
In the film Phillips and True the Vote, of course, claimed without evidence that they had uncovered paid operatives, or 2,000 “mules,” who delivered thousands of supposedly illegal ballots to mail-in drop boxes as a way to steal the election from Trump. In the movie, Phillips is described as “having a deep background in election intelligence.”
In November 2022, Phillips and the founder of True the Vote Catherine Engelbrecht were both jailed after defying a court order to provide details to the court about their attempts to uncover alleged voter fraud related to “2,000 Mules.” The group later admitted before a Fulton County judge that they had no evidence to support their claims about the election.
Phillips is also well known for promoting the lie that millions of non-citizens voted illegally in the 2016 election.
In a now-deleted post on X, Phillips claimed, without evidence, that “more than three million votes were cast by non-citizens.” The post quickly went viral after Trump repeated the claim.
Since then, True the Vote has worked tirelessly to keep the non-citizen-voting-en-masse-for-Dems narrative alive. In 2024, the group released a 44-page handbook warning against the non-existent threat of non-citizen voting with information on how to combat the alleged issue. There is zero evidence to support the claim that this is a problem that exists and there are already laws in place that prevent non-citizens from participating in federal elections.
Not only does Phillips have no background in emergency management, as the Washington Post reported, he actually has said publicly in a past LinkedIn post that he is “a very vocal opponent of FEMA.”
“It is almost always true that those with a Christ centered approach show up first and leave last bringing hearts, hands and supplies when darkness hits,” Phillips said in another LinkedIn post, per the Washington Post. “FEMA has taken credit for their work — pushing DEI and ‘woke’ even into this program. The fails have been epic.”
This is not the first time the Trump administration has tapped a known election conspiracy theorist for a leadership position during Trump’s second term. A lawyer in the Department of Justice’s voting section, Eric Neff has similarly promoted lies about Dominion voting machines and the integrity of the 2020 election. And as Democracy Docket reported, Neff has also represented well-known election denier and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
Would Gregg be the guy who Noem installed at FEMA, but he would only work 9-5 hours? IIRC this came to light with the flooding in TX in July.