The top official in charge of the federal government’s disaster response has taken to social media to double down on his claim that he’s experienced “teleportation” – an experience he insists was real and connected to his religious beliefs – while also saying his remarks have been taken out of context.
“Haters gonna hate,” Gregg Phillips, a senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, wrote in one comment defending himself earlier this month.
“I know what I’ve experienced,” he wrote in another post, in what appeared to be a poem where he refers to people ridiculing what they don’t understand and to Jesus Christ rising from the dead.
CNN previously reported that Phillips, who serves as associate administrator for the Office of Response and Recovery at FEMA, described in a podcast last year multiple episodes in which he said he was suddenly teleported miles away — including once to a Waffle House roughly 50 miles from where he had been.
CNN also reported Phillips had a history of violent rhetoric towards public officials. He said in a podcast last year that he’d like to punch “that b*tch” in the mouth, referring to former President Joe Biden who had just left office, before adding, “He deserves to die.” In another podcast, Phillips said that migrants were coming to kill Americans while warning people to be armed.
The appointment of Phillips had previously drawn skepticism from some career FEMA officials over his lack of experience and past comments spreading election fraud conspiracy theories, though several told CNN earlier this year that his work during major storms had tempered some of those concerns.
Phillips’ recent comments come as he was taken off the schedule to testify last week at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the impacts of the partial shutdown of DHS, which oversees FEMA. Neither FEMA nor Phillips responded to a comment request from CNN asking why he did not attend.
On Truth Social, the social media platform founded by President Donald Trump, Phillips described the teleportation incidents as tied to a “spiritual journey” during a period he said he was undergoing cancer treatments and pointed to biblical examples of supernatural events.
“I have no regrets for my words nor my faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ,” Phillips wrote after CNN’s report, while arguing his comments were taken out of context. “The Bible has many examples of the power of God.”
At the hearing, Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking House Democrat on the committee, said Phillips’ appointment raised “serious concerns.”
“Mr. Phillips reportedly claims to have been involuntarily teleported multiple times, including once to a Waffle House in Georgia,” Thompson said.
Pointing to Phillips’ comments about Biden, Thompson added: “That kind of violent rhetoric and wild conspiracy theories are troubling for someone who holds a leadership position at DHS.”
Democratic Rep. Tim Kennedy described Phillips as “wildly unfit for his role as head of FEMA response and recovery,” citing “his violent statements about former President Biden” and “deeply troubling bigoted comments about immigrants.”
Kennedy added: “All of which, to me, makes him wholly disqualified to hold his position on its own — but only to be outdone by his claims of being teleported to a Waffle House.”
On Truth Social, in other posts responding to criticism, Phillips also shared a passage from the New Testament Book of Acts in which the Holy Spirit “snatched” away the apostle Phillip after a baptism on a road between Jerusalem and Gaza, with the text then describing him as appearing in the city of Azotus miles away.
In another exchange on the platform, Phillips was asked whether he had personally experienced such a phenomenon.
“Yes,” he replied, adding that “the Bible calls it transported or translated.”
Phillips added that the comments on teleporting to the Waffle House were taken out of context, though he has declined to say how.
“Out of context,” he wrote. “This was a discussion during medical treatments in what we believed to be the last 3 months of my life. Some of the episodes we couldn’t show. The other translation was to a church.”
Neither FEMA nor Phillips responded to multiple requests for comment on what part of CNN’s past reporting was taken out of context.
In previously reported podcast appearances, Phillips described multiple incidents in which he said he was physically teleported, calling the experiences frightening and uncontrollable.
“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,” Phillips said in a January 2025 podcast episode.
“It was real,” Phillips said, adding at another point: “Teleporting is no fun.”
In the same discussion, Phillips also described another episode in which he said his vehicle was “lifted up” while he was driving and carried dozens of miles before being set down near a church.
