You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

[Burning Petard]

IMNSHO, Mrs DJ Trump is incredible. I give her no credit for anything, beyond perhaps, being a human being.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

IMNSHO, Mrs DJ Trump is incredible. I give her no credit for anything, beyond perhaps, being a human being.

snailgate.

Too much credit given.

[Joe Guy]

[Scooter]

Far-Right FEMA Official in Charge of Disaster Response Once Said He Involuntarily Teleported to a Waffle House 50 Miles Away

Gregg Phillips was appointed head of the Office of Response and Recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in December 2025, despite having limited experience in disaster management. Prior to his hiring, the far-right activist had a history of violent rhetoric, conspiracy theories and making bizarre claims about teleportation.

During a January 2025 interview several months before his appointment, Phillips claimed that he has involuntarily teleported multiple times. "Teleporting is no fun... It was scary in a way," Phillips told Catherine Engelbrecht on their Onward podcast. "I mean, you don't really know, OK, is this evil? Is this good? What is this? What do I do with this?"

"I was on the phone," Phillips recalled. "(I thought) 'Oh my God, what's happening?' And I landed about 40 miles away in a ditch outside of a Baptist church in a little tiny town... It was an incredibly frightening moment to experience yourself in your car, flying through the air."

On another occasion, Philips claimed, "I was with my boys... 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 ended up at a Waffle House, like, 50 miles away from where I was."

Phillipps said he told his friends where he'd ended up, and they didn't believe him.

"They said, 'That's not possible. You just left here, you got, like, a long way to go,' " he recalled. "But it was possible. It was real."

As one of the top-ranked FEMA officials, Phillips' appointment this winter was a crucial hire, with blizzards and severe storms causing issues across the country.

However, his bizarre claims and background in peddling election conspiracy theories had some concerned about how effective he would be in a nonpartisan crisis management role.

Phillips has worked with True the Vote, a nonprofit Engelbrecht founded, which purports to focus on "empowering citizens to safeguard the electoral process and to protect their vote from fraud so their voice is not diminished as we determine the direction of our government and hold our politicians accountable."

They first became well-known when they were featured in Dinesh D’Souza's since-discredited 2022 documentary 2,000 Mules. In the film, D'Souza and True the Vote said they'd uncovered widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, claims which were later refuted by the rulings in more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump and his supporters.

In 2023, they were the focus of a watchdog complaint made to the IRS, alleging that they'd used True the Vote funds for personal gain. A spokesperson for the organization at the time said the accusations were "without merit."

A CNN KFile review of Phillips also found "deleted posts... directing deeply personal attacks at Democratic officials and spreading a conspiracy theory following President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election."

In the same January 2025 episode of Onward, Phillips threatened violence against former president Joe Biden, saying, “I would like to punch that b---- in the mouth right now. He is a nasty, shitty, crappy human being, and he deserves to die. And I hope he does.”

A FEMA spokesperson responded to CNN about their claims regarding Phillips with a statement saying, “This is so silly it’s barely worth acknowledging."

"DHS, FEMA, and Mr. Phillips are focused on the critical mission of emergency management and ensuring the safety of the American people," the FEMA spokesperson said. "Many of the comments cited are taken out of context or represent personal, informal, jovial, and somewhat spiritual discussions made in the context of barely surviving cancer; in a private capacity prior to his current role.”

Phillips is scheduled to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee next week as part of a hearing on the impacts of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

Notably, two of the top Trump staffers who vouched for Phillips' appointment have been pushed out of the agency. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who touted his "experience in emergency and humanitarian response, state government operations and large-scale program reform," left the administration in February amid increasing backlash to the agency's anti-immigration operations.

Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is being ousted from her role at the end of the month. Trump was reportedly unhappy with her recent testimony before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees about DHS and ICE's aggressive immigration enforcement actions, including the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.

The president selected Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma as her replacement, who is awaiting a confirmation vote in the Senate in the coming days. If confirmed, he is expected to step in for Noem on March 31.

Waking up at a Waffle House or a ditch without knowing how you got there sounds very much like an alcohol blackout to me, but what do I know?

[Burning Petard]

In the fall of 1972 I was working 12 hour shifts five days a week, from noon to midnight, with a 25 mile commute each way. Once I left the company parking lot at Glasgow, Delaware about 1am, headed for Rt 40 South to Maryland. Suddenly I saw the lights of the tolls both at a bridge in Perryville, Maryland. I had/have no memory of how I got there I turned-around and went back to the turn off for Carpenter's Point Maryland where I was living back then.

I did not realize I had been involuntarily teleported. Amazing what you can learn on the internet.

snailgate

[Joe Guy]

At about 3 am on a Saturday back in the mid 70s I made a U-turn on the Golden Gate Bridge in my 72 Super Beetle. Somehow, after leaving a bar in SF, I had gotten on the bridge's on ramp to go north when I needed to go south. If I had continued north, I don't know where I'd have ended up.

I wonder if my experience qualifies as preventing a teleportation...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Back in 1973, I entered a carriage on the 9:05 down train from a station near Staines to my home in West London. It was a strange design, a tube with multiple seats, all facing the same direction. I fell asleep (it was early in the morning for me) and when I awoke I had been teleported to an area east of New York city! And it was still morning even tho' my watch showed that some 7 hours had elapsed during the process!!!

Three months later it happened again only I was taken from Cleveland OH and ended up back near Staines! And now my watch showed the correct time!!!!

[Joe Guy]

Donald needs to be dragged out of office and hung by his tongue....

[Bicycle Bill]

Somebody should tell Trump he is going to die on a national holiday.
When he asks, "Which one?  The 4th of July?   Memorial Day?   Veteran's Day?" — tell him "It doesn't matter.   The day you croak will automatically be a national holiday."

-"BB"-