The revolving door at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has continued, with the third administrator of the second Trump Administration now departing.
According to Politico, Karen Evans, who had been FEMA’s acting head since December, has departed as of Tuesday.
“The departure of Karen Evans, a political appointee who led FEMA since December, was disclosed Tuesday in a memo to FEMA staff that was obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News,” Politico reported. “It marked the third time that FEMA’s acting administrator had been replaced since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. That tempestuous period had been marked by agency firings, canceled grant programs and Trump’s threats to disband an agency that provides billions of dollars in disaster aid to states every year.”
Karen Evans is FEMA’s third acting head to get the chop during Trump’s second term.
https://t.co/8qSkbE4ups— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 13, 2026
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Robert Fenton has been named her replacement, also on an acting basis. Cameron Hamilton has been nominated by the president to serve as the confirmed head of FEMA. Hamilton, in a twist, had served as acting head of FEMA last year before he was fired.
“I know this year has been challenging for many across the agency,” Fenton said in a memo, as quoted by Politico.
The replacement of FEMA’s head comes as Markwayne Mullin, the former senator, has taken over as Secretary of Homeland Security, following the notably stormy tenure of Kristi Noem. Hamilton, the new nominee, had clashed with Noem, but now Noem is gone.
“The former Navy SEAL was fired after he clashed with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who gave him a lie-detector test as she searched for people inside the agency who she believed had spoken with news reporters,” Politico reported about the nominee. “The day before his dismissal on May 8, 2025, Hamilton seemed to contradict the president when he told a House subcommittee that FEMA should not be eliminated, as Trump had threatened to do.”
