The Trump administration has made a former member of the Navy SEALs who has spoken about the importance of securing the southern border temporary administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to two people familiar with the decision.
Cameron Hamilton was named the “senior official performing the duties of the administrator,” according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. He was named associate administrator for the Office of Response and Recovery on Monday and has since been appointed temporary administrator.
Mr. Hamilton is an unusual choice to lead the agency, even in a temporary capacity. Since Hurricane Katrina, when the federal response was severely criticized, FEMA has been led by disaster management professionals who have run state or local emergency management agencies, or were regional administrators at FEMA.
Mr. Hamilton does not appear to have experience coordinating responses to large scale disasters like the wildfires that are raging in Los Angeles or the hurricanes, floods and earthquakes that FEMA typically manages. FEMA did not respond to requests for comment.
Before joining the Trump administration on Monday, Mr. Hamilton worked as the director of business strategy for a defense contractor in Virginia, a job he took after an unsuccessful run for Congress last June.
As acting administrator, Mr. Hamilton would lead the agency until President Trump nominates a permanent administrator and that person is confirmed by the Senate. The leading candidates for that position include Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.
A Navy veteran, Mr. Hamilton worked as an emergency management specialist in the State Department and as a division director in the Department of Homeland Security, where he has said he managed about 4,000 emergency medical technicians along the southern border.
During his run for Congress last year, Mr. Hamilton, a Republican, said immigration and the border with Mexico were his top priorities.
“I saw the southern border. I saw what happened when the administration transitioned to January of 2021,” Mr. Hamilton told the Daily Progress, a newspaper in Charlottesville, Va., during his campaign.
As FEMA’s acting leader, Mr. Hamilton could have the chance to work on border issues. It’s not yet clear how or whether President Trump will use FEMA to help secure the border or deport migrants. But Mr. Trump transferred money from FEMA to pay for detaining migrants during his first administration, and could do so again.
Mr. Hamilton has written posts on social media that were critical of FEMA, including the agency’s decision to begin moving hurricane survivors in North Carolina out of temporary housing. Last October, he reposted a message from Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican congresswoman from Florida, criticizing FEMA for providing support for undocumented migrants.
“Exactly,” Mr. Hamilton wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Why aren’t more members of Congress saying this?”
Mr. Hamilton faces a challenging task at FEMA. The agency is wrestling with the aftermath of the fires around Los Angeles, as well as the recovery from the remnants of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and more than 100 other major disasters around the country.
David L. Phillips contributed reporting.
#Cameron #Hamilton #Temporary #FEMA
