FEMA Head David Richardson Abruptly Resigns Six Months After Being Tasked with Dismantling the Relief Agency
Staffers say he was barely accessible during his short tenure and was on the verge of being fired.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, abruptly resigned on Monday, capping off a brief tenure over the agency he was tasked with dismantling by the Trump Administration.
The Marine Corps artillery officer, who was also heading Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office, took over in May after Cameron Hamilton was ousted by secretary Kristi Noem for publicly contradicting the White House’s call to eliminate FEMA.
Mr. Richardson gave the Department of Homeland Security two weeks’ notice in a resignation letter, but his departure was not voluntary. Sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that the agency was already planning to oust him.
Mr. Richardson’s stint was short, clocking in at about six months as acting head of the agency. During that time, he kept a low profile and became known for frequently being inaccessible, including during the early hours of the deadly floods last July in the Texas Hill Country region where at least 138 people were killed, including dozens of children at Camp Mystic.
The signs of Mr. Richardson’s impending exit were reportedly evident to FEMA staffers for months.
Current employees told the Washington Post that he spent limited time in daily operations and had visibly shrunk away from his leadership role. His low expectations for the job were confirmed when he told colleagues he did not expect to be in the position past Thanksgiving.
The current administration claimed earlier this year that while under President Biden’s term, FEMA had intentionally avoided going to homes of Trump supporters in the aftermaths of hurricanes Helene and Milton in late September and early October in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Citing “serious concerns of political bias in FEMA,” the administration created a review council via a January executive order by Mr. Trump. It was allegedly in direct retaliation for a previous incident in which a FEMA employee allegedly skipped pro-Trump homes during disaster relief, telling critics she was “simply following orders.”
A probe by FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility in April 2025 “found no evidence that this was a systemic problem, nor that it was directed by agency or field leadership.”
