A member of President Donald Trump’s administration claims he was “teleported” to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia, against his will.
“I was with my boys one time, and I was telling them I was gonna go to Waffle House and get Waffle House,” Gregg Phillips, a far-right conspiracy theorist who now serves as a high-ranking US Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) official, claimed in a January 2025 episode of the “Onward” podcast, hosted by fellow right-wing activist Catherine Engelbrecht.
“And I ended up at a Waffle House — this was in Georgie, and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was,” he continued. “And they said, ‘Where are you?’ and I said, ‘A Waffle House.’ And, ‘A Waffle House where?’ And I said, ‘Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.’ And they said, ‘That’s not possible, you just left here a minute ago.’ But it was possible. It was real.”
The FEMA official went on to lament on the so-called pitfalls of transportation via paranormal means.
“Teleporting is no fun,” he claimed. “You know it’s happening, but you can’t do anything about it, and so you just go, you just go with the ride. And wow, what just an incredible adventure it all was.”
Office of Response and Recovery Director Gregg Phillips Getty Images
After CNN published an investigative report into Phillips’ numerous podcast appearances and bizarre claims — including his violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines, former president Joe Biden and an an alleged “assassination” plot against Trump by the Department of Homeland Security — FEMA issued a statement.
“This is so silly it’s barely worth acknowledging,” the spokesperson told CNN. “DHS, FEMA, and Mr. Phillips are focused on the critical mission of emergency management and ensuring the safety of the American people. 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.”
During the same January 2025 podcast appearance, Phillips claimed he was teleported against his will for a second time — this time, the official claimed he was “lifted up” while driving, further alleging he traveled 40 miles from Albany, Georgia, before landing in a ditch near a church.
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Right-wing conspiracy theories and claims of other-worldy lifeforms or experiences are not uncommon among the Trump administration. While the president himself continues to claim the 2020 election was rigged and “stolen,” despite all evidence to the contrary, vice president JD Vance claimed aliens are actually “demons.”
“I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a longer discussion,” Vance, 41, told far-right YouTuber Benny Johnson on March 28.
“Well, look, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people, I think that the desire to describe everything celestial, everything is otherworldly, to describe it as aliens,” Vance, who grew up atheist but converted to Catholicism as an adult, continued. “I mean, every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there and there are things that are very difficult to explain.”
