Unfortunately, Gregg Phillips’ claims that he was twice teleported from one place to another aren’t the biggest problems for this top government official with a long history of shady deals, charity scams and false claims of voter fraud.
In December, Phillips was named the second-highest-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, leading the agency’s Office of Response and Recovery, which has a nearly $300 million budget, even though he has a history of mismanagement and has no emergency management experience.
What he does have is Donald Trump’s support thanks to Phillips’ false claims that President Joe Biden won only because 3 to 5 million noncitizens voted illegally in 2020. Trump has amplified some of those false claims.
These claims from Phillips’ nonprofit, True the Vote, were the basis for the conspiracy film 2000 Mules, which was screened in hundreds of churches and on Christian TV networks before it was withdrawn by Salem Media Group.
The president has made January 6 a loyalty test for government employees, filling his administration with unqualified officials, many of them evangelicals, who were hired for their loyalty, not their competence. Phillips fits the mold.
He has been in the news lately due to his claims in podcasts that he was twice teleported 40 to 50 miles against his will. In one case, he says his body was teleported to a Waffle House in Rome, Ga. In the other, he claimed he was driving his car when both he and the vehicle were teleported to a ditch near a church.
Teleportation is popular in science fiction, including Star Trek, but not in the real world. Phillips can’t seem to separate fiction from fact and has allegedly used falsehoods for decades to benefit himself and his companies.
Phillips was appointed to lead human service programs in both Mississippi and Texas but he left both jobs after less than two years following claims of mismanagement of welfare funds and investigations into government contracts he issued to his own companies.
At True the Vote, Phillips stood behind expansive election fraud claims that fell apart when the group’s lawyers admitted they had no evidence for them. He and Catherine Engelbrecht, the group’s other leader, allegedly had an affair and used organization funds for their own personal use.
The two spent a week in jail after being charged with contempt for their refusal to name the source of their election misinformation. It turned out there was no source.
2000 Mules grossed more than $10 million and spawned a companion book before Salem quietly withdrew it in 2024 after being sued by Mark Andrews, a Black man from Georgia who was falsely portrayed as one of the voting “mules” in the film. Salem made no effort to use its media outlets to inform the public of the film’s falsehoods.
In 2022, Phillips and Engelbrecht sought to raise $25 million to create a “Freedom Hospital” in Ukraine to serve people wounded in the war with Russia. Phillips said more than $10 million was raised for the project, but no hospital ever was created.
After the project was abandoned, Phillips continued to raise money for it, according to an investigation by ProPublica and the Dallas Morning News. “The Freedom Hospital is my commitment to God come to life,” he said months after the project was canceled.
Trump has cut funding for FEMA and said he wants to eliminate the agency and shift disaster response duties to the states. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which was mismanaged by Kristi Noem before she was fired in March.
Twelve states have sued FEMA over policy changes that have slowed FEMA grants to a trickle.
The New York Times dispatched a reporter to all three Waffle House restaurants in Rome, Ga., to see if any of the employees or regulars recalled seeing Phillips teleport in. “I’ve seen it all, but I’ve never seen that,” said one of the sources.
Phillips says “teleport” may not be the best word for what he experienced. “The more accurate biblical terms are ‘translated’ or ‘transported’ — not new ideas for people of faith.”
