David Richardson (government official)

David Richardson (born March 4, 1965)^[1] is an American government official who served as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from May to November 2025. Richardson previously served as the Assistant Secretary for the United States Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD), succeeding Mary Ellen Callahan, from January 2025 until taking the Acting FEMA role. He also previously served as a United States Marine Corps ground combat officer.

David Richardson was raised in Waterford, Michigan. He graduated from Harding University, a private Christian university tied to the Churches of Christ, with a degree in biology.^[2]

Richardson is a retired lieutenant colonel and artillery officer with the United States Marine Corps, commanding units in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa.^[3] He taught history as a Naval ROTC instructor at George Washington University, strategy at the United States Army Field Artillery School, and was an instructor in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program.^[4] In January 2025,^[5] Richardson became the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.^[6]

On May 8, 2025, Cameron Hamilton was dismissed as the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following comments he made advocating for the agency.^[7] Richardson was installed as acting director by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.^[8] In a meeting with employees the following day, he stated that he would personally take control of actions at the agency, including handling disaster payments,^[6] and that further "cost-sharing with the states" would be implemented.^[9]

Richardson's tenure began with memos seeking to identify "redundancies and inefficiencies".^[9] The following week, he privately acknowledged that he did not have a plan for the impending Atlantic hurricane season, according to The Wall Street Journal.^[10] That month, he was sued by Denver, Chicago, and Pima County, Arizona, over the Trump administration's revocation of FEMA funding.^[11] Richardson canceled its four-year strategic plan^[12] but sought to retain thousands of on-call employees.^[13]

In June, Reuters reported that Richardson had said that he was unaware that the U.S. had a hurricane season.^[14] The Department of Homeland Security stated that he was joking.^[15] Hours later, The Wall Street Journal reported that Richardson had only recently learned of the Atlantic hurricane season and that the agency was reverting to the previous year's hurricane plan.^[16]

Weeks following the Central Texas flooding, Richardson has not made any public or internal statements which FEMA staff say is highly unusual; one anonymous FEMA staffer said that "he has clearly shown a lack of regard in disaster response, and a lack of care for communities that suffer through these disasters."^[17][18] According to CNN, he visited Kerrville on July 12 but refused to answer their questions about FEMA response times; a spokesperson did.^[19] It was later reported that FEMA officials could not reach Richardson for 24 hours after the flooding, although FEMA directors are required by law to be immediately available. The delay hampered the flood rescue efforts.^[20] He submitted his resignation on November 17, 2025 and was succeeded by Karen Evans on December 1.^[21]

Richardson is also a professional painter.^[1] In 2019, Richardson published War Story, a novel partially written from the perspective of an Iraqi colonel.^[10]