Thomas Fugate, 22, addresses scrutiny over his position at DHS, denying claims of leadership and highlighting his limited responsibilities.

Young DHS Staffer at the Center of Debate

Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old appointee in President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has publicly addressed mounting criticism regarding his age, inexperience, and perceived influence in the administration. Fugate’s official role is Special Assistant, yet several reports incorrectly identified him as the head of the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), the department’s lead office on terrorism and targeted violence prevention.

Fugate and DHS both refuted these claims, clarifying that he never held a leadership position within CP3. “All decisions came down from policy leadership, [the] undersecretary, deputy secretary, and chief of staff,” Fugate explained, emphasizing that his responsibilities were limited and closely overseen by senior officials.

CP3 itself recently underwent significant downsizing, with an $18.5 million budget cut announced last week. Fugate noted the office had already been flagged for waste, fraud, and abuse before his arrival, describing it as “a very niche and small, specialized office” that mainly managed grant programs rather than exercising broad authority or oversight. “It’s only when you take it out of context and blow it out of proportion that it then becomes a massive problem where people think I’m practically running the FBI,” Fugate commented, pushing back on the narrative that his role was outsized.

DHS Rejects Leadership Claims and Highlights Deeper Issues

DHS confirmed that Fugate was never in charge of CP3, characterizing him as a “low-level” staff member. “This entire smear campaign around Thomas Fugate is a smokescreen to bury the rampant grift and waste festering in the CP3 program under the Biden Administration’s watch,” stated DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She stressed that Fugate “never held the director role at CP3, and to imply that he had operational control or exercised leadership over CP3 is simply untrue.”

McLaughlin further argued, “The fact a low-level 22-year-old staffer was able to identify the misappropriated spending and the subsequent violent reaction to defend this woke, partisan spending by those on the left tells you exactly what this program was really being used for.”

Fugate recounted his entry into the department, noting that he began his DHS career working with Border and Immigration before temporarily assisting CP3 at the request of the Undersecretary of Policy. Before joining DHS, Fugate interned at the Heritage Foundation and graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a degree in Politics and Law last May.

The episode highlights ongoing debates about youth, experience, and accountability in government service, as well as broader partisan tensions over how specialized federal programs are administered and reformed.