The story of Thomas Fugate just has to be told. Who is Thomas Fugate? He was tapped by President Trump to lead the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3). This agency, housed in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), works to combat terrorism, school shootings, and other hate-driven violence. He initially started as a special assistant in the immigration office at DHS in February before becoming the director at CP3 after its long-time leader resigned in March.
But who is this 22-year-old bureaucrat who was an unknown prior to this year? Is he a whiz kid who graduated from college when he was 14 and has an IQ of 160? Or is Fugate the sire of a prestigious DC family with deep pockets and strong political ties? Let’s take a closer look at this young terrorism (expert)?
Thomas Fugate Bio
Thomas Fugate has taken an unusual path to his lofty government position. For a two-month period in 2020, he was self-employed as a Landscape Business Owner, which is a glorified title for someone who cuts grass and weed whacks. He then went on to a three-year stint with the Texas-based grocery chain H-E-B. There, he worked his way up to a position as a “cross-functional team member” before leaving their employment in August of 2023.
Scattered in between are internships with The Borgen Project for three months in 2022, the Heritage Foundation, and a five-month internship with the U.S. House of Representatives. Fugate also served as an intern in the offices of Texas State Reps. Steven Allison and Terry Wilson from May 2023 to August 2023.
In 2024, he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in politics and law from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His career in the Republican Party took off from there as he was spotted at a May Texas GOP gathering launching his first campaign, a bid for a delegate spot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee (he was elected as an alternate).
In June, Fugate was in Florida celebrating Trump’s 78th birthday with the Club 47 fan group in West Palm Beach. Next, he was spotted at the National Republican Convention and seen in photographs with MAGA stalwarts like Ben Carson and Matt Gaetz. Later in the summer, Fugate was on the campaign trail as part of Trump’s advance team. When Trump won the election, Fugate marked the moment with an emotional post about believing in him “from the very start, even to the scorn and contempt of my peers.”
Who Did He Replace?
Fugate’s predecessor was William Braniff, a veteran of over 20 years of counterterrorism work. Prior to his work at CP3, Braniff, an army veteran, served as Director of the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). He also had a previous leadership position at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). After Elon Musk and his DOGE team invaded CP3 in March, Braniff was informed that his staff would be reduced from 80 to 20.
Realizing that the goals set up for his agency could never be realized with such a small staffing level, Braniff chose to leave government service. Fugate was hired after Mr. Braniff left the administration. And Braniff was named the executive director of American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) almost immediately after he resigned from CP3. PERIL works to prevent radicalization to violent extremism by strengthening community resilience.
How Did We Get Here?
So, Little Tommy Fugate’s primary qualification in winning the director’s position at CP3: blind loyalty to Trump. This is also true of other unqualified administration executives, such as Linda McMahon, Robert Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, and Kristi Noem. In describing his loyalty to the president, Fugate said, “I had political awakening nine years ago when as a 13-year-old “in a generation deprived of hope, opportunity, and happiness, I saw in one man the capacity for real and lasting change: Donald Trump.”
Fugate leads an agency shattered by employee terminations amid Trump’s decentralized approach to counterterrorism relying on MAGA-friendly sheriffs and border patrol agents. Little Tommy will babysit this agency until the day Trump attempts to shutter it forever.
