Trump’s crack counter-terrorism team:
The inexperienced 22-year-old reportedly tasked by Donald Trump with tackling U.S. extremism was working as a neighborhood gardener just five years ago and in a grocery store as recently as August 2023, the Daily Beast can reveal.
Thomas Fugate, who graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio just 12 months ago, is currently heading up the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the DHS, as first reported by ProPublica Tuesday. The center, also known as CP3, plays a vital role supporting nationwide efforts to combat terrorism and hate-fueled violence.
But according to the youngster’s LinkedIn page, Fugate has almost no experience in this field—and in 2020 was working as a self-employed ‘Landscape Business Owner.’ There isn’t much else on his resumé to suggest Fugate has the requisite skills to weed out terrorists. Prior to his work as a gardener—while studying for a degree in politics and law—Fugate worked at an H-E-B supermarket in Austin, Texas, as a ‘Cross Functional Team Member.’
Since leaving college, Fugate has had a meteoric rise in the political world, having served as an “advance team member” on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, according to his LinkedIn page. An avowed Republican, he also interned at the Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025, and for Texas Representatives Terry Wilson and Steve Allison.
I think we can all feel just great about this, considering:
Richard Haass, who advised Colin Powell and George W. Bush in the build-up to the Iraq War, warned that the Iranians had many levers they could pull to hurt the United States. “If you start going up that escalation ladder, they can act asymmetrically, as we said, with terrorism, militias, hostage-taking. It’s what they do,” he told CNN.
The former chair of the Council on Foreign Relations pointed out that Trump was no longer in control of the ramifications after dropping up to six never-before-used “bunker buster” bombs on the Iranian nuclear facility deep underground at Fordow. “We’ve got to prepare for the worst,” he said. “These are unprecedented times.”
Iranian state TV was quick to threaten major retaliation “Mr. Trump, you started it, and we will end it… Every American citizen or military personnel in the region is now a target.” The government-controlled network also aired a graphic of U.S. bases “within the fire range of Iran.”
While traditional Iranian military responses to Israel’s attacks in the current conflict have been largely ineffective, the devastating asymmetric battles fought in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrate the scope of potential attacks on American targets. So too did the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,000 people 18 months ago, sparking the current eruption of violence in the Middle East.
I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about. There are tons of grown ups around to handle the real counter-terrorism stuff, right? Well, except for all the FBI and DHS who’ve been pulled off of counter-terrorism to help ICE harass and terrorize the Latino gardeners and nannies. They have much more important work to do.