In only two years: From H-E-B employee to DHS center director?
This is a legit story, although it sounds like something The Onion would publish.
Everyone knows about The Onion, right? It’s a news organization that specializes in news satire. Some of the stories it publishes, actually most, are written in such fine fashion that one can almost believe the story is true.
Founded in 1988 in Madison, Wisc., The Onion is always worth the read, either in print or online (theonion.com).
Occasionally, a real story pops up, though, that seems satirical, but it’s not.
Hi, Thomas Fugate
Take, for example, the story of 22-year-old Thomas Fugate, the former gardener (2020), H-E-B “team member (2023),” Model UN Club Member, who just graduated from college last year but is now acting as the director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), which falls under the purview of the U.S. DHS (Department of Homeland Security).
CP3, relatively unknown to the general public, was established in 2021 to replace the Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention.
Today, its job is to coordinate with federal, state, and other stakeholders to fund, research, and otherwise facilitate the prevention of terrorism.
During the early months of Donald Trump’s second term, CP3 saw its budget reduced by approximately 75 percent. Its director at the time, William Braniff, a West Point grad with 20 years of experience in national security, resigned in protest.
Into his spot, stepped the president’s replacement appointee, Thomas Fugate, who was then working as a special assistant in an immigration office at DHS (Source: The Economist).
What a leap from the bottom to the top. On social media last year, fresh from college graduation (UT-San Antonio) with a bachelor’s degree in politics and law. Fugate posted: “Onward and Upward,” and then plunked down an emoji of a rocket blasting off into space.
According to a June 4, 2025, story published by ProPublica.org, Fugate’s “career blastoff came quickly. A year after graduation, the 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise is now a Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism.”
According to the same story, the White House appointed the former HEB team member, who also interned with the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, to an office that had led nationwide efforts to prevent “hate-fueled attacks, school shootings, and other forms of targeted violence.”
No surprise, the response on social media once word was spread – we have a 22-year-old running CP3 – wasn’t kind:
“Are you telling me that this guy, who previously worked at a grocery store and has no terror prevention experience got his job on MERIT?”
Other comments were even less kind:
“He is why my daughter covers her drinks at bars.” (Source: Facebook.)
FBI the Top Dog
Reading further into the president’s appointment of Fugate, it’s clear that he isn’t the final authority when it comes to overseeing counter terrorism ops in the U.S.
“(Fugate) is far from the final authority in the Trump administration overseeing counter terrorism efforts. (Source: The Independent (UK).
“The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces are the main investigative body in this matter; CP3 does not engage in law enforcement or data collection duties, per its own website. The agency instead works with local government entities on violence prevention programs.”
In that same story published June 22, a Democrat senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, had this to say about Fugate’s job with CP3, which was taken from a Tweet the lawmaker had posted on X: “As our nation girds for possible Iranian terrorist attacks, this is the person (the president) put in charge of terrorism prevention. 22 years old. Recent work experience: landscaping/grocery clerk. Never worked a day in counter-terrorism. But he’s a BIG Trump fan. So he got the job.”
Looking online, there don’t seem to be any quotes from the GOP, defending Fugate’s appointment; only a throwback to his working the Trump presidential campaign in Texas last year.
The House Democrats (at least two ranking members on the Homeland Security committee) are demanding that Fugate appear before the committee and testify on current threats to the “homeland.” Their demand comes after the late June DHS advisory, which said that the “U.S. is at a heightened terrorism threat level after President Trump attacked Iran last week.”