The 22-year-old Donald Trump superfan put in charge of countering domestic terrorism has faced understandable questions over his experience with law enforcement.
Thomas Fugate’s appointment as director of the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships has come under intense scrutiny, particularly after the terror alert level was raised because of Trump’s decision to bomb Iran.
The Daily Beast was the first to reveal how Fugate’s résumé includes working as a gardener and grocery store clerk in the past few years.
He graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio only 12 months ago, worked for the MAGA-aligned Heritage Foundation and volunteered for Trump’s campaign before taking the role, previously held by veterans of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Now, The Daily Beast can disclose that Fugate does have law enforcement experience: He was investigated less than four years ago in connection with a teenage love triangle gone wrong.
The details of the alleged offense appear to be very much those of teenage life, involving love rivalry, high-school teasing, text messages and immature language. But the fact that they took place so recently raises new questions about Fugate’s fitness for his role.
Indeed, according to a bulletin published on June 22 by his own department, while officers in his Cedar Park, Texas, hometown were spending time on 18-year-old Fugate in 2020, their colleagues nationwide were working on disrupting “multiple potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots.”
The police investigation was into allegedly threatening messages Fugate, who then went by “Trey” rather than Thomas, sent to a love rival. Fugate was 18 and dating a 16-year-old girl; his rival was also 16. The Daily Beast is not naming the boy and girl.
Cedar Park Police Department confirmed to the Daily Beast that they had received a call from the 16-year-old boy’s mom. A source with knowledge of the incident said it was in December 2020 when Fugate was a high school senior.
A spokeswoman for the department declined to elaborate on what action was taken. But the source said: “They just talked to the dads—and everyone agreed to chill out.”
A spokeswoman for Fugate’s boss, Kristi Noem, confirmed that he had been part of a “teenage spat” which was resolved not by Fugate, then 18 and legally an adult, but by his father. The department denied any police involvement.
“How desperate and embarrassing for the Daily Beast that they are trying to warp a silly high-school spat into something newsworthy. There was no investigation by the police—the teenage drama was handled by the parents who all agreed this was a misunderstanding. Teenagers are allowed to teenagers [sic],” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
After The Daily Beast requested public records of the incident, Cedar Park City Attorney’s Office stated in a letter to the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that there was an “investigation of an alleged injury to a child”—in direct contradiction of what DHS has claimed.
When asked about this apparent discrepancy, McLaughlin said: “Mr. Fugate has consistently denied there was any kind of formal investigation and that the police simply connected the parents over this high school drama.”
A former friend of Fugate said that the spat had started after the girl, then a freshman at Leander High School, in Leander, Texas, left the boy for Fugate, who was a senior, and the spurned lover started bad-mouthing the girl around their school.
Given the two-and-a-half year age difference between Fugate and the girl, the friend said boys would tease Fugate about the gap, encouraged by her former boyfriend. “They would send Thomas messages. They would harass him and the girl in the hallway,” the former friend said. “And so Thomas took it upon himself to send him a message, telling him to lay off. His new girlfriend found the gesture to be sweet. But [she thought] he was so weird about it.”
Screenshots of Fugate’s messages corroborated a lack of maturity. One Snapchat message shows Fugate lashing out, “You are not a f---ing man, you are a pathetic spoiled child who needs a beating,” he wrote, describing the child as a “fat piece of s--t.”
Fugate continued, “[She] had the option between us two, and you lost because you are inferior. F---ing go suck it up, you little b---h.
“You had your chance, YOU f-----d it up, and now you’re gone. You were less than me and you continue to prove that daily.”
Fugate then hinted that he and the girl were in possession of private information about the boy, and that he might make it public. “You’re so lucky that she’s keeping your secrets, and for that matter that I am,” he said.
“If things started to get out about you, that would be such a shame to see you get what you deserve... you malignant f--k,” he added. “[She] is a nice person, I am not.”
Neither Fugate’s father, also called Thomas, or the other boy’s mother responded to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
When asked about Fugate’s employment status, the DHS spokeswoman McLaughlin said: “The Department of Homeland Security has a robust counterterrorism program, and the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) office plays an insignificant and ineffective role in the broader efforts.
“The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Undersecretary has directly overseen efforts to reform this office and has tasked several staffers to assist with this.”
Sources inside DHS told the Daily Beast that the revelation about Fugate’s history of hot-headed behaviour, combined with the renewed threat posed by Iranians living in the U.S., is likely to intensify scrutiny of Trump’s controversial decision to appoint him to a post within the center, also known as CP3.
A Department official told The Daily Beast: “Chatter is he’s got one foot in the grave. [There is] no real desire from leadership to protect him.”
A former friend of Fugate said Trey was never the right fit for the job. “I don’t know how he got here.”
