Donald Trump fired Chris Krebs from his position as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Posted by Deadline: White House, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 95%
Deadline: White HouseOct 20, 2026
Multiple tier1 and tier2 sources (AP, Reuters, BBC, NPR, CNN, ABC) report that President Trump fired Chris Krebs as director of CISA on November 17, 2020, via a tweet. The claim's core assertion is directly corroborated; the post's phrasing about firing 'for making sure the election was secure' matches sources describing the firing as tied to Krebs's election-security statement.
What was said
… We spent something on the order of three and a half years of gaming out every possible scenario, scenario for how foreign actor could interfere with an election, countless, countless scenarios. Hi again, everyone. It's now 5 o'clock in New York, right after Chris Krebs. That's who that was, was fired by Donald Trump for making sure the 2020 election was secure. Krebs, the former director of the Cyber security and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, provided some insight into the work that he did, that his agency did, speaking to how much and how many years go into protecting America and our elections from …
Deadline: White House · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. AP reports President Trump fired Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.[1]
Supports. Reuters reports Trump fired top cybersecurity official Chris Krebs in a Twitter message, citing his statement that the election was secure.[2]
Supports. BBC and NPR confirm Trump terminated CISA chief Krebs after his 'highly inaccurate' remarks on vote integrity.[4][5]
Supports. A 2025 PolitiFact fact-check confirms Trump fired Krebs in 2020 for affirming the election's safety.[3]
Context. The claim's phrasing matches the post's wording; the firing occurred in 2020, not in the 2026 period of the post, but the claim refers to the past firing, which the sources document.[1][6]
Sources
6 sources: 3 fact-checkers, 1 tier 1, 2 tier 2
- 1Trump fires agency head who vouched for 2020 vote securityapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 2Trump fires top U.S. election cybersecurity official who defended votereuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 3Donald Trump falsely calls 2020 election 'rigged' in memo targeting ...politifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 4Trump fires election security official who contradicted him - BBCbbc.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 5Christopher Krebs Fired By Trump After Correcting Voter ...npr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 6Trump fires director of Homeland Security agency who had rejected President's election conspiracy theoriescnn.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Chris Krebs served as the director of CISA.True
- The Trump administration fired the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission.True
- Donald Trump signed CISA legislation into law that created election security architecture.True
- Chris Krebs helped create CISA during the first Trump administration.True
- Donald Trump signed the legislation establishing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).True