Washington (AFP) – Democrats expressed outrage on Friday that President Donald Trump had fired the head of the highly sensitive US National Security Agency at the apparent urging of far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer. Loomer, who is known for claiming that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, is reported to have pushed for the dismissal of various senior US security officials including NSA chief Timothy Haugh, putting her in an unprecedented position of influence over some of the most secretive and powerful parts of the government.
“I am alarmed and angered that, at the insistence of a far-right conspiracy theorist, President Trump dismissed one of the most skilled, accomplished officers in the US military,” Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “President Trump has given a priceless gift to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea by purging competence from our national security leadership,” Reed said.
Senator Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, referred to the Trump administration’s inadvertent inclusion of a journalist in a Signal group chat on plans for Yemen air strikes in his criticism of Haugh’s dismissal. “It’s so crazy it defies belief: Trump refused to fire the people that embarrassed America and risked service members’ lives in the Signalgate scandal,” Warner wrote on X, “but fired Gen. Haugh, a nonpartisan national security expert, at the advice of a self-described ‘pro-white nationalist.'”
Loomer posted on X early on Friday — after Haugh’s dismissal was reported — that he and his deputy Wendy Noble “have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.” “Given the fact that the NSA is arguably the most powerful intel agency in the world, we cannot allow for a Biden nominee to hold that position,” Loomer wrote, adding, “This is called VETTING.”
Trump, whose reality TV show catchphrase was “you’re fired,” on Thursday addressed reports that officials at the National Security Council had also been sacked, saying “we’re always going to let go of people — people we don’t like…or people that may have loyalties to someone else.” But while he claimed that Loomer did not play a role in the decision, Trump also said aboard Air Force One that “she makes recommendations” and “sometimes I listen to those recommendations…I listen to everybody and then I make a decision.”
The New York Times reported Thursday that six people from the NSC were fired after Trump met with Loomer the previous day, including three senior officials on the body that advises the president on top foreign policy matters from Ukraine to Gaza. Loomer confirmed the meeting, but said on X that “out of respect for President Trump and the privacy of the Oval Office, I’m going to decline on divulging any details.”
The 31-year-old — who often flew with Trump on his campaign plane during the 2024 election — later said she had presented “opposition research” to the Republican president. She previously sparked accusations of racism when she said on social media that Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris — whose mother was of Indian descent — would make the White House “smell like curry” if she won.
Trump has led a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership since taking office in January. The president fired top US military officer general Charles “CQ” Brown in February, offering no explanation for the dismissal less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also sacked the head of the Navy and other top officers, while Trump’s administration is presiding over sweeping layoffs of federal workers and moves to dismantle government institutions.
© 2024 AFP
