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Politics|Loomer’s Role in Firings Shows Rising Sway of Fringe Figures on Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/us/politics/trump-nsc-firings-laura-loomer.html
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President Trump has always solicited information from dubious sources. But now, in his second term, he has fewer people around him who try to keep those voices away.
April 4, 2025, 6:03 p.m. ET
Laura Loomer had President Trump’s full attention.
Sitting directly across from the president in the Oval Office, Ms. Loomer, the far-right agitator and conspiracy theorist, held a stack of papers that detailed a litany of accusations about “disloyal” members of the National Security Council. The national security adviser, Michael Waltz, had arrived late and could only watch as Ms. Loomer ripped into his staff.
Fire them, Mr. Trump instructed Mr. Waltz, according to people with knowledge of the meeting on Wednesday. The president was furious and demanded to know why these people had been hired in the first place.
The events of Wednesday and Thursday, with more than a half-dozen national security officials fired on the advice of Ms. Loomer, unsettled even some veteran Trump officials. But the situation perfectly encapsulates Mr. Trump’s longtime penchant for soliciting information from dubious sources. The difference now, in Mr. Trump’s second term, is that he has fewer people around him who try to keep those voices away.
In a social media post on Friday, Ms. Loomer explained why two of the people who lost their jobs this week were on her list. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, had been chosen by Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom Ms. Loomer called a traitor. And General Haugh’s deputy, Wendy Noble, was close to James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence and fierce critic of Mr. Trump.
People close to General Haugh said he did not know how he ended up in Ms. Loomer’s cross hairs. He was traveling in Japan when the Pentagon told him that his “services would no longer be needed,” without any further explanation, according to two former U.S. officials.
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