Trump fires NSC officials a day after far-right activist raises concerns
to him about staff loyalty
[April 04, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE, AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's fired
"some" White House National Security Council officials, a move that
comes a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns
directly to him about staff loyalty.
Trump downplayed Loomer's influence on the firings. But Loomer during
her Oval Office conversation with Trump urged the president to purge
staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his “Make America Great
Again” agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter.
They all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive
personnel manner.
“Always we’re letting go of people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air
Force One as he made his way to Miami on Thursday afternoon. “People
that we don’t like or people that we don’t think can do the job or
people that may have loyalties to somebody else.”
Loomer appeared to take credit for the firings in a post late Thursday
on X, writing, “You know how you know the NSC officials I reported to
President Trump are disloyal people who have played a role in sabotaging
Donald Trump?” She then noted that “the fired officials” were being
defended by Trump critics on CNN and MSNBC.
The firings by Trump of NSC staff come at a tumultuous moment for Trump
and his national security team. His national security adviser Mike
Waltz, continues to fight back calls for his ouster after using the
publicly available encrypted Signal app to discuss planning for the
sensitive March 15 military operation targeting Houthi militants in
Yemen.
Trump has said he stands by Waltz, who traveled to Florida with the
president on Thursday for a dinner event ahead of the LIV Golf
tournament in Miami.
Meanwhile, The Pentagon’s acting inspector general announced Thursday
that he would review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to
convey plans on the Houthi operations. The review will also look at
other defense officials’ use of the publicly available encrypted app.
Trump grew frustrated when asked about the review.
“You're bringing that up again,” Trump scoffed at a reporter. “Don't
bring that up again. Your editor's probably—that's such a wasted story.”
Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles, Waltz and Sergio
Gor, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, also took part in
the meeting with Loomer, the people said.
The Presidential Personnel Office has fired at least three senior NSC
officials and multiple lower-ranking aides since Wednesday’s meeting
with Loomer, according to the people familiar with the situation.
The NSC officials fired include Brian Walsh, a director for
intelligence; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs;
and David Feith, a senior director for technology and national security,
according two people familiar with the matter.
"Laura Loomer is a very good patriot. She is a very strong person,” said
Trump, who described his talks with the far-right activist as
“constructive.”
Trump acknowledged that Loomer “recommended certain people for jobs."
“Sometimes I listen to those recommendations like I do with everybody,"
Trump said. "I listen to everybody than I make a decision.”
Loomer, who has promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories, was a frequent
presence on the campaign trail during Trump’s 2024 successful White
House run. More recently, she’s been speaking out on social media about
members of Trump’s national security team that she insists can’t be
trusted.
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President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new
tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with
my research findings,” Loomer said in a Thursday posting on X. “I
will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will
continue reiterating the importance of, and the necessity of STRONG
VETTING, for the sake of protecting the President of the United
States of America, and our national security.”
Trump has a long history of elevating and associating with people
who trade in falsehoods and conspiracy theories, and he regularly
amplifies posts on his social media site shared by those like Loomer,
who promotes QAnon, an apocalyptic and convoluted conspiracy theory
centered on the belief that Trump is fighting the “deep state.”
Trump's national security team has been through a difficult stretch
as officials struggle to answer questions about why they were using
the Signal app to discuss planning for an operation targeting Houthi
militants instead of using far more secure communication means.
The use of Signal for operation planning came to light because a
journalist, The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly
added to the chain and revealed that Trump’s team used it to discuss
precise timing of the operation, aircraft used to carry out the
strikes and more.
Waltz has taken responsibility for building the text chain but has
said he does not know how Goldberg ended up being included.
The Pentagon’s acting inspector general announced Thursday that he
would review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to
convey plans on the Houthi operations. The review will also look at
other defense officials’ use of the publicly available encrypted
app.
Loomer, in the leadup to Wednesday's meeting with Trump, had
complained to sympathetic administration officials that she had been
excluded from the NSC vetting process as Waltz built his staff,
according to one person familiar with the matter. She believes Waltz
was too reliant in the process on “neocons” — shorthand for the more
hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party — as well as
what she perceived as “not-MAGA-enough” types, the person said.
Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican who sits on Senate committees
overseeing the military and national intelligence, said it “raises
eyebrows” when “there is a firing of people on the National Security
Council or their staff, particularly people that we have respect
for, who were part of the Intel community to begin with here in the
Senate.”
Waltz, in the first days of Trump's return to Washington, sent about
160 nonpolitical detailees assigned to the NSC back to their home
agencies to ensure those at the White House were committed to
implementing Trump’s America First agenda.
The move sidelined nonpolitical experts on topics that range from
counterterrorism to global climate policy at a time when the United
States is dealing with a disparate set of complicated foreign policy
matters, including conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Last week, Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los
Angeles, was fired without explanation in a terse email from the
White House personnel office shortly after Loomer posted about him
on social media, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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