Several Trump White House national security officials fired, sources say
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump shook up his national security team on Thursday by firing senior officials on the National Security Council after a visit with far-right activist Laura Loomer, who indicated that she presented him with research on administration officials she suspects of insufficient loyalty to his agenda.
Although it was not immediately clear why the officials were fired, Loomer visited the White House on Wednesday.
At least four senior officials were fired afterward, including three with ties to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
They were David Feith, who oversaw technology and national security and worked at the State Department in Trump's first administration, Brian Walsh, a former aide to Rubio in his U.S. Senate office who oversaw intelligence matters, and Thomas Boodry, who handled legislative affairs for former Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump's current national security adviser. Boodry also worked for Rubio in his Florida Senate office.
A fourth person, who worked for Rubio in the Senate was also fired, two people familiar with the firings said.
Trump confirmed to reporters on Thursday on Air Force One that firings had taken place. He did not specify how many people were fired.
"Always we're going to let go of people—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," Trump said. "You'll always have that."
He later called Loomer a "a very good patriot" and a "very strong person," and said that during her White House visit she made job recommendations.
"Sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody. I listen to everybody, and then I make a decision," he said. "She'll always have something to say. Usually very constructive."
Trump told reporters that while she also recommends removals, Loomer was not involved in the NSC firings that took place.
In a statement, a NSC spokesman declined to comment on the firings, the scope of which was unknown as of Thursday afternoon.
"We don’t comment on personnel matters," the NSC's Brian Hughes said.
Trump met with Loomer on Wednesday at the White House, The New York Times first reported. Axios subsequently reported on the NSC firings.
Loomer has publicly called on Trump to fire at least one other National Security Council member on the platform X over the senior official's work with prominent Democrats in the intelligence community prior to joining the administration.
In another post, Loomer declined to disclose specific details about her meeting with Trump while confirming that they discussed her research on members of his national security team.
"It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings. 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," she wrote.
Loomer did not respond to a message requesting comment. But at 3:03 p.m. Thursday, she again posted on X, saying, "I have been on a 6 hour flight from Washington DC to LA all morning as the media has attacked me and blown up my cell phone all day long for simply protecting President Trump and our national security."
Trump declined last week to fire Waltz after the former Florida congressman − or someone on his staff − accidentally added the editor of The Atlantic to a group chat in which he and other top Trump administration officials discussed a strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen before it took place.
Waltz, Trump and others have given vague and at times conflicting accounts of exactly how Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg got added to the chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
After Trump administration officials insisted that no classified information was included in the chat, Goldberg released all of the chat messages between about 18 top Trump national security officials over three days before the March 15 military strike against Houthi targets. At least 63 people reportedly were killed.
The chat messages released by Goldberg revealed that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth released operational details of the airstrikes, including the types of planes and weapons used, two hour ahead of the military action in a controversy that has come to be known as SignalGate.
Intelligence experts and Democrats in Congress said the information was clearly classified, and that Hegseth and potentially others should face consequences including being fired and potentially charged with violations of federal laws barring the release of classified information.
On Monday, however, the Trump administration sought to put the scandal behind it. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that the administration maintained confidence in Waltz and said the case was effectively closed, even as the breach provoked bipartisan criticism and opened up divisions inside the White House.
Contributing: Reuters
This story has been updated to include additional information.