Gen. Timothy Haugh was fired Thursday as head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, along with NSA deputy director Wendy Noble, in a shock move that’s befuddling national security experts. Far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer was apparently behind the dismissals after she presented President Donald Trump with what she called “vetting materials” about people who are disloyal to the president.
Loomer appeared to take credit for the firings on the social media platform X late Thursday, which came not long after three other senior members of the National Security Council were also fired at the behest of the 31-year-old online influencer.
“NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired,” Loomer tweeted. “As a Biden appointee, General Haugh had no place serving in the Trump admin given the fact that he was HAND PICKED by General Milley, who was accused of committing treason by President Trump. Why would we want an NSA Director who was referred to Biden after being hand selected by Milley, who told China he would side with them over Trump!?!”
Trump suggested in a Truth Social post in 2023 that Milley should be executed for “treason,” after reports surfaced that he had communicated with Chinese leaders in 2021 after China had received intelligence the U.S. was planning to attack the country. Milley was reassuring Chinese officials the U.S. was not planning to attack, as he would later testify to Congress, simply to de-escalate the situation. But Trump stripped Milley of his security detail and security clearance about a week after being inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.
NSA Director Haugh’s association with Milley clearly upset Loomer, who has been unusually close to Trump ever since she was first spotted flying in Air Force One to attend a presidential debate in Sept. 2024 and even going to a 9/11 memorial ceremony with Trump. Loomer has previously said that 9/11 was an “inside job.”
The three NSC members that Loomer got fired include Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence, Thomas Boodry, a director for legislative affairs, and David Feith, a director for technology and national security, according to the Associated Press. Trump confirmed Loomer was involved in the dismissals while talking to reporters Thursday on Air Force One, saying “she makes recommendations […] and sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” according to Axios. The president hasn’t publicly commented on the firing of the NSA director and deputy director.
Loomer has touted her bans from major online services like PayPal, TeeSpring, and Instagram as points of pride. The far-right influencer was also banned from the ride-hailing app Uber in 2018 after saying that she didn’t want Muslim drivers to pick her up. Loomer has repeatedly spread egregiously false news items, though it’s unclear if she knows they’re wrong when she shares them. It’s entirely plausible that “tipsters” feed her bullshit information just to mess with her and she repeats them credulously.
As just one example, Loomer said that an explosion near the U.S.-Canada border in Nov. 2023 was a result of “jihad” terrorists who were coming from Canada on their way to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. “STAY OUT OF NEW YORK CITY! AMERICA IS UNDER ATTACK BY ISLAMISTS AGAIN!” Loomer wrote in a tweet that’s still up. Loomer claimed to have some kind of source at the FBI, but it’s difficult to tell whether that’s true. However, it’s much more believable now, since conspiracy theorist Kash Patel is literally leading the FBI.
JUST IN:
JIHAD PLOT IN NYC! GET OUT!
The FBI is suspecting that the Car Bomb Explosion TERRORIST ATTACK at the Rainbow Bridge US-Canada border in Niagara Falls could have been heading directly to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NEW YORK CITY. FBI and NYPD on extreme… https://t.co/EQ4oGdG7md
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 22, 2023
In reality, the car contained two Americans going into Canada with no connection to terrorist activity and the explosion was a result of either a medical episode or a mechanical issue with the car, according to authorities at the time.
Loomer has repeated countless lies over the years and was banned from Twitter back in 2018, prompting her to chain herself to the front door of an office where some Twitter employees worked. The far-right figure got her account back after Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022. Other extremists like Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes were also allowed back on the platform.
Loomer has sued HBO host Bill Maher for defamation after the comedian suggested on his Sept. 13, 2024, show that she might be in “an arranged relationship” with Trump.
“She’s 31, looks like his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago … it was basically, who’s Trump f***ing?” Maher said, according to the court filing obtained by the Hollywood Reporter. “Because, I said, you know, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long, and it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer.”
Loomer wrote on X Friday that people who go out of their way to “assassinate my character and disrespect President Trump,” along with the president’s wife Melania, will be “held accountable.”
“Bill Maher will be held accountable today for his egregious defamation of me,” Loomer wrote on X Friday. “I am a professional woman and I won’t tolerate Bill Maher falsely accusing me of having an affair or committing adultery simply because he doesn’t like the fact that President Trump invited me to the Presidential debate as his guest.”
Trump has systematically tried to purge the federal government of anyone seen as disloyal, an entirely expected turn of events given the president’s fascist ideology. But it is a bit surreal to see some random far-right figure with absolutely no qualifications direct the firings of at least five top security officials. Even some traditional Trump allies seem stunned by the move. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska tweeted Friday that Haugh had done “a superb job.”
“General Tim Haugh is an outstanding leader and was doing a superb job at Cyber Command and National Security Agency. He was fired with no public explanation. This action sets back our Cyber and Signals Intelligence operations,” Bacon wrote.
Unfortunately, it seems like it’s only going to get weirder the longer Trump remains in office. And with Trump suggesting he could run for a third term (something that he’s not allowed to legally do), that time in office could potentially be much longer than another four years. Fascists really don’t like giving up power, as the entire world witnessed on Jan. 20, 2021.
