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Trump Fires National Security Council Staffers After Meeting With Conspiracy Theorist Laura Loomer
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President Donald Trump has fired White House National Security Council (NSC) staffers after being encouraged to do so by the right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who has spread conspiracy theories about 9/11.
On April 2, Loomer met with Trump in the Oval Office to encourage the president to purge staffers she considered insufficiently loyal to his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda, according to what several people familiar with the matter told The New York Times on Thursday.
In January, Loomer got into a social media war with Elon Musk.
One person familiar with the situation said that during the leadup to Wednesday’s meeting with Trump, the activist complained to administration officials that she was excluded from the NSC vetting process as the president’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, built his staff.
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She believes Waltz had been too reliant in the process on “neocons,” a nickname for pro-intervention neoconservatives within the Republican Party, as well as what she perceived as “not-MAGA-enough” types, the anonymous person stated.
Since Wednesday’s meeting with Loomer, the Presidential Personnel Office has fired at least three senior NSC officials and many lower-ranking aides. The fired NSC officials include Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence, Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs and David Feith, a technology and national security director.
It is not clear if any recent firings directly relate to Waltz and his staff’s use of the messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive topics.
Trump downplayed Loomer’s influence on the firings while speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Thursday afternoon while traveling to Miami, Florida.
“She makes recommendations of things and people, and sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody,” the president stated. “I listen to everybody, and then I make a decision. But I saw her yesterday. She was at the ceremony, and she is – she’ll always have something to say, usually very constructive.”
Trump noted that Loomer recommended several people for jobs in the administration but that she was not involved in the NSC firings.
Trump said he was unaware of how many staffers had been let go.
“Always, we’re gonna let go of people,” he declared. “People that we don’t like, or people that we don’t think that can do the job, or people that may have loyalties to somebody else will. You’ll always have that.”
Trump officials reportedly interrogated nonpolitical NSC employees on everything from their voting records to political donations.
On Jan. 21, the Trump administration fired over 150 NSC staffers to ensure the NSC’s goals aligned with the president’s agenda.
When the nonpolitical staffers, who usually serve two-year stints on the council, were fired, the NSC was left dangerously understaffed and lacking subject matter experts from across the government.
Article by Admin
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