Trump fires security staffers after recommendation by controversial far-right influencer
The White House fired at least three National Security Council staffers after president Donald Trump met with far-right influencer Laura Loomer, according to three sources familiar with the situation.
Loomer met with the president Wednesday in the Oval Office and urged him to fire principal deputy national security advisor Alex Wong and others she believed were disloyal to the Trump agenda, but it was not immediately clear if he was among the three staffers who were let go, reported CNN.
"The three officials include Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence and a former top staffer for now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Senate Intelligence Committee; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs who previously served as [national security adviser Mike] Waltz’s legislative director in Congress; and David Feith, a senior director overseeing technology and national security who served in the State Department during Trump’s first administration," CNN reported.
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One source speculated that Waltz may be reluctant to fire Wong, whom Loomer has attacked online, because he was at the center of the scandal over a group chat conducted on Signal to discuss military operations while a reporter was present.
Waltz had been in the Oval Office when Loomer arrived and he stayed while Trump met with her, but she declined to say what she discussed with the president.
“Out of respect for president Trump and the privacy of the Oval Office, I’m going to decline on divulging any details about my Oval Office meeting with president Trump,” Loomer told CNN. “It was an honor to meet with president Trump and present him with my findings, I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of strong vetting, for the sake of protecting the president and our national security.”
Loomer has dubbed Wong a "never Trumper" because his wife had worked as a Justice Department lawyer during the Biden and Obama administrations, and because her father had been a large shareholder in a Chinese satellite company.
She also speculated that Wong, not Waltz, was been responsible for adding The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat “on purpose as part of a foreign opp to embarrass the Trump administration on behalf of China.”