Several officials from the White House National Security Council have been fired after right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer met with President Trump, according to multiple reports.
Ms. Loomer visited the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Vice President J.D. Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Sergio Gor, director of the White House personnel office, were also present for the meeting.
On Thursday, three senior NSC officials were fired: Brian Walsh, senior director for intelligence, Thomas Boodry, senior director for legislative affairs and David Feith, according to multiple reports.
In a statement, the NSC said it “does not comment on personnel matters.”
The Washington Times could not confirm a connection between the firings and Ms. Loomer’s visit.
When asked Thursday on Air Force One whether Ms. Loomer had anything to do with the firings, Mr. Trump replied “no, not at all,” and while he acknowledged her input, he said hirings and firings are his decisions.
“Laura Loomer is a great patriot. She’s a very strong person,” Mr. Trump said. “She makes recommendations … and sometimes I listen to those recommendations … I listen to everybody and then I make a decision.”
He said “we’re always going to let go of people – people we don’t like or people that take advantage of or people that may have loyalties to someone else.”
For her part, Ms. Loomer said she wouldn’t be “divulging any details” about her meeting “out of respect for [Mr. Trump] and the privacy of the Oval Office.”
“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 the protecting the President of the United States of America and our national security,” she wrote on social media on Thursday.
Ms. Loomer had complained about not being more involved with the vetting process of hiring NSC officials since she thinks Mr. Waltz hired too many “neocons” or “neoconservatives” and too many who were “not MAGA enough,” the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Waltz has been under scrutiny since he inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal group chat in which officials discussed upcoming airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen last month.
Mr. Trump has stuck by Mr. Waltz.
The Pentagon Inspector General also launched an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his part in the Signal group chat.
Ms. Loomer is a staunch supporter of Mr. Trump and campaigned with him last year. Some have tagged her as a conspiracy theorist. She has called the September 11, 2001 terror attacks an “inside job.”
