President Donald Trump fired at least one National Security Council official this week after far-right activist Laura Loomer met with the president and expressed dissatisfaction with some officials on his national security team, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence on the National Security Council, was let go, the sources said. Walsh previously served as a top aide to Marco Rubio, when he was a senator, on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Loomer met with Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon in a meeting attended by Vice President JD Vance and national security adviser Mike Waltz, two sources familiar with the meeting told NBC News.
According to one of the sources, Loomer pressed Trump to fire members of his national security staff, and Waltz defended them. It's not clear if Loomer specifically named Walsh. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes declined to comment.
One person also said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was present at the meeting.
Loomer confirmed the meeting in a statement to NBC News, calling it “an honor” to share with Trump her research on the staff and said “strong vetting” is needed for the sake of national security.
Signal is an open-source, encrypted service used for messaging and calls.
“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 said in her statement. “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."
Status was first to report that Loomer visited the White House on Wednesday. The New York Times was first to report that Loomer told Trump to fire members of his national security team during the meeting.
Trump has defended his national security team after The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its top editor was added to a high-level group chat about U.S. military strikes in Yemen. Waltz has said he was responsible for the error; Vance also participated in the group chat.
Loomer’s access to Trump became an internal flashpoint during last year’s campaign. Aides and advisers were not always successful in shielding him from the far-right social media influencer. Loomer, for example, traveled on Trump’s jet to his debate last September with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in Atlanta and to 9/11 memorial services in New York the following day. Her presence at the latter infuriated some Democrats and Republicans because one of the many conspiracy theories she has promoted is the false notion that the 2001 terrorist assault on the U.S. was an “inside job.”
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