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President Donald Trump denied Thursday afternoon that far-right firebrand Laura Loomer had anything to do with a round of National Security Council firings.
During his flight to Miami on board Air Force One, Trump sang the prominent conservative conspiracy theorist praises, but answered ‘no’ when asked if she was behind the dismissal of several of National Security Advisor Michael Waltz’s aides.
‘Laura Loomer is a great patriot. She’s a very strong person,’ Trump said. ‘She’s been in the party a long time, she’s done a good job,’ he later added.
Instead of being behind the firings, the president said that Loomer met with him Wednesday and gave him recommendations on people to hire.
‘And sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody, I listen to everybody, and then I make a decision. But I saw her yesterday. She was at the ceremony. And she’ll always have something to say, usually very constructive,’ Trump said. ‘She recommended certain people for jobs.’
Earlier Thursday, DailyMail.com confirmed an Axios report that said Trump had fired several members of the National Security Council team.
The president didn’t offer a number to reporters during the Air Force One ride.
The dismissals come after Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat where top administration officials were discussing an attack on the Houthis in Yemen.
Trump has publicly supported Waltz, a former Florida congressman, in the aftermath of ‘Signalgate’ despite some White House insiders labeling him a ‘f***ing idiot.’
However, The New York Times reported Thursday morning that Loomer visited the Oval Office on Wednesday and pressed for NSC firings.
The NSC is used by the president to advise him on national security, military, and foreign policy matters.
Loomer came to the White House armed with research that purportedly showed some NSC staffers were not loyal enough to the president’s agenda.
‘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 DailyMail.com Thursday.
‘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 strong vetting, for the sake of protecting the President and our national security,’ she added.
Waltz sat in on the meeting and defended members of his team, The Times said.
‘NSC doesn’t comment on personnel matters,’ was the official line from NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes.
But CNN reported Thursday that the individuals fired were Brian Walsh, Thomas Boodry and David Feith.
The network said that the firings were directly the result of Trump’s meeting with Loomer, who Trump’s top Congressional ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, had tried to get banished from MAGA months ago.
Loomer, however, has maintained a position in Trump’s orbit.
The axed officials include Walsh, a director for intelligence who previously worked for now Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Boodry, Waltz’s former legislative director in Congress who was a senior director for legislative affairs and Feth, who oversaw technology and national security. Feth had served in the State Department during Trump’s first term.
Loomer had publicly set her sights on pushing out Alex Wong, Waltz’s deputy, and the one NSC staffer mentioned by name on the Houthi Signal chat.
She has mainly gone after Wong for being ‘Chinese.’
Wong is American, with parents who immigrated from China.
Loomer also floated that Wong isn’t loyal because his wife had worked at the Department of Justice during Obama and Biden administrations and her father was a shareholder of a Chinese satellite maker.
‘I don’t know why we have Chinese individuals in positions of national security,’ Loomer said of Wong in an online video posted last week.
The rhetoric surrounding Wong got so heated, that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton had to jump to his and his wife’s defense.
‘Alex Wong and his wife Candice are complete and total patriots, 100% MAGA Warriors who always put America First,’ Cotton said in an X post on March 27.
‘For three years, Alex worked hard for me until President Trump smartly hired him away,’ Cotton said. ‘President Trump made another great decision to hire Alex as his Deputy National Security Adviser. America is safer and better off with Alex in the White House. THANK YOU for your service, Alex!!!’
It appears that Wong wasn’t part of the ousted group of National Security Council employees.
Greene, the Georgia Republican who also has a history of making controversial statements and pushing conspiracy theories, has been the most prominent MAGA member to publicly attempt to push Loomer out.
In September, ahead of the 2024 election, Greene called out a post written by Loomer as being ‘extremely racist.’
Loomer said if Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, won the election ‘the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.’
Harris is half-Jamaican and half-Indian.
The Georgia Republican called out Loomer’s ‘rhetoric and hateful tone’ and said she ‘doesn’t represent MAGA as a whole.’
Greene’s office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment about this week’s Loomer development.