WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Trump administration fired the director of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command on Thursday, officials confirmed to The Washington Post.

Gen. Timothy Haugh was let go along with civilian deputy Wendy Noble one day after far-right activist Laura Loomer met with President Donald Trump and raised concerns about staff loyalty. It's not clear if the firings were connected.

"Always we’re letting go of people," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Thursday afternoon. "People that we don’t like or people that we don’t think can do the job or people that may have loyalties to somebody else."

Several members of the National Security Council were also fired after Trump met with Loomer, including Brian Walsh, a director for intelligence; Thomas Boodry, a senior director for legislative affairs; and David Feith, a senior director for technology and national security.

"It’s an honor, President Trump. Thank you. I will always have your back," Loomer wrote on X Thursday. "I will be continuing my vetting audit of the Trump administration and will continue submitting my findings to President Trump for review. I’ve always said there is a vetting crisis, and I’m grateful President Trump acted on my concerns and investigative findings. I will keep working hard to support him and his administration. Loyalty matters. And so does vetting!"

Trump described Loomer to reporters as "a very good patriot," adding that "she makes recommendations of things and people, and sometimes I listen to those recommendations."

The top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committee, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Jim Hines, denounced the firing of Haugh.

"It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on Signal – even as he apparently takes staffing direction from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office," Warner posted on Bluesky.

Himes said in a statement on X that "the Intelligence Committee and the American people need an immediate explanation for this decision, which makes all of us less safe."

Haugh was one of the intelligence officials questioned on Capitol Hill in March after Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a group chat discussing military strikes on terrorist targets in Yemen.

Haugh had led both the NSA and Cyber Command since 2023. Both departments play leading roles in the nation’s cybersecurity. The NSA also supports the military and other national security agencies by collecting and analyzing a vast amount of data and information globally.

Cyber Command is known as America’s first line of defense in cyberspace and also plans offensive cyberoperations for potential use against adversaries. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently ordered the office to pause some offensive cyberoperations against Russia, in another sign of how Trump’s administration is transforming the work of the nation’s intelligence community.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.