Head of NSA and US Cyber Command abruptly ousted: what happened?

General Timothy Haugh, the director of the National Security Agency who also headed US Cyber Command, was suddenly fired late Thursday, catching the US intelligence community off-guard.

The news was confirmed by multiple US media outlets. However, the reason behind the White House’s decision to remove Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, is unclear, at least officially.

However, the reports appeared soon after far-right activist Laura Loomer met with Donald Trump and pressed him to dismiss a number of officials allegedly disloyal to the US President.

According to The Guardian, Loomer entered the Oval Office armed with opposition research against several staffers who were supposedly sabotaging Trump.

First, at least six national security staffers were let go after the White House looked through the booklets Loomer had brought in and verified parts of the information. Now, Haugh has also been removed.

Loomer thinks it’s all down to her. In a post on X, she said: “NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.”

NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.

As a Biden appointee, General Haugh had no place serving in the Trump admin given the fact that he was HAND PICKED by General Milley, who was accused of… pic.twitter.com/SFXmog5b44

undefined Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 4, 2025

Separately, Loomer told The Washington Post that she urged Trump to dismiss Haugh because he was “handpicked” by General Mark Milley who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2023 when Haugh was nominated to lead the NSA and Cyber Command.

In January, the new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed Milley’s security detail and security clearance – again, over perceived disloyalty to Trump.

Officials told The Post that Lt. Gen. William Hartman, who was the Cyber Command deputy, was named acting NSA director. Neither Haugh nor Noble were told why they were being dismissed, only that “your services are no longer required.”

Haugh once ran Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, which led offensive cyber military operations overseas, including missions against Russian trolls.

He also launched initiatives to publicly disclose Russian spy agency malware and to conduct “Hunt Forward” missions to boot Russian intelligence from Eastern European government networks.

The opposition is furious over Haugh's firing and demands an official explanation. According to Mark Warner, vice chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, General Haugh was an extremely dedicated professional.

“It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office,” Warner said on X.

It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on…

undefined Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) April 4, 2025

Nicole Perlroth, a long-time lead cybersecurity reporter at The New York Times, is equally shocked, it seems.

On X, she wrote: “If you know General Haugh, you know he is the best possible person to lead NSA and Cyber Command. If this firing is true, we are entering a new phase, and every American should be deeply, deeply concerned. Only loyalists – at scale.”