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Trump purges national security officials, further destabilizing his own team
The first move came quickly after Inauguration Day. On Jan. 22, two days after Donald Trump’s second term began, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz sidelined roughly 160 National Security Council aides. It wasn’t because they’d done anything wrong; it was because the president’s operation wanted to ensure that NSC officials were “aligned” with Trump’s agenda.
Related moves soon followed. In February, the president ousted Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr., as well as the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. In early March, for example, Trump’s Justice Department removed at least three top national security officials, gutting the DOJ’s National Security Division.
The purge appears to be intensifying. NBC News reported:
The director and the No. 2 official at the National Security Agency were ousted from their positions Thursday, according to a defense official and three sources with knowledge of the matter. … [Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh] was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency, a role he had served in since February 2024. Wendy Noble, the NSA’s Deputy Director, was the agency’s senior civilian leader.
It’s not at all clear why this happened — Haugh had only been on the job for about a year — and the White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.
There’s also some question as to who, exactly, is currently leading the National Security Agency now that it’s top two officials have been removed without explanation.
The ouster of Haugh and Noble capped a busy day of related firings: As my MSNBC colleague Allison Detzel noted, hours before the NSA’s leaders were removed from their posts, Trump also fired several members of the National Security Council, including the NSC’s director for intelligence.
And what, pray tell, precipitated these moves? As it turns out, NBC News, among several other news organizations, reported that the president started ousting members of his national security team after he met with far-right activist Laura Loomer, who “expressed dissatisfaction with some officials on his national security team.”
Indeed, after Trump fired the top two officials at the National Security Agency, Loomer took credit for their dismissals.
For those who might need a refresher, Loomer is a right-wing activist, a radical conspiracy theorist and a failed Republican congressional candidate who has described herself as “pro-white nationalism.” She was also a close confidant to Trump during the 2024 campaign — even joining the Republican for a Sept. 11 remembrance, despite the fact she’s pushed false conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks having been “an inside job.”
In a normal, healthy administration, a president would make decisions related to national security personnel in response to advice from the White House national security advisor. In this administration, the dynamic is far more ridiculous.
As a New York Times report summarized, Loomer, who is “viewed as extreme by even some of Mr. Trump’s far-right allies, was apparently wielding more influence over the staff of the National Security Council than Mr. Waltz, who runs the agency.”
Why was there was so much focus on Trump’s partnership with Loomer during the campaign season? Because of fears she’d have outsized influence in the White House, despite — or more to the point, because of — her radical and fringe views.
Those concerns were, we now know, entirely correct.
Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz put it this way in an item published to Bluesky: “If you had said in October that if Trump were elected he’d end up purging the NSC at the behest of Laura Loomer and ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire the director of the NSA, you’d have been accused of having a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
And yet, here we are.
Indeed, the president hasn’t even made much of an effort to deny Loomer’s influence, boasting to reporters late Thursday that the conspiracy theorist is “a very good patriot” who makes “recommendations” he takes seriously.
The point is not that the administration’s national security team is sacrosanct. On the contrary, in the wake of Signal chat scandal, it is easy to make the case that Trump had a responsibility to fire key members of his team, including Waltz and Hegseth. The president, to date, has refused.
But that just makes Trump’s judgment look even worse: He’s finally agreed to fire some members of his hapless national security team, but he’s fired the wrong people for the wrong reasons, while leaving in place the people who actually deserve to be ousted.
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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.
The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.
Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.
The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.
The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.
Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.
The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.
“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”
The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.
Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.
“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”
Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.
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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder
A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.
The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.
In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.
Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.
Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.
A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.
Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.
According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.
A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.
When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.
He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.
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