Trump Fires US National Security Agency Director

US President Donald Trump/PHOTO Ali Shaker/VOA via Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - The director of the US National Security Agency (NSA) was fired on Thursday, the Washington Post reported, citing two US officials.

Timothy Haugh, who was also the head of US Cyber ​​Command, was fired along with his deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, the newspaper said.

Noble was transferred to a post in the Pentagon's office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. The NSA is part of the US Department of Defense.

Current and former officials quoted by the Washington Post said they did not know the reason for Haugh's dismissal or Noble's reassignment.

Deputy US Cyber ​​Command William Hartmann was named acting NSA director and Sheila Thomas, who was executive director at the NSA, was named acting deputy, the newspaper said.

The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Democrat Jim Himes, a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, condemned Haugh's dismissal.

"It is astonishing that President Trump fired the experienced, nonpartisan head of the NSA while still failing to hold his team members accountable for leaks of classified information on commercial messaging apps — even as he appears to be taking over staff briefings on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office," Warner wrote in a post on X as reported by Reuters on Friday, April 4.

President Donald Trump, since taking office on January 20, has fired many top officials at US agencies and appointed loyalists.

Elon Musk, who is leading the Trump administration's efforts to cut and streamline the federal government workforce, visited the National Security Agency last month to meet with Haugh.

The NSA is one of the United States' primary intelligence agencies and uses top-tier specialized technologies and systems to collect and analyze intelligence. The U.S. Cyber ​​Command conducts offensive and defensive operations and monitors Department of Defense networks.