US President Donald Trump has abruptly fired the director of the National Security Agency (NSA), General Tim Haugh, according to US officials and members of Congress.

Senior military leaders were informed Thursday of the firing of Haugh, who also oversaw the Pentagon's Cyber Command, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The White House and the Pentagon did not give a reason for the move.

On Friday, far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Looma appeared to take credit for the dismissal.

Earlier, US media reported that about six National Security Council staffers were fired, while others were reassigned, following a meeting between Trump and Loomer.

Loomer accuses Haugh of ties with Milley

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist, on Friday slammed Haugh for his alleged ties to retired Army general and Trump critic Mark Milley.

"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 committing treason by President Trump," she wrote on X, without providing any evidence of ties between Haugh and Milley.

Milley served as Trump's top military adviser from 2019 to early 2021, then had a dramatic falling-out with his boss. Milley called Trump "fascist to the core" in a book by journalist Bob Woodward published last year.

Loomer also wrote that "All Obama and Biden appointees in intel appear to lack integrity and lack the moral clarity to not weaponize their positions...Thus, all Biden and Obama holdovers need to be fired."

Democrats slam NSA chief's firing

Democrats on Friday expressed outrage over Haugh's dismissal.

"I am alarmed and angered that, at the insistence of a far-right conspiracy theorist, President Trump dismissed one of the most skilled, accomplished officers in the US military," Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, mentioned the Trump administration's inadvertent inclusion of a journalist in a Signal group chat on plans for Yemen air strikes in his criticism of Haugh's dismissal.

"It's so crazy it defies belief: Trump refused to fire the people that embarrassed America and risked service members' lives in the Signalgate scandal," Warner wrote on X, "but fired Gen. Haugh, a nonpartisan national security expert, at the advice of a self-described 'pro-white nationalist."

Since taking office in January, Trump has presided over a major shakeup in the leadership of the US armed forces.

Edited by: Zac Crellin