It begins with a personnel change but ends in a rupture of institutional foundations: Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, is dismissed. No scandal. No public fallout. Just a statement - and a simultaneous nomination as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. A quiet demotion, as sterile as a calendar entry. What follows, however, is a story of concentrated power, ideological purging, and the troubling rise of a woman who, not long ago, was considered a fringe figure: Laura Loomer.
n a functioning national security system, such a reshuffle might trigger analysis, debates over competence, strategy, and foreign policy coherence. But under Trump 2.0, the relevant question is no longer “Who can guarantee security?” - it’s “Whose voice does the president listen to?”
And he listens, not only to his newly favored diplomat, Marco Rubio, once ridiculed by Trump as “Little Marco” and now serving simultaneously as Secretary of State and national security adviser, but also to Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who was banned by tech platforms, flagged by civil rights groups, and long viewed by much of the political establishment as dangerous. Today, she has become part of the machinery of decision-making.
Loomer’s influence is not rumor. It is documented.
She herself claimed it was her personal suggestion to remove General Tim Haugh, the head of the NSA. Her reason: Haugh had ties to General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs who publicly opposed Trump’s threats to deploy the military against protesters. Since then, Milley has been labeled an enemy. And in Trump’s world, anyone connected to an enemy must go. The principle is simple. The implementation, authoritarian.
A few weeks after Haugh’s dismissal, Loomer spoke up again: she had advised Trump to fire Waltz as well. And again, the White House complied, without objection, without explanation. You could call it coincidence. Or you could see the pattern.
A pattern that can be illustrated through five direct quotes, each one a blow to democratic values:
1.
“I’m a proud Islamophobe. I believe Islam is a cancer. Period.”
(X/Twitter, 2018)
(X/Twitter, 2018)
2.
“The Democrats are worse than Nazis. At least the Nazis were honest about their intentions.”
(YouTube, 2019)
(YouTube, 2019)
3.
“We need internment camps for illegal immigrants and Muslims. Otherwise, they will take over our country.”
(Telegram, 2020 – archived by SPLC)
(Telegram, 2020 – archiviert von SPLC)
4.
“General Milley is a Deep State traitor. Anyone working with him is a national security threat.”
(X/Twitter, 2023)
(X/Twitter, 2023)
5.
“I came to purge the GOP. Anyone who doesn’t believe in Trump must go.”
(CPAC speech, 2024)
(CPAC-Rede, 2024)
This kind of rhetoric - extremist, exclusionary, anti-democratic—should disqualify someone from any role in policymaking. Instead, it now flows into decisions about war and peace. Loomer, who once handed out torn pages of the Quran in front of mosques to provoke outrage, is today shaping decisions about which generals the president trusts, and which he doesn’t.
Waltz wasn’t radical enough. Not pliable enough.
He had advocated for a tougher line on Russia, openly criticized Putin’s expansionism, and supported U.S. policy in Ukraine. He belonged—however cautiously, to the traditional national security establishment. That alone was enough to make him a liability in Trump’s world.
Rubio, by contrast - the man now holding two titles - is a symbol of adaptation. Once ridiculed, he has since bent the knee. He helped overhaul the State Department in Trump’s image, gutted diversity initiatives, and tied diplomacy to ideological loyalty. Now he is also tasked with coordinating national security - during a time of overlapping global crises.
The result is a National Security Council without coherence, without counterbalance, without structure.
Where once there were professional briefings and structured channels, there are now Signal chats, Fox News appearances, and private meetings with influencers. Decision-making is impulsive, erratic, uncoordinated. Trump’s “America First” ideology has not only reshaped the content of U.S. foreign policy - it has hollowed out its infrastructure.
And into that vacuum steps not expertise, but zealotry. Not deliberation, but noise. Not competence, but those like Loomer - loud enough to be heard, and dangerous enough to silence everything else.
You can’t help but shake your head.
Not because it’s shocking anymore, but because it’s become numbingly predictable. We are witnessing the transformation of the U.S. national security apparatus into a stage for ideological purification. General after general is removed. Dissent is rebranded as disloyalty. And while the world looks to Washington for steady leadership - rational, diplomatic, anchored - Trump listens to a conspiracy theorist whispering names into his ear.
This isn’t an assault on institutions. It’s their slow dismantling. From the inside. In plain sight.
And as the doors keep spinning in Washington, each new appointment more surreal than the last, one can’t help but wonder: Will Ernie from Sesame Street be named national security adviser next? In Trump’s America, nothing is too absurd - so long as it’s unhinged enough.
What disqualifies Ernie?
He has character.
English 
German 
