If not for President Donald Trump’s self-inflicted wounds from the tariffs he unveiled on Wednesday, the biggest White House story this past week might have been his purge of six National Security Council staffers and the top two officials at the National Security Agency.

The ax fell on Thursday, a day after Trump met with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer. In the Oval Office, she urged the president to fire the staffers on the dubious grounds that they were insufficiently loyal. Trump acknowledged that Loomer gives him personnel advice — and “sometimes I listen to those recommendations” — but denied doing so in this case. Loomer, however, claimed credit.

Trump says he wants to be known as the most transparent president in U.S. history. In that case, he should explain to Americans why so many political appointees whom he placed in critical security jobs only three months ago needed to be fired so soon. Loomer suggested there had been a “vetting failure.”

If so, it would cast doubt on the competence of Sergio Gor, the director of the presidential office of personnel, who joined Trump’s roughly 30-minute meeting with Loomer, along with Vice President JD Vance and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. If Trump agrees with Loomer’s explanation, then what changes will he institute to prevent such hiring mistakes from being repeated? Americans have a right to know. Obviously, this is not an optimal way to effectively lead a government amid so much global chaos.

Loomer does not seem to be a particularly trustworthy adviser to the president. She has amplified a conspiracy theory on social media claiming that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were an inside job. She has described her beliefs as “pro-white nationalism.” During the Republican presidential primary, she falsely accused Casey DeSantis, wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, of faking her breast cancer. In 2023, Trump moved to give her a role on his campaign but backed off after some of his most loyal supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), protested.

National security adviser Michael Waltz also joined the Oval Office meeting with Trump and Loomer toward its end, but he has little power to protect his employees, having been weakened by his blunder last month, when he accidentally added a magazine editor to a high-level Signal chat.

Flying to a golf tournament in Florida on Thursday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he’s “always going to let go of people — people we don’t like, or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else.” But this doesn’t explain his rationale for getting rid of the NSC officials — each of whom appears to have a solid record in government:

David Feith, a former Wall Street Journal editorial writer who served in the State Department during Trump’s first term, was a senior director for technology and national security working on export controls. Thomas Boodry, Waltz’s legislative director during his last term in the House and a former Senate aide to Marco Rubio, was senior director for legislative affairs. Brian Walsh, another former Rubio employee who served as staff director on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was a director for intelligence on the NSC.

Trump at least resisted Loomer’s push to fire the principal deputy national security adviser, Alex Wong, whose wife Loomer has disparaged for working as a career Justice Department lawyer during the Biden, Obama and first Trump administrations.

Loomer claims that she also successfully prodded Trump to fire Gen. Timothy Haugh as director of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command because he got those jobs in 2023 when Gen. Mark A. Milley, now retired, was chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia), the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, noted that Haugh has served in uniform with honor and distinction for more than 30 years. The senator wondered, in a statement: “At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyberthreats, as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing him make Americans any safer?” Trump needs to answer this question.