NSA director Timothy Haugh ousted after activ calls for removal | World News

US President Donald Trump has fired the director of the National Security Agency (NSA), Timothy Haugh, according to The Washington Post, which cited two current and one former American official, reported Reuters. 
Haugh, who also heads US Cyber Command, was removed from his post on Thursday along with his deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble. The report noted that Noble has been reassigned to a role within the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
The Washington Post sources said they were unaware of the specific reasons behind Haugh’s sudden dismissal or Noble’s transfer.
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Who is Timothy Haugh?
Timothy Haugh is a dinguished military leader and a native of Hughesville, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lehigh University in 1991 as a dinguished ROTC graduate, earning his commission to embark on a remarkable three-decade career in the Air Force .
In the interim, US Cyber Command deputy William Hartmann has been appointed acting director of the NSA, while Sheila Thomas, previously the agency’s executive director, has taken on the role of acting deputy, the newspaper reported.
Neither the Pentagon nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.
Democratic lawmakers voiced sharp criticism of the decision. Congressman Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Mark Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Democratic vice chair, both condemned the firing.Story continues below this ad
“It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theor in the Oval Office,” Warner wrote on X.

It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on…
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) April 4, 2025
Since assuming office on 20 January, President Trump has removed multiple senior officials across US federal agencies, frequently replacing them with loyals.

The report also noted that tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is overseeing the Trump adminration’s initiative to streamline the federal workforce, visited the NSA last month and met with Haugh.
The NSA is a central pillar of US intelligence operations, leveraging advanced technologies to collect and analyse global data. US Cyber Command, under the same leadership until now, is responsible for conducting both defensive and offensive cyber operations and overseeing the Department of Defense’s digital infrastructure.
(with inputs from Agencies)
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