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Laura Loomer at a campaign event for Governor Ron DeSantis in October 2023, where she supported Donald Trump. © Dirk Shadd/Imago
Laura Loomer is considered too radical by many Republicans. Nevertheless, Donald Trump seeks her company – much to the dismay of his allies.
Washington DC – Former President Donald Trump traveled the country this week. He was accompanied by the far-right activist Laura Loomer. With his increasing proximity to a provocateur who has espoused conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric in the past, Trump angered some allies within the Republican Party.
“Ms. Loomer’s statements are more than concerning,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in an interview on Thursday. “I hope this issue is resolved. I think we should be talking about things that concern people, and this topic is, in my opinion, not conducive to the matter.”
Laura Loomer travels with Donald Trump across the USA
Loomer joined Donald Trump as he made several stops on Wednesday to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She was nearby when Trump and his running mate, Senator J. D. Vance (R-Ohio), met with firefighters in New York City. Just last year, Loomer posted a video on X where she referred to the September 11 attacks as an “inside job.”
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A few days earlier, Loomer launched a racist attack against Trump’s Democratic opponent in the November U.S. election, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Indian descent. If Harris wins, Loomer wrote, “the White House will smell like curry and the speeches in the White House will be relayed via a call center.” In July, Loomer baselessly labeled Harris a “drug-addicted prostitute.”
Laura Loomer also accompanied Donald Trump to the TV debate against Kamala Harris
Loomer not only joined Donald Trump in New York but was also seen the day before in Philadelphia as she exited a plane. Later, she was present at the TV debate between Trump and Harris. After visiting New York with Trump, Loomer traveled with him to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for the September 11 commemorations. Loomer emphasized this week that she does not “work” for Donald Trump, but his campaign has refused to explain why she travels with him while facing increasing scrutiny from Democrats and some Republicans.
Trump has repeatedly promoted debunked claims and conspiracy theories, including the lie that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and spread falsehoods from the depths of the internet. Loomer regularly espouses conspiracy theories – including claims that both the 2018 school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and in Santa Fe, Texas, were staged. The 31-year-old Loomer has provided ample fodder for the Republican presidential candidate.
Loomer said on Thursday afternoon that she stood by “everything I have said.” The former two-time congressional candidate gained notoriety for her sharp anti-Muslim rhetoric and once called herself a “proud Islamophobe.”
Republicans criticize Donald Trump’s closeness to Laura Loomer
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a Trump supporter who has long been feuding with Loomer, told reporters on Thursday that Loomer’s “rhetoric and hateful tone” posed a “huge problem” for Republicans. The congresswoman had already spoken out against Loomer last year when reports surfaced that Trump wanted to hire her for his campaign; he ultimately decided against it. “[Loomer’s rhetoric] does not represent MAGA as a whole. It does not represent who we are as Republicans,” Greene said on Thursday, adding that she did not believe Loomer had “the experience or the right mentality to advise on a very important presidential election.” Loomer quickly reacted on social media after Graham and Greene criticized her presence with Trump.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Loomer’s connection to Trump, but White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated: “No leader should ever associate with someone who spreads this kind of ugliness, this kind of racist poison.”
Democrats also comment on Donald Trump’s relationship with Laura Loomer
House Democrats’ leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference that Loomer’s participation in Trump’s 9/11 commemorations should “shock the conscience of all decent Americans.”
“It was shocking and irresponsible and offensive to the thousands of people who lost their lives on September 11, including hundreds of brave first responders, members of the New York police, fire and others who rushed into danger to help people escape danger – and lost their lives in the process,” Jeffries said, adding that Trump is ‘a conspiracy theory-spreading racist and pathological liar.’
Trump’s campaign team did not directly address questions about Loomer’s recent involvement in the campaign but instead tried to focus on September 11. “This day was about no one but the souls no longer with us, their families, and the heroes who bravely stepped up on that fateful day to save their American fellow citizens,” said Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the Trump campaign, in a statement.
Lindsey Graham attacks Laura Loomer
Graham said he had not gained clarity on what role Loomer plays in the campaign. He added that he was not fully aware of her statements and that “some of it is just cruel,” referring to Loomer’s personal attacks on Claudia Conway, the daughter of former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway.
Loomer first gained national attention as an undercover agent for Project Veritas, focusing on infiltrating Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She left the group in 2017 to do stunts under her own name, such as chaining herself to Twitter’s New York headquarters and getting a group of undocumented immigrants to climb over the fence of a home owned by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in Napa, California.
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Loomer twice ran for Congress in Florida, in 2020 and 2022, and lost both times. Her anti-Muslim rhetoric and other alleged violations of the terms of service have led, according to Loomer, to her being banned from Facebook, Instagram, Lyft, Uber, Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe, and Cash App.
Loomer presented herself as a social media warrior for Trump during the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential election and led a crusade against one of his rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. She repeatedly accused DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis of exploiting her breast cancer diagnosis to elicit sympathy from voters. Today, Loomer describes herself as an investigative journalist in the service of Trump’s reelection. “I am more than willing to dedicate all my time to help Trump because if Trump is not reelected, I have nothing,” she told the Washington Post in March of last year. She says she had discussions in the spring of 2023 to work for Trump’s reelection campaign.
Donald Trump wanted to hire Laura Loomer
The New York Times reported that Donald Trump wanted to hire her; there was a backlash from Trump supporters, including a fierce rebuke from Greene. Ultimately, the hiring did not happen – an outcome for which Loomer blames Greene.
The fact that she wasn’t officially employed by the campaign, however, did not separate Loomer from the former president too far. Donald Trump invited Loomer to his private balcony at his golf course in Bedminster last summer. She made several trips on Trump Force One with the former president and accompanied him and his campaign team on flights to rallies during the Republican primaries. At a rally in Iowa last January, Trump told the gathered crowd that Loomer is a “politically very important person.” In March he referred to her as a “brave woman” at a fundraising event in Mar-a-Lago.
“The great Laura Loomer – some of you know Laura – she is a fantastic person, a great woman,” Trump said during a speech in July in Nashville. Trump regularly reposts Loomer’s content on his Truth Social account. She provided the first post that the former president ever made questioning Harris’ ethnicity: a graphic that compared a headline from Harris’ historic Senate win in 2016, where she was referred to as “the first Indian-American U.S. Senator,” with a headline from 2020 that described her as “the first Black woman selected as a vice-presidential candidate.”
Laura Loomer spreads conspiracy theories about migrants
A friend had created the graphic for her; Loomer believes she was “probably” the first person to make Trump aware of Harris’ ethnicity. Later that week, he brought up the issue at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. “She was always of Indian descent and has only promoted her Indian heritage,” Trump said in July. “I didn’t know she was black until she randomly became black a few years ago, and now she wants to be known as black.”
Loomer has also spread the baseless conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants in a city in Ohio are kidnapping and eating pets, a claim that Trump repeated in his debate against Harris on Tuesday. Loomer’s recent attack on Harris regarding her Indian heritage comes at a time when Harris is not the only Indian-American playing a prominent role in the presidential race. Vance’s wife, attorney Usha Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
About the author
Patrick Svitek is a reporter on the breaking news politics team at National. He joined the Washington Post in 2024. Previously, he worked for nine years at The Texas Tribune, most recently as a senior political correspondent. Before that, he was a reporter for the Houston Chronicle’s Austin bureau. He grew up in Connecticut and Indiana and previously lived in Austin and San Antonio.
A spokesperson for J. D. Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Loomer’s post saying the White House would smell like curry if Harris wins. Greene responded on X on Wednesday, calling Loomer’s post “appalling and extremely racist.” The congresswoman said on Thursday to reporters that she usually tries to ignore Loomer’s posts, but the attack on Harris as an Indian-American “disturbed me so much.”
Graham described the attack as “disgusting.” He said he spoke to Greene about the matter on Thursday morning and she was “very concerned about the political implications this will have in Georgia,” a battleground state where one of the largest Indian-American populations in the country lives.
Kara Voght and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article has been automatically translated from English to German.
This article originally appeared in English on September 12, 2024, at “Washingtonpost.com“ and is now available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals as part of a cooperation.