Republicans nervous
Is this woman the Trump whisperer?
Updated on 13.09.2024 – 03:25 AMReading time: 5 min.
She travels with him on his private jet, quarrels with one of his supporters, and attacks Kamala Harris. Who is Laura Loomer?
She referred to the September 11 attacks as an “inside job” (crime committed by a person in a position of trust), incited against Muslims, and compared her ban from platform X to the Holocaust. And yet, or perhaps precisely because of this, Laura Loomer is always close to Donald Trump. When the Republican presidential candidate flew to the debate with Kamala Harris, she was on board his private jet, and the next morning, she remained by his side, as reported by the U.S. news portal “Semafor”.
The uproar surrounding her statement about the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 did not deter Loomer from once again accompanying Trump a year later to commemorate the attack. She never denied that Islamists carried out the attack on the U.S., the 31-year-old told CNN.
However, there are concerns among Republicans about the influence of the far-right on Trump. After his confusing statements about cat-eating refugees (which are unsubstantiated), some advisors question who is standing by Trump’s side. “Trump lost the debate because of his appearance,” said Dennis Lennox, a Republican advisor, to “Semafor”. “This is what happens when you live in the Fox News X bubble and rely on Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer.” Loomer had shared the cat allegations on X a day before the debate.
An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told “Semafor” that they are “100 percent” concerned about Loomer’s closeness to Trump: “Regardless of the restrictions that the Trump campaign has set for her, I don’t think it works,” the source was quoted as saying.
The self-proclaimed journalist – she wrote for the far-right website “Infowars” – shows little restraint. When CNN reported on a post of hers mocking Kamala Harris’s Indian ancestry, she wrote: “I don’t care if the media finds my factual contributions offensive. I find their politics, which has destroyed our country, offensive!”
Her popularity has made the right-wing Republican a prominent figure due to videos on her website, where she confronts Democrats on camera. She primarily targeted predominantly Muslim candidates in Michigan and Minnesota. In the meantime, she has been banned from Democratic events, writes “Semafor”.
Laura Loomer filming pro-Palestinian protesters in New York (archive photo). (Source: IMAGO/Michael Nigro/imago)
Loomer sees herself as a pro-white nationalist. When the black politician Sheila Jackson Lee recently passed away, Loomer wrote: “Even on her deathbed, this ghetto slut could not ban the name of President Trump from her disgusting mouth.”
In January, Loomer traveled with Trump to a campaign appearance in Iowa. During this, Trump explicitly praised his loyal supporter, calling her “really talented” and “amazing,” and asked the audience to applaud her standing. This concerned some Republicans, and Loomer responded promptly: “The only people who are worried that President Trump is hugging me are those who are disloyal to him and have something to hide. I have only been positive for President Trump.”
Her admiration goes so far that she also targets Trump’s internal party opponents. Ron DeSantis called her an “absent governor” who undermined Trump with his own candidacy. And Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, also a fierce Trump supporter who is not shy with harsh words, called Loomer a “traitor.”
Trump recently commented on Harris and her background. “I didn’t know she was black until she randomly became black a few years ago, and now she wants to be recognized as black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?” he said in an interview with African American journalists. According to CNN, voices from his inner circle indicate that these statements did not actually come from him.