Laura Loomer Looms Over Trump Land

Factionalism is breaking out over her newfound prominence within the ranks.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer. (Photo by Jacob M. Langston for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

TWO OF DONALD TRUMP’S top congressional surrogates are pleading with the former president to ostracize right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer from his ranks over incendiary comments she’s made on social media.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) fired off criticisms of Loomer after she was spotted twice with Trump in as many days, warning that her presence could trip up the ex-president’s election chances. Greene said she went so far as to bring up the matter with Trump on a phone call.

“I’ve spoken with President Trump, but I’m not going to go into the details of our personal conversation,” Greene said on Thursday.

In response, Loomer went nuclear, accusing both Greene and Graham of being insufficiently MAGA, questioning the senator’s sexuality, criticizing the congresswoman for having affairs that led to her divorce, and comparing her to a “hooker.”

The quarreling, visceral even by Trump world standards, was viewed with intense schadenfreude in Democratic circles. It brought to the surface some of the internal tensions that Trump’s team had successfully buried for much of the election season. And it left the ex-president’s campaign ducking for cover.

“We’re staying out of this,” said a Trump campaign adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A failed congressional candidate with a penchant for conspiracies and pot-stirring, Loomer has long been viewed by a faction of Trump land as a Rasputin-like figure. Last year, Trump offered her a job on the campaign, but her internal critics ultimately persuaded him to withdraw the offer. At issue was the controversy that surrounds her. Loomer has called Kamala Harris “a drug using prostitute.” As for why Harris doesn’t have biological children, she once said: “I’m willing to bet she’s had so many abortions that she damaged her uterus.” 

A more recent Loomer tweet said that the White House would smell of curry if Harris, who is of Indian-American descent, won the election. This week’s 9/11 commemorations led to the resurfacing of past posts made by Loomer in which she questioned whether the U.S. government had a role in, or forewarning of, the attacks on that day.

Loomer insists that she wasn’t questioning whether the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job,” noting that she never actually used that phrase (she shared a video in a lengthy post on X that did use the phrase). A self-identified Islamophobe (she was kicked off Twitter for it years ago before Elon Musk reinstated her), she re-stated her belief that al Qaeda was to blame for the attack.

But the rap sheet of Loomer’s controversial posts extends well beyond the aforementioned topics. And in comments on Wednesday and Thursday, Greene said that Trump was better off ditching Loomer, whose congressional campaign she had supported.

“I don't think that [Loomer] has the experience or the right mentality to advise a very important president,” Greene said. “To me, many of the comments that she makes and how she attacks Republicans like me, many other Republicans that are strong supporters of President Trump, I think they're a huge problem.”

Shortly thereafter, Graham weighed in too, telling HuffPost on Thursday that he believed Loomer was “just really toxic.” 

“I mean, she actually called for Kellyanne Conway’s daughter to hang herself,” Graham noted. “Marjorie Taylor Greene is right. I don’t say that a lot. I think what [Loomer] said about Kamala Harris and the White House is abhorrent, but it’s deeper than that. I mean, you know, some of the things she’s said about Republicans and others is disturbing.” 

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LOOMER’S ASCENDANCE IN TRUMP WORLD comes at a particularly delicate point for the campaign, with a number of staffers being added to the ranks, and the president trying to recover from a poor debate performance. It has raised questions about who has Trump’s ear and what type of people and politics he and his team are willing to indulge. Vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s wife is also of Indian-American descent. A spokesman for the VP candidate did not respond to messages seeking comment on his reaction to the curry tweet.

Campaign insiders say that Loomer has no role, official or unofficial, and that Trump had merely invited her to travel with him, something he has repeatedly done in the past. They cautioned against overstating her influence on the ex-president. Despite social media chatter that she bore responsibility for the ex-president’s debate meltdown about Haitian immigrants eating pets in the Ohio town of Springfield, the issue was brought to the fore by Vance and other right-wing commentators and political figures. Loomer had no role in debate prep and didn’t spend much time speaking with Trump en route to the debate, said a source familiar with their relationship.

“Laura is one of his fiercest defenders. She’s ride-or-die, and Trump rewards that loyalty. She’s someone he trusts,” said the source. “She’s part of the entourage, and Trump loves an entourage.”

But Loomer’s role in Republican politics is clearly growing. The National Republican Senatorial Committee—the GOP’s official campaign arm for the upper chamber—has increasingly relied on the video content Loomer produces. Since July, the NRSC has promoted eight of Loomer’s videos featuring her “reporters” who shout loaded questions from the street at Democratic senators up for re-election in battleground races.

“Yesterday NRSC shared a video of a reporter asking Jon Tester why he voted to allow men to play in women’s sports, which is a major issue in Montana and across the country. We share content from left, right, and center reporters asking Democrats tough questions,” said NRSC spokesman Mike Bergh, adding that the organization will use any videos of anyone asking Tester tough questions.

Greene, on Thursday, continued to argue that Trump was not benefiting from his association with Loomer. And as she made that point, she also hinted that she believed the ex-president wasn’t being well served by others, either, including Vance and the almost never-ending litany of comments he’s made about childless women.

“We’re not a party of identity politics. We’re a party for all Americans, and I think that’s so important, and I think that that we need to be focused on our policies, the inflation, the economy and the border, and not attacking people for their race, not attacking them because they may not have children and they love their pets, and I don’t want to have anything to do with that, and neither do the people,” Greene said.