Why MAGA Blames Far-Right Conspiracist Laura Loomer For ...

5 days ago

Forbes

Topline

Former President Donald Trump’s allies are reportedly pinning the blame for some of his most recent controversial rhetoric on far-right extremist Laura Loomer, who has been spotted traveling with him this week.

Far-right activist Laura Loomer (center right) at former President Donald Trump's rally on February ... [+] 10, 2024 in Conway, South Carolina. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Getty Images Key Facts

Loomer, who doesn’t have any official role in the Trump campaign and is best known for her incendiary right-wing—and sometimes racist—rhetoric on social media, traveled with Trump on his plane to the debate in Philadelphia Tuesday and attended the Sept. 11 memorial services alongside him in New York and Pennsylvania the following day, despite her previous suggestions 9/11 was an “inside job.”

She is also among the right-wing figures who helped spread the baseless conspiracy that Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating residents’ pets—a claim Trump repeated during Tuesday’s debate, though local officials have said they haven’t received any credible reports of such incidents.

One unnamed adviser also blamed Loomer for introducing to Trump the false narrative that Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t always identify as Black, telling CNN “he wasn’t the one who came up with that talking point,” referring to the claim Trump first made at the National Association of Black Journalists convention and has since repeated several times on the campaign trail.

Over the weekend, Loomer’s tweet saying the White House would “smell like curry” if Harris were elected, a reference to her Indian heritage (her mother is South Asian), sparked bipartisan rebuke on Capitol Hill this week, including from Trump allies who used the racist tweet as the latest example of why Trump should distance himself from Loomer.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Huffington Post on Thursday Loomer is “really toxic” and Trump “would serve himself well to make sure this doesn’t become a bigger story,” calling her tweet about Harris’ race “abhorrent.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga., who has sparred publicly with Loomer in the past, also blasted Loomer for her tweets about Harris’ race, telling CNN her rhetoric is a “huge problem” and that she “doesn’t represent MAGA as a whole.”

Crucial Quote

“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” an unnamed source close to the Trump campaign told Semafor of Loomer, noting that efforts to limit Trump’s interactions with her appear to have fallen short.

Chief Critic

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attacked Trump for his association with Loomer on Thursday, telling reporters “no leader should ever associate with someone who spreads this kind of ugliness, this kind of racist position” when asked for President Joe Biden’s response to Loomer’s tweets over the weekend.

Tangent

Trump’s allies are pointing fingers at Loomer after he was widely considered to have lost Tuesday’s debate by both pundits and voters. Two major polls taken in the days after the debate show the majority of respondents consider Harris the winner. Harris appeared well-prepared for the debate, did not suffer any verbal gaffes, and repeatedly needled Trump, prompting him to lose his temper and veer off-topic in multiple instances.

Key Background

Loomer ran for Congress in 2020 with Trump’s backing and lost, then lost again in 2022 in the Republican primary. Loomer, who is Jewish, has openly called herself a “proud Islamophobe” who supports “pro-white nationalism.” She was banned from Twitter in 2018 for calling Islam a “cancer.” Last year, she posted a conspiratorial rant about 9/11 on her X account, accompanied by a video that claimed it was an “inside job.” During the most recent Republican presidential primary, she attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey, a breast cancer survivor, by accusing her of trying “to play the ‘cancer survivor’ card.” Trump regularly reshares Loomer’s social media posts on his accounts, and he was considering hiring her for his campaign in April, The New York Times reported—drawing backlash from Greene, who called her “mentally unstable and a documented liar” at the time.

Contra

Loomer told CNN she has “never denied the fact that Islamic terrorists carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” while defending her presence at Wednesday’s memorials. She told the Associated Press she was “invited as a guest.” Loomer also rejected the notion that her tweet about Harris’ Indian heritage was racist, telling CNN “the media wants to . . . falsely accuse me of being a racist.”