Who is the ‘great woman’ looming over Trump everywhere he goes?

Washington: Former US president Donald Trump has travelled the country this week accompanied by far-right activist Laura Loomer, unnerving some Republican allies with his increasing embrace of a provocateur with a history of espousing conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric.

“The history of statements by Ms Loomer are beyond disturbing,” senator Lindsey Graham said. “I hope this problem gets resolved. I think we should be talking about things that people are concerned about, and this issue, I think, doesn’t help the cause.”

Laura Loomer exits Donald’s Trump’s plane as they arrive in Philadelphia for the week’s debate.Credit: AP

Loomer most notably joined Trump as he made multiple stops to mark the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, standing nearby as Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, met firefighters in New York City. Last year, Loomer posted a video on X that called the 9/11 assault on the United States an “inside job”.

A few days earlier, Loomer launched a racist attack against Trump’s Democratic opponent in the November election, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Indian American. If Harris wins, Loomer wrote, the White House “will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call centre”. In July, Loomer baselessly called Harris a “drug using prostitute”.

In addition to joining Trump in New York, Loomer was seen getting off his plane the day before in Philadelphia before his election debate with Harris there. And after visiting New York with Trump, she headed with him to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for ceremonies commemorating 9/11.

Loomer emphasised this week that she did “not work” for Trump, but his campaign office has declined to say why she has been travelling with him amid heightened security since his failed assassination attempt, and increasingly harsh scrutiny from Democrats and some Republicans.

Trump has repeatedly pushed debunked claims and conspiracy theories, including peddling the lie that former president Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and amplified fake news from the deep recesses of the internet. Loomer regularly espouses conspiracy theories – including claims that both the 2018 school massacres in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas, were staged. The 31-year-old has provided plenty of fodder for the Republican presidential nominee.

Loomer was with Trump at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.Credit: AP

She said on Friday (AEST) that she stood by “everything I have said”. Loomer previously gained notoriety for her strident anti-Muslim rhetoric, once labelling herself a “proud Islamophobe”.

Even congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump loyalist, said that Loomer’s “rhetoric and hateful tone” were a “huge problem” for Republicans. Greene previously spoke 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] doesn’t represent MAGA as a whole. It doesn’t represent who we are as Republicans,” Greene said, adding that she did not think Loomer “has the experience or the right mentality to advise a very important presidential election”.

Trump (in background) appears to augment the conspiracy theories Loomer airs.Credit: AP

Loomer, on social media, quickly lashed out at Graham and Greene after their comments criticising her presence in Trump’s entourage.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Loomer’s association with Trump, but at the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “No leader should ever associate with someone who spreads this kind of ugliness, this kind of racist poison.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, told reporters that Loomer’s attendance at Trump’s 9/11 stops 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 NYPD, FDNY and others, who raced toward the danger in order to help people escape the danger – and lost their lives as a result of it,” Jeffries said, adding that Trump was “a conspiracy theory-peddling racial arsonist and pathological liar”.

Trump’s campaign did not directly respond to questions about Loomer’s latest involvement in the campaign, instead seeking to emphasise the 9/11 anniversary.

Trump and vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance at a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York on Wednesday. Credit: AP

“The day wasn’t about anyone other than the souls who are no longer with us, their families, and the heroes who courageously stepped up to save their fellow Americans on that fateful day,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement.

Graham said he had no clarity on what role Loomer was playing in the campaign. He added that he was not previously aware of all her statements and that “some of the stuff is just cruel”, citing Loomer’s personal attacks on Claudia Conway, the daughter of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

Loomer first gained national notoriety as an undercover agent for far-right activist group Project Veritas, which tried to discredit mainstream media. She focused her efforts in infiltrating Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, but left the group in 2017 to do stunts under her own name, such as chaining herself to Twitter’s New York office and leading a group of undocumented immigrants to hop the fence at the home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Napa, California.

Loomer ran for Congress in Florida in 2020 and 2022, and lost both times. Her anti-Muslim rhetoric, among other alleged terms-of-use violations, have led Facebook, Instagram, Lyft, Uber, Venmo, PayPal, GoFundMe and Cash App to all ban her, she claims.

Loomer fashioned herself as social media warrior for Trump during the 2024 Republican presidential primary, crusading against one of his rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. She repeatedly accused DeSantis and his wife, Casey, of using her breast cancer diagnosis to generate sympathy from voters.

These days, Loomer identifies as an investigative journalist in service of Trump’s re-election.

“I’m happy to dedicate all my time to helping Trump because if Trump doesn’t get back in, I don’t have anything,” she told The Washington Post last March. She says she had been in talks to work for Trump’s re-election campaign in the spring of 2023.

The New York Times reported that Trump wanted to hire her; a backlash from loyalists ensued, including a fierce rebuke from Greene. No job ultimately materialised – an outcome for which Loomer holds Greene responsible.

Loomer (left) takes a photo of Trump in Shanksville on Wednesday.Credit: AP

The lack of formal campaign employment, however, put little distance between Loomer and the former president. Trump invited Loomer to his private balcony at his Bedminster golf course last northern summer, and she has made several trips on Trump Force One, joining him and his campaign team on flights to rallies throughout the Republican primary. In Iowa last January, Trump told the gathered crowd that Loomer was a “very important person, politically”. In March, he called her out as a “woman with courage” at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

“The great Laura Loomer – some of you know Laura – she’s a fantastic person, great woman,” Trump said during a July speech in Nashville.

Trump routinely reposts Loomer’s content to his Truth Social account. She supplied the first post he ever made questioning Harris’ racial identity: a graphic that compared a headline from Harris’ historic US Senate win in 2016, which noted her as the “first Indian-American US senator”, and one from 2020, which noted she was the “first black woman” to be selected as a presidential running mate. A friend had made the graphic for her; Loomer thinks she was “probably” the first person to bring Harris’ racial identity to Trump’s attention. Later that week, he raised the issue at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference in Chicago.

“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said in July. “I did not know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black, and now she wants to be known as black.”

Loomer has also amplified the baseless conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town are abducting and eating pets, a claim that Trump echoed in his debate against Harris.

Loomer’s attack on Harris over 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, lawyer Usha Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. He is Trump’s running mate.

A Vance spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Loomer post saying the White House would smell like curry if Harris wins.

Greene responded on X, calling Loomer’s post “appalling and extremely racist”. The congresswoman told reporters she usually tried to ignore Loomer’s posts, but the attack on Harris as an Indian American “bothered me so much”.

Graham called the attack “abhorrent”. He said he spoke with Greene about the matter and that she was “very concerned about the political impact this will have in Georgia”, a battleground state that is home to one of the largest Indian-American populations in the country.

The Washington Post

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