Is Laura Loomer, Trump's favored conspiracy theorist, a modern-day Rasputin?

The Greek Courier

Laura Loomer, Donald Trump's favored conspiracy theorist, reportedly wields significant influence over him and most U.S. security agencies, including the NSA and, currently, the NSC. She is implicated in the recent dismissal of several security officers at the National Security Council, with officials notified on Friday afternoon. This move followed weeks of speculation about an impending purge. It remains unclear whether Alex Wong, the deputy national security adviser, was among those dismissed. Loomer has specifically targeted Wong and Ivan Kanapathy, the senior director for Asia, who remains in his position for now, although his entire team, including his China staff, has been let go.

Laura Loomer also directed the dismissal of Mike Waltz from his role as Trump's first national security adviser, the highest position at the NSC. On April 2, 2025, Loomer met with President Trump in the Oval Office, where she expressed concerns that some of his staff were not fully aligned with his agenda. The following day, over six members of the National Security Council, including NSA Director General Timothy D. Haugh and his deputy, Wendy Noble, were removed due to questions about their loyalty to Trump.

Earlier this month, Trump also withdrew the nomination of Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General of the United States after Loomer criticized Nesheiwat for misrepresenting her medical credentials and for her comments supporting vaccines.

Conspiracy theories and misinformation

• Loomer has falsely claimed that school shootings in February 2018 in Parkland, Florida, and in May 2018 in Santa Fe, Texas, were staged, and that the perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas shootings was affiliated with ISIS. She claimed on Twitter that crisis actors were used for the Santa Fe school shooting.
• In July 2018, Loomer said that a man arrested in South Dakota with bomb-making equipment and illegal weapons had been a "leftist antifa terrorist".[60] According to the man's social media activity at the time, and per his brother, he was a conservative who despised liberals and Antifa. During the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts, Loomer falsely said that the bombing attacks were a "false flag" operation orchestrated by Democrats.
• In 2023, Loomer accused Casey DeSantis, wife of presidential candidate and Trump competitor Ron DeSantis, of exaggerating her bout with breast cancer to boost her husband's presidential campaign.
• Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Loomer and other right-wing influencers amplified a false story claiming that October 13, 2023, was to be a global "day of jihad", a story that motivated a 71-year-old landlord in Illinois to stab to death a 6-year-old boy and attempt to murder his Muslim mother who were his tenants. After a fatal car crash in Long Beach on October 14, Loomer said that the crash was "Islamic terrorism", claiming that police had a gag order. Police later stated there was "no indication that this incident was an act of terror nor associated with the current violence in Israel".
• In November 2023, Loomer was part of a study by the Atlantic Council, analyzed by Bloomberg, of Community Notes on Twitter regarding misinformation in the Gaza war. On October 12, she shared a video of a "pro-Hamas caravan" that had driven through London shouting racist abuse, implying the incident was recent. The video was, in fact, from May 2021, and police had made arrests after the incident. Loomer also tweeted false information about the 2023 Rainbow Bridge explosion in Buffalo, New York. She claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigation suspected a terrorist attack and that there may be a "Jihad plot" at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, despite the vehicle traveling on the U.S. side of the border towards Canada.
• Loomer falsely claimed that a winter storm that occurred before the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was created by the American deep state using High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in order to benefit the electoral chances of presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
• In 2023 and 2024, Loomer falsely attributed social media posts to family members of judges Arthur Engoron and Juan Merchan, who were overseeing court cases involving Donald Trump. Loomer inaccurately claimed these family members had called for Trump's imprisonment on social media. Loomer's misinformation was amplified by Trump to support his claims that Engoron and Merchan were biased against him.
• In July 2024, Loomer falsely claimed on X that "Joe Biden is dying and final preparations are being made for him." In September 2024, Loomer promoted the Springfield, Ohio, cat-eating hoax, lying that the city is populated by "20,000 cannibalistic Haitians".

Her views (Wikipedia)

Loomer has been characterized by various sources as far-right, a self-described white nationalist, and part of both the alt-right and alt-lite movements. She has openly identified as a proud Islamophobe. Cultural critic James Wolcott described her as a "raging zealot ... intent on becoming the agent provocateur." While Loomer has publicly distanced herself from the alt-right and rejected white supremacist Richard B. Spencer, she has faced antisemitic threats from that community. Nevertheless, she has expressed support for white nationalism, arguing that it differs from white supremacy and that effective leadership is needed to convey its message. Additionally, she is reportedly close to white nationalist Nick Fuentes, having praised him for his influence within the Republican Party in 2024.

Donald Trump, as reported by The New York Times, expressed interest in hiring Loomer for a campaign position, describing her as "very opinionated." In contrast, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has labeled her "mentally unstable and a documented liar." The two have had public disputes, with Loomer accusing Greene of no longer being an ally to the America First agenda and questioning her faith, loyalty to Trump, and criticism of rival candidate Ron DeSantis.

Trump's aides reportedly have concerns about Loomer's provocative statements and her ties to the Republican Party's fringes. Identifying as a "Trump loyalist," Loomer has called DeSantis a tyrant and has attacked him online. Additionally, she has garnered support from Donald Trump Jr., who remarked in November 2023 that he would love to see her as press secretary "just to watch D.C. explode."

Anti-Muslim

Loomer has repeatedly espoused anti-Muslim views.[e] On November 1, 2017, the day after a terrorist attack in New York City, Loomer tweeted that she was late to a conference because she could not find a "non Muslim [sic] cab or @Uber @lyft driver". After it became known that the suspect in the attack was a former driver for Uber, she called for the creation of a new ride-sharing company that did not employ Muslims. Her day-long tweetstorm blamed all Muslims for the activities of radical Islamists such as ISIS. Subsequently, both Uber and Lyft announced that she had violated their guidelines and was banned from using their services. She described herself on Twitter at the time as a "#ProudIslamophobe" and called for a complete and permanent ban on Muslims entering the United States.

In August 2018, Loomer disrupted a congressional campaign event for Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, which Rashida Tlaib attended. Loomer shouted questions that implied that Tlaib was antisemitic. In November of that year, Twitter banned Loomer from its platform for violating its rules against hateful behavior. According to Loomer, she was banned for a tweet about Omar in which Loomer called her "anti-Jewish," and a member of a religion in which "homosexuals are oppressed," and women are "abused" and "forced to wear the hijab". A week after the ban, she handcuffed herself to a door at Twitter's New York City headquarters in protest while wearing a yellow "Jude" patch. After approximately two hours, police removed the handcuffs with a bolt cutter at her request. Loomer was not arrested.

In February 2019, Loomer traveled to Minnesota with Jacob Wohl, a right-wing perpetrator of Internet fraud, and Ali Alexander, a far-right activist. The group said they were "investigating" whether Omar had married her brother so that he could obtain U.S. citizenship, a baseless rumor that had circulated in Minnesota politics since 2016. Wohl, Loomer, and Alexander were unable to find any immigration irregularities by Omar. A few weeks later, in March 2019, Wohl and Loomer were ejected from the 2019 CPAC when they attempted to present evidence from their trip to Minnesota. Loomer had previously accosted Omar with the same unsubstantiated allegations at the August 2018 Omar campaign event, the one attended by Tlaib. In 2019, Loomer uploaded a video to Instagram about Omar, blaming her and all Muslims for the September 11 attacks and asserting that "Muslims should not even be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country."

Right Wing Watch reported in February 2019 that donations solicited by Loomer were going to the address of the United West, an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an anti-Muslim hate group. At that time, PayPal banned Loomer from any further use of their service. The Council on American–Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, has described the United West as Islamophobic.

In 2019, following the Christchurch mosque shootings that killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, Loomer wrote on the platform Telegram: "Nobody cares about Christchurch. I especially don't." Loomer has described Islam as "cancer" and Muslims as "savages".

White nationalism

Loomer has described herself as "pro-white nationalist", stating her belief that "liberals and left-wing globalist Marxist Jews" don't understand "the difference between white nationalism and white supremacy". Loomer has described her belief that "this country really was built as the white Judeo-Christian ethnostate" and that "immigration and all these calls for diversity, it's starting to destroy this country." Loomer called into an InfoWars interview with Kanye West to express her support for West's right to free speech, declaring herself "sympathetic" to West. Earlier in the interview, West had praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In response to Loomer's defense of him, West told Loomer, "[I] love you." In 2022, Loomer spoke at the annual conference of white supremacist publication American Renaissance. During this speech, Loomer referred to herself as a "white advocate" and called for a ten-year moratorium on immigration. Loomer has praised American Renaissance founder Jared Taylor and says she opposes "anti-white racism and anti-white hatred".[146] She has additionally attended events with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and has spoken at Fuentes' white nationalist gathering, America First Political Action Conference. In 2017, Loomer claimed to be dating alt-right activist Tim Gionet, who had tweeted a photoshopped picture of Loomer being executed inside a gas chamber, referencing the killing of Jews during the Holocaust. Gionet denied that the pair were dating. Loomer has also expressed support for Christian nationalism. In an interview, Loomer said, about birthright citizenship, "I think you can only serve in office if you were actually born in this country. Not a birthright citizen anchor baby like Nikki Haley, but I don't want people like that in our country, let alone in our congress."

Loomer has described herself as a nationalist and stated that immigrants who refuse to assimilate are a threat to American heritage. In response to a news story about the drowning of 2,000 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, Loomer expressed her approval of the migrant deaths, tweeting, "Good. Here's to 2,000 more." According to Media Matters, Loomer has endorsed the white nationalist Great Replacement theory, accusing the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of "facilitating the invasion of America", and has stated that "so many rich Jews have a fixation on trying to destroy America." Asked in 2017 by Haaretz about her views as a Jew participating in an "anti-sharia" event where the neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa was visibly present, Loomer replied, "Oh, this is like an identitarian group. I'm not totally familiar, but I know they believe in preserving white European culture; there is nothing wrong with that, and they are nationalists."

COVID-19

Loomer downplayed the severity of COVID-19, writing in December 2020, "I hope I get COVID just so I can prove to people I've had bouts of food poisoning that are more serious and life-threatening than a hyped-up virus". In September 2021, she said she had become ill with the virus and was battling it with a variety of preparations, including some shown to be ineffective.[159] She announced via Telegram that she was in great pain and requested that people pray for her. After contracting the virus, Loomer continued to maintain that COVID-19 vaccines are "unsafe and ineffective" and said she would refuse to get one in the future.

Democrats

According to Media Matters, Loomer has said that "if you don't vote for Donald Trump, then you just hate this country." Loomer claims that the Democratic Party is supportive of Jews "getting wiped off the face of the Earth" and that Jews who vote for Democrats "might as well just go put yourself in a gas chamber yourself if this is how you're gonna behave." Responding to interviewer Tim Pool's suggestion that Donald Trump make lists of Democrats who should be put in jail, Loomer said that Trump should have these Democrats executed for treason. After the death of U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Loomer called Jackson Lee a "ghetto bitch" and "one of the most low IQ members of Congress". Loomer referred to African-American Democratic elected officials Kamala Harris, Fani Willis, and Letitia James as "DEI Shaniquas".

Pope Leo XIV

Loomer disapproved of the selection of Pope Leo XIV, whom she described as "Just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican" and "anti-Trump, anti-Maga, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis".