President Trump confidante Laura Loomer has successfully campaigned for the ouster of more than a dozen national security officials and others she has accused of secretly working against the president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda.
Now she is training her considerable firepower inside the MAGA tent. In recent weeks, the right-wing conspiracy theorist has:
Gone after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, dubbing him “Tucker Qatarlson” who is being “bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood,” and attacking his son who works for Vice President JD Vance;
Accused Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of funneling government money to her own daughter and called her a “loud-mouthed bitch.”
And she said that Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, whose wife was killed by a suicide bomber, was soft on terrorism.
“They can attack me all they want, I’m more America First than them,” Loomer said in an interview, adding that she believed she faced targeting herself because she is Jewish.
The 32-year-old, self-styled journalist with 1.8 million followers on X and a twice-weekly podcast “Loomer Unleashed,” has emerged as a powerful figure in Trump’s second term, speaking to the president in the evening when she calls, and telling him who she thinks is disloyal to him, according to people familiar with the conversations.
White House officials have grown tired of her posts and Loomer’s efforts to work around them, several administration officials said. Top administration officials have launched a hunt to try to find out what motivates her posts and attacks, the officials said.
On Wednesday, she claimed that Nicholas Waytowich, a U.S. Army official, was fired because she had identified him as the creator of Red Dot, an app that tracks ICE officials. An Army official said Waytowich is suspended and under investigation.
“I don’t work for the administration, and I don’t control hiring,” said Loomer. “I’m posting facts.”
Some White House officials have also grown concerned about Loomer’s access to Trump and suspected that she was being paid for some of her attacks. Several posts outside her usual national security interests, including a campaign against a Food and Drug Administration official and push for the administration to approve a drilling license off the coast of Venezuela, raised particular concerns at the White House, according to administration officials. Loomer has denied taking money for specific posts.
She has continued to receive funding from ideologically motivated donors who believe anti-Trump Democrats remain in national security roles, and others with politically aligned interests, according to people familiar with the matter.
Loomer had sought a job in the Trump White House, but officials didn’t hire her, and she has since turned to seeking a press credential to cover the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. The credential hasn’t yet materialized. She compiles and pitches opposition research under the consulting firm Loomered Strategies.
Loomer got her start at Project Veritas, a conservative group known for its sting videos, and twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Amid her posts attacking conservatives, she also frequently targets Democrats, Muslims, and immigrants. She is now banned from Facebook, Instagram, PayPal, and other sites, for her racist views.
Her work has often been funded by conservative donors who supported right-wing positions on Israel or critical views of Islam. She has worked for years with an Israeli-American cyber intelligence analyst, Yaacov Apelbaum, who was involved with analyzing and distributing content from Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election.
Apelbaum has provided Loomer with research for her recent attacks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the work, including against national security officials the two deemed to be Muslim sympathizers.
In an interview with the Journal, Apelbaum said Loomer has been unfairly tarred as a far-right firebrand. “She doesn’t hate Muslims, she’s terrified of Muslims,” he said.
Loomer acknowledged their collaboration but declined to elaborate. “We both run in the same circles,” she said.
Loomer’s intraparty attacks have expanded as some Trump allies have openly started criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and veering into antisemitic conspiracy theories. Carlson and podcaster Candace Owens, for example, have suggested that Israel may have been involved in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month, which had allegedly targeted him for his shifting views on the country.
In his speech at Kirk’s memorial, Carlson likened the killing to that of Jesus Christ, saying: “I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about what to do about this guy telling the truth about us.”
Netanyahu has said it is “insane” and “outrageous” to suggest that the country had anything to do with Kirk’s death. Top Turning Point officials have denounced the theories.
Loomer has since claimed Carlson took money from Doha and suppressed damaging information about Biden, referencing claims derived from Apelbaum’s analysis.
Carlson said he has never taken money from any government, including Qatar, and has no debt or investors. “I’m the only one to blame for my opinions,” he said. Owens said supporters of Israel were “scraping the very bottom of the barrel, and at the bottom is Laura Loomer.”
Loomer’s attacks on other Trump officials have continued.
Last month, Loomer assailed a report released by Kent, the counterterrorism center chief and Trump supporter who lost his wife in a 2019 suicide-bomber attack in Syria. Kent’s report warned against al Qaeda attacks in the U.S., but Loomer complained that the report characterized the threat as violent extremism, rather than Islamic terrorism.
Kent suggested on X that Loomer was being compensated by foreign interests, writing that she “is paid by the side thats [sic] too afraid to come at me directly, but knows it’s losing.”
Loomer took offense to the comments and asked him to delete the post. He hasn’t done so.
