A 31-year-old far-right influencer with a history of controversy has sparked a meltdown among Republicans as she gains ground in Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Laura Loomer, a two-time unsuccessful congressional candidate from Florida who describes herself as a “proud Islamophobe,” raised eyebrows when she was spotted attending Trump’s debate with Kamala Harris, with some observers noting she appeared to be getting cozy with the former president.
While she has no official role in the campaign, it was reported in April 2023 that Trump intended to offer Loomer a job, but the proposal was met with dismay by his aides.
And after reappearing in Trump world at the debate, the bad blood between Loomer and some influential Republicans continued when she took to Twitter (one of the many platforms she has been banned from in the past) to offer a prediction.
“If Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry,” he tweeted.
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer has drawn attention with her growing presence in Donald Trump’s campaign as the presidential race nears the final stretch.
Loomer, a twice-unsuccessful congressional candidate from Florida, has been described by critics as an attention-seeking provocateur who would be too “toxic” to be anywhere near a presidential candidate.
Loomer’s “curry” tweet was met with disdain by several top Republicans known for their closeness to Trump’s orbit, with Sen. Lindsay Graham calling her “really toxic.”
“(Trump) would do well to make sure this doesn’t become a bigger story,” he said.
Loomer first came to the attention of conservative circles in 2015, when she was suspended from Barry University in Florida after trying to create the “Student Solidarity in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” club.
Although Loomer supposedly created the group to show that progressive students would support ISIS, it only led to her being suspended for violating the student code of conduct and being accused of filming people without their consent.
In the years since, Loomer has been viewed by critics, including those on the right, as an attention-seeking influencer hoping to generate controversy, including floating theories that the 2018 Parkland school shooting, where 17 people died, was staged.
She has routinely catapulted into controversies to boost her brand, including a high-profile ban from Uber after arguing that users should be allowed to choose non-Muslim drivers.
Since joining the Trump campaign, officially or unofficially, as the 2024 presidential race enters its final stretch, insiders have increasingly pointed to Loomer as the source of Trump’s troubles.
Loomer, pictured with Donald Trump Jr and his fiancée Kimberly Guifoyle, has been gaining ground in Trump’s inner circle to the dismay of his aides.
Before Trump’s debate with Kamala Harris in September, Loomer was seen flying to the event on Trump’s jet, with some blaming him for influencing her performance.
“Whatever barriers the Trump campaign has put in place, I don’t think they’re working,” said one person close to the former president. Traffic light – noting that efforts to keep them apart have mostly failed.
The source spoke to the outlet shortly after Trump’s debate with Kamala Harris, where he ranted about unproven claims that Haitian immigrants were eating Ohio residents’ pets after Democrats sent them there.
While the false claims spread quickly in conservative circles around X, their role in Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke to a national audience raised concerns.
Dennis Lennox, a Republican consultant, said Trump “lost the debate because of his performance or lack thereof… That’s what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News-X bubble and rely on Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer.”
The next morning, Trump reopened new wounds by inviting Loomer to join him in paying his respects to the victims of 9/11 at Ground Zero in Manhattan.
At a typically somber event attended by former presidents, Loomer’s appearance diverted attention from the tribute while reviving her provocative past.
Just a year earlier, he had shared a video on X in which he claimed that 9/11 “was an inside job” and implied that it was linked to a scandal at the time involving the federal government allegedly “losing” trillions of dollars in government funds.
Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance were seen together attending the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan on September 11, 2024, to which Loomer was also invited as a guest of Trump.
Although some of her critics describe her as a marginal player in the world of Republican politics, Loomer has not been without success among the GOP electorate.
In 2020, he defeated five opponents to win the Republican primary in Florida’s 21st Congressional District with 43 percent of the vote.
However, she lost to incumbent Lois Frankel in the deeply blue district, but Loomer’s aspirations for the office were not over.
A year after his defeat, he announced his candidacy for Florida’s 11th district, where Donald Trump is, notably, a registered voter.
Though she failed to advance in the Republican primary, Loomer’s steadfast commitment to MAGA was on full display when, like Trump in 2020, she refused to concede her loss to Rep. Daniel Webster.
In an election night speech, Loomer denounced vague allegations of voter fraud and argued that “Big Tech” was targeting her candidacy, telling a crowd: “I’m not going to give up because I’m a winner.”
