In considering a topic for today’s piece, I had a “concept of a plan.†But two dozen blank column inches seemed unacceptable. Thus, I turned to Donald Trump’s fascination with Laura Loomer.
The 31-year-old Loomer accompanied the former president to the big debate last week. Maybe Trump bombed so badly in part because he was distracted by her presence. Or maybe he’s a doofus who doesn’t know very much. Either way, let us leave the debate to the historians as we focus on Trump and Loomer.
The next day, she was with him at the 9/11 memorial tribute in New York. Given that she has claimed that the attacks were an “inside job,†carting her to the ceremony was a tone-deaf move. Next, following the attempted assassination of Trump on Sunday, Loomer quickly headed for Mar-a-Lago, perhaps to serve as a kindly palliative for his nerves.
She has been politically enamored with Trump for a while, but how she became his new pal remains unclear. One potential explanation is her proud endorsement of racism. She has said she is “pro white nationalism.†And, employing a trashy racist trope, she called Kamala Harris a “drug using prostitute.†None other than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., termed that remark racist. Loomer’s call for the execution of Trump’s political rivals probably got her more than just a foot in the door at the former president’s Florida home.
Loomer is thought to have been among those who encouraged Trump to make the assertion that Haitian immigrants were eating local pets in Springfield, Ohio. Now Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, continue to repeat the idiotic tale, even though both the town’s mayor and Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike Dewine, have debunked it and despite the resulting disruption that their lie is causing in the community. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Vance’s office had learned the story was false even before he and Trump began to spread it. And Vance admitted to CNN’s Dana Bash that he tends to “create stories†like that one, essentially because they generate media attention.
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The delusional Loomer has claimed that the shootings at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were staged and that the man who killed dozens at a Las Vegas concert in 2017 was affiliated with ISIS. There is no basis for either claim. When Donald Trump was asked last week about her bizarro ways, he responded, “She’s a supporter ... I don’t control Laura ... she’s a free spirit.†But, instead of escorting her around the country, perhaps The Donald should do the gentlemanly thing and drop her at a psychiatric facility.
There might be additional explanations for their mutual tossing of roses. Certainly, Loomer reinforces the vilest of Trump’s impulses, always a big plus for Trump. She falsely claimed that family members of Judges Arthur Engoron and Juan Merchan had called for Trump’s imprisonment. (Engoron presided over Trump’s bank fraud case in which he was found guilty of overstating his assets and fined more than $350 million. Merchan oversaw the business fraud case, commonly termed the “hush money†case, in which a jury convicted the former president of 34 felonies.)
Loomer is a college graduate who twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Her “free spirit†accomplishments include being banned from numerous social media platforms for posting hate speech and misinformation. She has had her press credentials revoked for harassing reporters. She was banned from the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference for disruption and harassment of media figures.
As if to demonstrate that she is both brainless and heartless, Loomer once alleged that the wife of Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was exaggerating her breast cancer diagnosis to boost her husband’s presidential candidacy. And, lacking an observable capacity for empathy, when 2,000 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, she tweeted, “Good. Here’s to 2,000 more.â€
Rumors are flying that Trump and Loomer are having an affair. But, in contrast to JD Vance, I have no desire to create stories. Whatever is going on, Loomer’s nuttiness may be too much even for Trump. He recently wrote on Truth Social that he isn’t aligned with her views. So why is he hanging around with her? Free of charge, I advise Trump of this: We are known by the company we keep. But maybe I should be saying that to Laura Loomer.
