Laura Loomer, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who believes 9/11 was an inside job, has joined Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days, a move that has raised eyebrows among his Republican supporters.
Ms Loomer, 31, is banned on nearly every social media platform, from Instagram and Twitter, and claims even Uber and Chase bank have shut down her accounts.
She joined the former president during campaign appearances this week, including at Ground Zero for a 9/11 memorial.
This angered many, given she has promoted the false notion the terror attack was somehow related to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announcing $2.3 trillion in “lost” government funds on 10 September 2001.
“23 years later, and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions… The American people deserve to know the entire truth. Not just what our lying government chose to tell us,” Loomer posted on Friday, alongside a video of Trump in 2001 questioning whether airplanes could cause explosions like the ones that happened at the Twin Towers.
Her stepped-up presence among Trump’s entourage has come as he made a number of staff changes, including bringing back veterans of his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
A senior official from the 2020 campaign team said that helps explain why Loomer is no longer being kept at arm’s length.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
“The people that have the authority to stop it are hanging on to their jobs,” the former official said. “So, are you going to pick that fight with him?”
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
Born in Arizona in 1993, Loomer has styled herself as an investigative journalist and activist. She worked for Project Veritas (a far-right activist group that produces deceptively edited videos of its undercover operations) and Alex Jones’s Infowars.
She ran for Congress in Florida in 2020, with Trump’s support, and celebrated her primary win at a party with the founder of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys. She would later lose the House race to Democrat Lois Frankel.
She also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022.
She has been a long-time Trump supporter and promoted a string of political conspiracy theories, including that Kamala Harris is not black.
But on Friday, appearing to distance himself somewhat, he said: “I don’t control Laura. Laura – she’s a, she’s a free spirit. Well, I don’t know. I mean, look, I can’t tell Laura what to do.”
And she has divided even the right of the political spectrum.
Tommy Robinson declared he was a “big fan” of Ms Loomer when she appeared on his podcast in August last year.
But Marjorie Taylor Greene, another outspoken Trump supporter has taken issue with Ms Loomer after she wrote the White House “will smell like curry” if Ms Harris is elected.
Greene said Ms Loomer’s comments were “appalling and extremely racist” and did “not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA”.
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
More on Barack Obama
Related Topics:
Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obamaat Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pairsat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.
Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.
Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.
Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.
Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.
Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.