Laura Loomer arrives in Kyiv – at least she does – to make amends after years of acting as a pro-Russian mouthpiece

Laura Loomer, one of the most influential supporters of Donald Trump, the MAGA movement and ‘America First’, has arrived in Ukraine to ‘seek the truth’, apologising for having supported Russia and for having treated the Ukrainian leadership as Nazi beggars: ‘I was wrong; I have a responsibility to correct my words’. A few weeks ago, Loomer had sent one of her correspondents to Ukraine – she hosts a YouTube programme, "Loomer Unleashed", which is very popular in Trumpian circles – and had already admitted that for years she had "fallen for Russian propaganda", a mistake she needed to correct. Now she has gone to Kyiv herself: Trump has never been there, despite numerous invitations, nor have his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. 

Margarita Simonyan, director of the Kremlin-backed TV channel RT and described by the Financial Times as a ‘Valkyrie of Russian propaganda’, wrote to Loomer on X: ‘I can’t wait to read your objective reports from “Kyiv”. We really liked your articles on RT back in the day.’ Loomer replied that yes, she had written for RT in 2021 because she had fallen into the trap of Russian disinformation, and it took her a long time to realise that it was indeed a trap; now that she has understood this, she wants to open the eyes of the MAGA world by exposing the ‘podcastistan’ of pro-Russian and anti-Israel commentators, starting with Tucker Carlson – whom Loomer often calls ‘Tucker Qatarlson’. Not only that, Loomer juxtaposes statements made by American MAGA supporters and Russian propagandists to demonstrate the connection, and extends her accusations to Russia’s allies – Iran and China – and their supporters. She does this to defend Trump from the snakes within and to defend America, but she never mentions that the US president himself deliberately turns a blind eye to these alliances and Russian propaganda. It is well known that clashing directly with Trump is self-destructive; Loomer wants to open the eyes of the MAGA supporters without losing her job and influence, but, with the exception of the President, she takes aim at other members of the Administration, such as Kash Patel – the FBI director who, according to reports, is somewhat absent-minded, somewhat of a drinker and somewhat indecisive – who, according to an exclusive by Politico, is organising a worrying visit to Moscow and St Petersburg in October.

Whilst many European and American commentators say they are treating Loomer’s change of stance with caution and do not trust her, Ukrainians have for the most part welcomed her in Kyiv: every voice of support raised against the Russians counts, all the more so if it comes from the ‘MAGA’ world, which has always been so hostile. The Ukrainians have no time to be choosy, not with an America that is wavering and tending towards hostility, and not with a Europe that has made giant strides in its solidarity with Ukraine but often stumbles – as it has in recent days – being more alarmed by Volodymyr Zelensky’s cabinet reshuffle than by its own inability to reach an agreement on sanctions against Vladimir Putin.