Laura Loomer’s challenge to the ‘Putinists’ at MAGA. The Trump influencer speaks out

Washington. A bolt of lightning knocked out Laura Loomer’s router, she explains, leaving her without internet and forcing her to postpone our interview. When she finally gets online, Loomer is eager to explain a political shift that few would have expected from one of Donald Trump’s most combative allies. After years spent opposing support for Ukraine and parroting narratives favoured by Moscow, she now describes Ukraine as a strategic ally and Russia as an adversary engaged in an influence operation within the American right. “I used to be anti-Ukraine,” says Loomer. “Now, having travelled to Ukraine, I’ve realised that it actually is a strategic ally.” Her trip to Kyiv convinced her that Russian state media and American podcasters aligned with them had sold conservatives a false image of Russia.

A right-wing activist with no formal role at the White House, Loomer enjoys privileged access to Trump and wields considerable influence over the appointments ecosystem surrounding him. Following a meeting in the Oval Office last year, during which she presented Trump with material on officials she considers disloyal, several members of the National Security Council staff were sacked or reassigned. Trump denies that she was the cause of their removal, and some journalistic accounts suggest that certain decisions had been taken before the meeting. Whether real or perceived, the episode defines her unique value in Trump’s world and guarantees her a certain notoriety in MAGA circles. Her influence is exerted through public campaigns, behind-the-scenes access and the ability to dig into the professional past, political ties and social media activity of people working in government. (Chkhikvadze continues in Supplement I)

Her attacks have contributed to the fact that, amongst some officials in Washington, ‘being Loomered’ has become a sort of shorthand for someone who ends up in the crosshairs of her online investigations. ‘I don’t work for the Administration,’ says Loomer. ‘Yes, I support it. And I’m an ally of Trump. But I don’t work for the Administration and I don’t set policy. Certainly not foreign policy.’

Loomer grew up in Tucson, Arizona, attended a boarding school and describes her family as having only a moderate interest in politics. “I got into politics more or less on my own,” she says. Her interest took hold quickly after she arrived in Florida. She became president of the College Republicans and worked for the Florida Republican Party, organising voter registration drives and similar initiatives whilst Rick Scott was governor. Then Trump appeared on the political scene. “He was really a wrecking ball against the political establishment on both sides,” she says. “I’ve always really appreciated the way he spoke his mind.” She first attracted national attention in 2015, whilst attending Barry University, thanks to a hidden-camera sting by Project Veritas. Loomer entered the campus office responsible for authorising student societies wearing a hidden camera and attempted to film a group called Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. She described it as a humanitarian organisation and suggested sending large quantities of torches to ISIS fighters who struggle to see at night. Staff members listened to her, offered procedural advice and suggested a more moderate name for her project: Students in Support of the Middle East. The university sanctioned Loomer for the recording.

In 2017, Loomer disrupted a performance of Julius Caesar in New York in which the assassinated ruler was portrayed as Trump. Uber and Lyft banned her from their platforms after she called for ride-hailing services to exclude Muslim drivers. When Twitter banned her for a post about MP Ilhan Omar, she handcuffed herself for two hours outside the company’s Manhattan headquarters, wearing a Star of David. She also works for InfoWars, Rebel News and the Geller Report, stood for election to Congress in Florida in 2020 and 2022, and chose as the title of her memoirs: "Loomered: How I Became the Most Banned Woman in the World". Musk’s purchase of Twitter restored her account, which now has around two million followers.

Loomer has proudly described herself as “Islamophobic”, although she maintains that the label describes her opposition to Islam rather than hatred of Muslims. “I don’t hate Muslim people,” she explains to Il Foglio. “But I am firmly opposed to Islam.” However, she draws very few distinctions between the faith and its followers. “I am opposed to Muslim people holding public office,” she adds. “I wouldn’t have a problem if these people assimilated, but they don’t want to assimilate. They come into your country. They want to impose their own laws. They want to impose their own legal system. And now they want to take control of our government. So, if they were to assimilate and be law-abiding citizens, perhaps I’d be a little more sympathetic towards these people in my country,” she says, comparing Muslim immigrants to “invasive species”. “And you’ve seen it in Europe. I mean, look at what’s just happened in Spain. Look at Italy. Look at how Italy is now beginning to experience Islamisation. It’s happening everywhere. France, isn’t it?”, she adds.

When asked whether this stance applies to Muslims by birth or to political Islam, Loomer rejects the distinction. “The fallacy of the whole debate is that one can be a Muslim without supporting Sharia law. The reality is that there is only one Islam. If you are a devout Muslim, then you support Sharia law. There is no different Quran for so-called radical Muslims and for so-called moderate Muslims. You cannot truly leave Islam, unless you live in a non-Muslim country, because it is a form of apostasy, punishable by death.”

Trump treats Loomer better than many others in his entourage; during the 2024 campaign, he described her as a “strong person” and a “free spirit”, and promoted her interview with Zelensky following his trip to Ukraine. But if you ask her about this influence, she quickly changes the subject. “The President knows that I interviewed President Zelensky. He shared my interview, for which I was, of course, very grateful,” she says. “The President will do what he wants to do…”.

For years, Loomer has described Ukraine as a small, corrupt state full of Nazi apologists and regarded US aid to the country as a form of theft. She says she changed her mind after being exposed to propaganda from Russian state media. “Russia has used its state media channels to spread a lot of anti-Trump propaganda and many conspiracy theories, particularly many of the conspiracy theories peddled by the ‘woke Reich’,” she says, using the term she applies to right-wing podcasters whom she considers Republicans in name only. “They claim to be GOP, but in reality they aren’t. If anything, they’re more like the Left. These former conservatives turned podcasters have decided that, rather than supporting the President, they want to spread conspiracy theories about Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Israel and the Jews,” she argues. “The very same people who spread these conspiracy theories have decided to side with our adversaries. They support Iran against the United States and they also support Russia against Ukraine. And this has started to make me think: perhaps, after all, Ukraine isn’t so bad. Perhaps I should go to Ukraine and see for myself, on the ground.” She arrived in Kyiv the day after forty ballistic missiles had struck the Ukrainian capital and spent several nights underground. “It was very enlightening for me and opened my eyes. It was sad to see the destruction and devastation,” she says. “Knowing that ballistic missiles are exploding outside your hotel room. And that when you go to sleep at night, there could be a missile attack hitting your hotel. And they don’t have any Patriot missiles to defend themselves against ballistic missiles. Whilst I was there, I hardly slept at all. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to live like that 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

When she interviews Volodymyr Zelensky at the Mariinsky Palace, she tells him she has been duped by Russian propaganda, apologises for her previous views and posts the video on Rumble. Scepticism arises immediately, from both liberals and anti-Trump Republicans, who wonder whether her ‘conversion on the road to Damascus’ is sincere or dictated by self-interest. She denies having received any funding for the trip.

It appears that Trump, too, has warmed to Zelensky. Since their meeting at the Vatican, the two have held a series of more cordial meetings, whilst the Administration is paving the way for Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptors and is broadening discussions on defence cooperation. “It seems that the relationship between Zelensky and the Trump Administration is improving significantly,” says Loomer. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were due to travel to Kyiv, following months in which the Administration’s diplomatic efforts had focused on Moscow, but they were not seen in the Ukrainian capital on Independence Day, which was celebrated yesterday: their visit appears to have been postponed yet again.

Loomer argues that a faction of the American right has gone so far as to portray Moscow as a defender of Christianity and traditional values, whilst justifying regimes hostile to the United States and Israel. She places Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and other anti-Trump podcasters in this camp. “There is this campaign within the conservative movement,” he says, “to portray Russia as a sort of traditional society, as if it were a bastion of Christian nationalism that upholds family values.” But Russia’s track record, he argues, tells a different story. “I’ve discovered that the opposite is true.” He cites abortion and divorce rates in Russia, the spread of HIV and the growth of the Muslim population. “How conservative can you be?” he asks.

The switch to Loomer comes in the midst of a row over what “America first” will mean in the post-Trump era. The dispute extends far beyond Ukraine and has intensified following Trump’s decision to join Israel’s war against Iran. Carlson and other ‘America First’ voices denounce the campaign as a betrayal of Trump’s pacifist promises and argue that Washington is once again shouldering the burden of a conflict that does not serve US interests. The row is rapidly spreading to the broader question of whether the US should confront its adversaries or withdraw from conflicts abroad. Trump responds to the criticism in his own style. After Carlson condemned the campaign against Iran, Trump said that “Tucker has lost his way” and that “he’s not MAGA”, adding that Carlson does not understand what ‘America First’ means. Loomer’s new stance on Ukraine places her firmly on Trump’s side in this rift.

The difference also extends to the post-Trump race for the White House. Vance has become the political figurehead for a more cautious wing of the administration and the wider MAGA movement, which is sceptical of further military engagements, wary of aid to Israel and hostile to the old Republican rhetoric of American global leadership. “I like J. D. Vance as a person,” explains Loomer. “But I have made it very clear that I disagree with many of his foreign policy positions. I certainly disagree with the comments he has made about Israel.” Carlson is her litmus test. “He’s a very close friend of the Vice-President. Even the Vice-President has been very reluctant to criticise Tucker. He has never really condemned him, even though Donald Trump has condemned him.” Loomer presents Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the administration’s counterweight, the official called upon when others “go off the rails”. “I don’t think we should be the party of political coronations. We’ve mocked the Democrats and Kamala Harris for this. And I believe we should have primaries.”

Vance makes defending and engaging with the European nationalist right a central focus: in Munich, he met with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel and argued that European governments should stop treating these parties as if they were outside the bounds of acceptable politics. Musk, meanwhile, has called on Germans to vote for the AfD and appeared remotely at one of the party’s election rallies. Both also support Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz in Hungary. These parties, backed by figures from the American MAGA movement, along with Italy’s Five Star Movement, hold pro-Russian views but also frequently adopt anti-American stances.

When asked why American conservatives should support parties that promote anti-American or pro-Russian positions, Loomer initially declines to comment. “I don’t follow European politics very closely,” she tells Il Foglio, adding, however, that she understands why the AfD and similar movements are appealing: “Europe has been radically transformed by unchecked Islamic immigration”. However, when asked about the AfD’s and the Five Star Movement’s positions on the United States, she says she has not seen those statements. “I’d need to look into it further,” she says. After the interview, I sent Loomer material on the AfD and the Five Star Movement, including their anti-American and pro-Russian rhetoric. At the time of publication of this article, she had not yet replied.

Ani Chkhikvadze