Trump's bigoted, freaky new BFF...
...And how I pissed her off.
“It is extraordinary. Laura Loomer is not just a bigot, she is a freak. She is at the far edges of the fever swamp. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene described her as racist and offensive. And yet Donald Trump is associating with her; these are the kinds of people who have his ear right now. So, at this moment of the campaign — I mean think about this we're less than two months away from the election — Donald Trump is associating with some of the craziest, weirdest figures on the right.” — Me on “Morning Joe,” September 12, 2024
Happy Friday.
To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication. You may disagree with me from time to time (and I expect you will, because I’m not promising you a safe space here). But I’ll always try to give it to you straight. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. (And I’m immensely grateful for your generous support.)
Apparently, I triggered Loomer when I called her a freak…
…which is odd, when you think about it.
By now — you’d think — she’d be used to being called an antisemitic-Islamophobic-racist-grotesquerie, as well as a conspiracist nutjob, and an overall vile human being. (Details below.)
After all, Trump’s favorite worm-tongue is not your standard-issue deplorable; she’s more like a leak from a laboratory of deplorability: a mutation of all the toxic insanity, bigotry, and demented inhumanity that has poisoned our politics.
So, you might imagine that she would have developed a thickish hide.
But no.
On Thursday (which was quite a busy day for her), she spent a good chunk of her morning lashing out at Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lindsey Graham… and me.
Personally, I thought “oxygen thief” was an underwhelming way to end this rant. But she was pretty jazzed by her efforts.
I am, of course, deeply flattered, honored, and not at all humbled by the fact that this loathsome mutant dislikes me. I may frame it.
Why is Donald Trump hanging out with Loomer?
Why did he want her to be hired by his campaign? Why did she fly with him to the debate this week? Why would he take this 9/11 Truther to this week’s solemn remembrance? Why is he so enamored of her presence?
Was Nick Fuentes unavailable? Were Alex Jones, David Duke, and the Tiki-torch dudes otherwise engaged? Or does she have other charms for the former president? I couldn’t possibly say.
But it seems clear that she is providing Trump the sort of safe space he so desperately craves — a space where his darkest and ugliest instincts are stroked and validated. Perhaps most important: she hates the people he hates. As Joe Perticone and Marc Caputo note, “Loomer has called Kamala Harris ‘a drug using prostitute.’ As for why Harris doesn’t have biological children, she once said: “I’m willing to bet she’s had so many abortions that she damaged her uterus.’”
Earlier this week, Loomer posted this bit of racist excreta:
This was too much for (checks notes) Marjorie Taylor Freaking Greene:
**
Republicans — including Trumpist loyalists — are reportedly shocked and alarmed at Loomer’s influence. But they can hardly be surprised, because, for years, she has been telling us who she is.
In a 2017 appearance on a far-right podcast called Nationalist Public Radio, Ms. Loomer described her beliefs.
“Someone asked me, ‘Are you pro-white nationalism?’ Yes. I’m pro-white nationalism,” Ms. Loomer said. “But there’s a difference between white nationalism and white supremacy. Right? And a lot of liberals and left-wing globalist Marxist Jews don’t understand that.” She added, “So this country really was built as the white Judeo-Christian ethnostate, essentially. Over time, immigration and all these calls for diversity, it’s starting to destroy this country.”
Her islamophobia is hardly a closely held secret. Via CNN:
She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe” and tweeted in 2018 that “someone needs to create a non Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver.” She was eventually banned from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Nor are her other bigotries subtle. Via MMFA:
Loomer spoke at a 2022 conference organized by American Renaissance, a “race-realist, white advocacy organization” designated as a hate group by the SPLC. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 7/6/22; Twitter, 7/6/22]
After rapper Ye made a series of antisemitic posts blaming Jewish people for “cancel culture,” Loomer said that “Ye does have a point in his posts.” [Media Matters, 10/10/22]
Loomer claimed that “so many rich Jews have a fixation on trying to destroy America.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 1/26/24]
Loomer accused a Jewish migrant aid organization of “FACILITATING THE INVASION OF AMERICA AND THE GREAT REPLACEMENT!” [Media Matters, 2/28/24]
Loomer went on a wildly racist rant in which she professed support for “IQ science” and called [US Representative] Ilhan Omar a “black dog” and “jihadist infiltrator” whose “district is literally Somalia.” Loomer also referred to Omar’s constituents as “modern-day jihadi welfare queens.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 1/31/24]
**
She is a genuinely vile human being.
CNN reports: “She heckled Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at public appearances with a bullhorn and spread unfounded claims about his wife’s cancer diagnosis online.”
She has celebrated the deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
And she downplayed the massacre of Muslims in Christchurch. MMFA reports: “After the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings left 51 Muslim worshippers dead in New Zealand, Loomer posted on Telegram, ‘Nobody cares about Christchurch. Loomer declared, ‘When every single Muslim on the Planet condemns terrorism, then maybe we can talk.’ [Reuters, 8/27/20; Twitter/X, 5/17/19]
When Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee died, she posted this:
**
Republicans continue to think that Trump can be salvaged. But this is the woman who now has Donald Trump’s ear.
And that says far more about Trump that it does about the freakish Loomer.
**
Exit take, via David Frum:
On Thursday, Claire McCaskill, the former Democratic senator from Missouri, took to social media to sarcastically encourage Mr. Trump to spend more time with Ms. Loomer, calling her a “perfect adviser.”
“I hope he keeps her very close to him between now and the election,” she wrote. “They belong together.”
Exactly.
Your daily dog
Eli is appalled by all of this.
Finally
Fact check: Charlie Sykes was not kicked off of local radio. He was hugely popular among conservatives. He left of his own accord, in large part, because he could not tolerate Candidate Trump.
MTG: "This is not who we are." LOL