By Lily Barr
On September 10th, Laura Loomer traveled with Trump to Philadelphia for the Presidential Debate. This sparked some outrage from people familiar with her antics, and more commonly, who is this lady and what does she have to do with Trump? In short, Loomer is an online far right ‘activist’, who has pulled a string of stunts which got her arrested several times. I am going to go through everything she did VERY fast and I encourage you to do your own, more in depth, research. Everything listed will be roughly in chronological order.
First a little background, she describes herself as “pro white-nationalist” and “a proud Islamophobe.” She claims to be Jewish, but has made a number of anti semitic remarks, which we will get to later. She thinks 9/11 was an inside job, various shootings, such as the Parkland High School Shooting, were staged, and that the 2017 Las Vegas shooter was affiliated with ISIS. These are just a few of the conspiracy theories she believes.
In 2015, while still a senior at Barry University, she secretly recorded a meeting to start the club “Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” with the university’s only request being to change the name to “Students in Support of the Middle East.” Her and James O’Keefe, of Project Veritas, deceptively edited the video to appear like the club was in support of ISIS. To be clear, the club was not about this, it was a humanitarian effort to support civilians who live in the Islamic State.
Later, still in 2015, a Hiliary Clinton campaign manager alleged that Loomer and two other women, posing as Clinton supporters, attempted to give illegal cash donations to the campaign. This is entrapment, which is a crime. The official refused and stated that the campaign complied with the law.
In 2016, Loomer, dressed in burqa, asked for a ballot with the name of Hema Abedin at a polling station. This was another stunt setup by Project Veritas, which is a far right ‘activist journalism’ group. It is infamous for using deceptively edited undercover videos to discredit mainstream media and various progressive groups.
In 2017, she gave a speech to a crowd of so-called “anti-Sharia” marchers. This march was organized by ACT for America, an activist group against “radical Islam”. In other words, the organization is, as political scientist Nadia Marzouki put it, an “echo chamber of Islamophobic misinformation.” This march also included Loomer condemning, quote-unquote, “liberals who aligned themselves with Sharia law,” and putting a burqa on the Fearless Girl statue.
A few days after the march, she resigned from Project Veritas and joined The Rebel News.
The Rebel News is a Canadian far right political and social commentary website, most infamous for their rampant Islamophobia. This includes the “anti-jihad” movement, which believes that Islam is not a religion but as an ideology that “constitutes an existential threat to Western civilization.”
Loomer’s first stunt with The Rebel Media landed her in legal trouble. She disrupted a Shakespere in the Park performance of Julius Caesar. The play made Caesar resemble Trump and had him stabbed by women and minorities. Loomer interrupted the play and screamed “This is violence against Donald Trump! Stop the normalization of political violence against the right! This is unacceptable!” She was arrested for criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. The Washington Post commented, “she [Rosenburg, the writer] did not believe Loomer was genuinely offended by the play, but was looking for attention and to collect a $1,000 bounty that alt-right social media personality Mike Cernovich had offered to anyone who disrupted the production.” Loomer also crowdfunded $12,345 after the stunt.
Later in 2017, she marched with counter-jihad activists funded by Robert J. Shillman. Three months later she left The Rebel News and, now, has occasionally reported for InfoWars.
In 2019, Loomer convinced several men in a Home Depot parking lot, who she claimed were undocumented, to jump the fence with her at Nancy Pelosi’s Napa, California, home. They then set up a tent on her lawn to protest immigration. The group was escorted off but not arrested. Just a couple of days later, she tried to interrupt a Women’s March speaker, saying it was a “nazi organization”, and then got dragged off by security, screaming “What about the Jews?” A little over two weeks later, Loomer , Ben Bergquam, and some others jumped the wall of the California Governor’s Mansion and had a “fiesta” to protest Governor Newson’s stance on immigration. This racist display got the group arrested, given citations, and, unfortunately, released within a few hours. Not learning their lesson, the group then caused a fight outside a Mexican restaurant, and live streamed the whole ordeal.
Fortunately, Loomer stayed somewhat quiet from 2019-2024, mostly sticking to online content and not illegal stunts. Unfortunately, what Loomer had been doing this year is what’s landed her back into the news cycle. She told The Washington Post, “I’m happy to dedicate all my time to helping Trump, because if Trump doesn’t get back in, I don’t have anything.” Trump then brought Loomer as a guest during his trip to Philadelphia for the presidential debate. The following day, Loomer attended events alongside Trump commemorating the September 11 attacks. Loomer has previously called 9/11 an inside job, so bringing her along was an interesting choice. She allegedly influenced Trump to believe in various conspiracy theories such as Kamala Harris hiding her black identity, and Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets to name a few. Most recently, Loomer made a very racist tweet referencing various Indian stereotypes about Harris being in the White House. Marjorie Talyor Greene called the tweet, “appalling and extremely racist.”
Many people have speculated that Loomer and Trump are having an affair hence the traveling together, but these claims have no evidence and she has publicly denied them. Loomer has done many more things than what I mentioned above, so if you’re interested, please do your own research. Because, believe it or not, this was a short version of her long list of transgressions and general insanity.
