Updated Sep 14, 2024, 11:15 PM Published Sep 14, 2024, 10:45 AM Five years ago, Ms Laura Loomer, a far-right activist with a history of expressing bigoted views and a knack for generating publicity, filed an application for a trademark to protect her work in “the field of political activism”.Ms Loomer, 31, part of a generation of web-savvy right-wing influencers, decided to trademark the term she had coined for her signature move of ambushing people with unexpected, often embarrassing questions. She called it getting “loomered”.Already a well-known figure among internet obsessives thanks to her anti-Muslim activism, undercover sting operations and political stunts, Ms Loomer found herself at the centre of the presidential campaign this week when she travelled with former president Donald Trump. She went with him to Philadelphia for the presidential debate, and then accompanied him to Sept 11 memorial events in New York City and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which drew pointed criticism from Democrats and Republicans because she had previously called Sept 11 “an inside job”.Here’s more about Ms Loomer.Why are politicians from both parties criticizing her?Ms Loomer has made a number of racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic comments in the past. She has described Islam as a “cancer,” used the hashtag “proudislamophobe” and once seemed to celebrate the deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. In 2018, after Twitter banned her for frequent anti-Muslim content, she handcuffed herself to the company’s headquarters in New York and wore a yellow Star of David similar to those that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. Ms Loomer is Jewish.After billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, her account was reinstated, and she has since built up a following of more than 1.2 million people on the site, which Mr Musk later renamed X, and has a web show. She often blasts out content praising Trump and viciously attacking anyone she might perceive as a rival.Two days before she travelled with Trump to the debate, she wrote in a post on X that if Vice-President Kamala Harris, whose mother was Indian American, won the election, the White House would “smell like curry”.How did she get her start? Ms Laura Elizabeth Loomer was still a senior at Barry University near Miami when she made an undercover video, secretly filming university officials discussing her proposal to create a club for students who support the Islamic State group. The footage was picked up Project Veritas, the conservative group that right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe founded to conduct sting operations. It made news, and she worked with Mr O’Keefe at Project Veritas for several years.How did she become better known?One of Ms Loomer’s early attention-grabbing moments came in 2017, when she interrupted a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in Central Park in New York because the production gave the doomed emperor a marked resemblance to Trump. Just after the scene in which Caesar was assassinated, Ms Loomer jumped onto the stage and shouted: “This is violence against Donald Trump! Stop the normalisation of political violence against the right!”How has she fared in politics? In 2020, Ms Loomer ran for Congress in Florida’s 21st District as a Republican. When she won the Republican primary, Trump congratulated her on Twitter. “Great going Laura,” he wrote. “You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!” She lost the general election. Two years later, she challenged Republican Representative Daniel Webster of Florida in a primary but lost. What is her relationship with the Trump campaign?Ms Loomer has been to Mar-a-Lago at least nine times since January 2021, flew on Trump’s jet to the Iowa caucuses and was almost hired by the campaign in the spring of 2023 until news coverage and internal pushback killed that plan. But Trump’s very public embrace of such a divisive figure in the critical final two months of the campaign raised eyebrows, amping up speculation that her presence was a sign that the campaign was pivoting to the right at a moment when it needed to appeal to independent voters.Which Republicans are criticising her? Although some on the right have come forward to defend her, a small but growing number of Republicans have criticised her recent travels with Trump.Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on X on Sept 11 that Ms Loomer’s post about curry was “appalling and extremely racist” and said it “does not represent who we are as Republicans or Maga”. Ms Loomer, a former ally of Ms Greene’s who has clashed with her on a number of issues in recent years, responded with a multi-post tirade, accusing Ms Greene of being “jealous” of her access to Trump, noting Ms Greene’s own history of controversial comments, making personal attacks and defending her post about curry.“I won’t be apologising for having a sense of humour,” she wrote.Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told a reporter from HuffPost on Sept 12 that Ms Loomer “is just really toxic”. The always combative Ms Loomer responded on X with a post questioning Mr Graham’s loyalty to Trump and making a personal attack on Mr Graham.On Sept 13, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina chimed in on X, calling Ms Loomer “a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans”. Soon after that was posted, Ms Loomer went after Mr Tillis, too, calling him a “RINO” – for Republican in name only – “who attacked President Trump after Jan 6”.What did Trump say? Trump defended Ms Loomer at a news conference Sept 13, calling her one of his supporters and saying: “I don’t control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She’s a free spirit.” When asked about the conspiracy theories she had spread and her recent racist remarks, he said he was unaware of them.“I do know that she may have said something based on what you’re telling me, but I don’t know what she said,” Trump said. “But I’ll go take a look, and I’ll put out a statement later on.”A few hours later, he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social: “I disagree with the statements she made, but, like the many millions of people who support me, she is tired of watching the Radical Left Marxists and Fascists violently attack and smear me.” He did not specify which statements he was objecting to.Whom else is she associated with in Trump world?Among Ms Loomer’s endorsers when she ran for Congress was Mr Roger Stone, a long-time political operative she calls her mentor. Mr Stone, known for his bag of dirty tricks dating to the Nixon administration, is close to Trump, who as president pardoned him after he was convicted on seven felony counts in 2019.During her time at Project Veritas, she worked with Mr Jack Posobiec, another conservative influencer and conspiracy theorist who now has a podcast and a huge following on social media. Recently, Mr Posobiec was invited to join a “war room” of influencers serving as an online rapid response team for Trump during the debate. NYTIMES
Who is Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who traveled with Trump?
