11 Controversies That Will Always Haunt Laura Loomer

The following article mentions racism and Islamophobia.

Right-wing activist and Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer has been generating headlines for her increasingly outrageous public stunts, which she dubs "Loomering." Mentored by Roger Stone, himself a noted provocateur, Loomer has made a name for herself as a professional troll, self-professed Islamophobe, and conspiracy theorist. Accordingly, she has ingratiated herself within the MAGA elite. 

Over the years, Donald Trump has had some wild interactions with superfans, but Loomer is arguably his biggest fangirl and cheerleader. Though many former allies have come out in their masses to disavow him, Loomer is one woman in Donald Trump's inner circle who won't be backing down any time soon. "I don't control Laura, Laura has to say what she wants. She's a free spirit," Trump said, per Politico. Her influence has caused grave concern for Trump's aides. When he went viral for falsely claiming that immigrants are eating people's pets, for instance, Loomer was blamed for the snafu (she has peddled such conspiracies on X). "Trump lost the debate because of his performance or lack thereof," Republican consultant Dennis Lennox told Semafor. "That's what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News — X bubble, and rely upon Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer."

Unsurprisingly for someone so contentious, Loomer has been embroiled in a seemingly endless succession of controversies over the years. But history is unlikely to be kind to the MAGA enfant terrible. Here are 11 controversies that will always haunt Laura Loomer.

Prior to becoming one of Donald Trump's closest allies, Laura Loomer discussed having white nationalist tendencies. However, she has insisted that there's a difference between white nationalism and white supremacy. In 2017, for instance, she appeared on "Nationalist Public Radio" (via The New York Times) and made no secret of her extreme views. "Someone asked me, 'Are you pro-white nationalism?' Yes. I'm pro-white nationalism," she 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."

But Loomer's white nationalist leanings aren't a relic of some edgelord phase in her 20s. As she grew closer to Trump in 2024, a troubling audio recording was unearthed. Two years earlier, Loomer, who had recently lost a Republican primary in Florida's 11th congressional district, appeared at the American Renaissance conference, which is known for propagating racist pseudo-scientific studies. There, she gave a speech espousing white identity, blaming her failed political bid in Florida on Republicans supposedly becoming less right-wing. "I consider myself to be a white advocate and I openly campaigned for the United States Congress as a white advocate," she said, per The Guardian. 

She went on to declare her support for the mass deportations of immigrants in the U.S. If Trump wins the 2024 election and Loomer becomes a prominent Republican fixture, she'll likely find it impossible to escape the specter of her incendiary past remarks.

Laura Loomer has rallied against the supposed perils of cancel culture and censorship, yet she engaged in a little censorship of her own in 2017. At the time, Shakespeare in the Park staged a production of "Julius Caesar," which reimagined the Roman general as a Donald Trump-esque antihero. Protesting the production, Loomer jumped on stage and declared, "Stop the normalization of political violence against the right ... This is violence against Donald Trump," per The New York Times. She also likened the Public Theater to I.S.I.S. Loomer was removed from the theater and charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. "I'm not resisting, officers. Unlike the left," she said when apprehended by police, per The New Yorker.

The activist went viral for her stunt. Accordingly, she began utilizing her newfound notoriety to collect donations for her legal troubles via the website freelaura.com, which was registered by fellow right-winger Ezra Levant. However, Salon confirmed that the freelaura.com domain had been registered before the "Julius Caesar" protest, with Loomer and Levant seemingly manufacturing outrage.

Speaking to the Observer, Loomer claimed that she never intended to storm the stage, but made the decision on the spot after realizing how close she was to the action. "I instantly became an internet sensation ... My 33 seconds on stage touched so many people, angered many others, and ended up causing a huge national debate about political violence," she declared.

As someone who describes herself as a "proud Islamophobe," it unfortunately comes as little surprise that Laura Loomer is hostile when interacting with Muslims in public. In fact, the right-wing activist appears to be on a mission to completely avoid Muslims in day-to-day life.

In 2017, Loomer complained that she was struggling to find non-Muslim drivers on her Uber and Lyft apps, thereby making her late for a conference. "Someone needs to create a non-Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver," she wrote on X (via the Independent). "I'm late to the NYPD press conference because I couldn't find a non-Muslim cab or Uber Lyft driver for over 30 min!" She posted the remarks in the wake of the New York City truck attack, inexplicably conflating the attacker's allegiance to I.S.I.S. with the beliefs of regular Muslim folks working as Uber and Lyft drivers. She faced a hefty backlash for her Islamophobic social media posts.

As a result, she was banned from using Uber and Lyft. Once again, she used her ban as an opportunity to claim that she was being discriminated against as a conservative, all the while making further offensive remarks about Muslims. "Uber will literally hire an Islamic terrorist, but they will ban a conservative journalist for addressing legitimate safety concerns," she wrote on X.

Laura Loomer has asserted that both the Santa Fe High School shooting and the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida were hoaxes. In 2018, conspiracy website Infowars sent Loomer to Parkland to supposedly investigate the tragedy. The website's owner, Alex Jones, had long promoted conspiracies about school shootings, resulting in him being ordered to pay almost $1 billion in damages to the Sandy Hook victims' families in 2022. In court, Jones admitted that the Sandy Hook massacre was real.

Loomer, who claimed that Parkland survivors were crisis actors, confronted Rep. Ted Deutch outside a community meeting on gun violence, accusing him of lying to his constituents about gun control. Notably, Donald Trump Jr. had liked X posts that espoused similar conspiracies about the Parkland shooting. Also that year, she disseminated conspiracies about the Santa Fe massacre. "Seems like these shootings always happen right after these 'active shooter drills' take place. Kind of reminds me of Parkland," she wrote on X. Snopes debunked her conspiracy theory.

Her promotion of such conspiracies may have resulted in Donald Trump losing some supporters. In 2020, J.T. Lewis, a member of Trump's 2020 campaign, seemingly distanced himself from the then president due to his association with Loomer. "Laura Loomer is a Parkland and Sandy Hook hoaxer. She has no place in the Republican Party I know!" wrote Lewis on X (via Newsweek) and whose brother was killed in Sandy Hook.

After making myriad offensive posts on Twitter, now known as X, Laura Loomer was finally banned from the platform in 2018. The catalyst was an inflammatory post about Ilhan Omar, in which Loomer made a number of false assertions and accused the congresswoman of being antisemitic. "Isn't it ironic how the twitter moment used to celebrate 'women, LGBTQ, and minorities' is a picture of Ilhan Omar?" she wrote, per The Daily Beast. "Ilhan is pro Sharia Ilhan is pro-FGM Under Sharia, homosexuals are oppressed & killed. Women are abused & forced to wear the hijab. Ilhan is anti Jewish."

She didn't take the ban in her stride. "This is not going to be the end of Laura Loomer," she told The Daily Beast, her illeism evoking Donald Trump. In protest, she handcuffed herself to Twitter's New York City headquarters while wearing a yellow Star of David, seemingly comparing herself to a holocaust victim. Loomer, who livestreamed her protest, yelled at passers-by, claiming that Twitter was hiding the truth from them and insisting that she was fired for being a Jewish conservative.

However, Twitter execs denied that Loomer's conservative politics had anything to do with the ban. "The account holder was suspended for violating our policies. We apply the Twitter Rules impartially and not based on ideology," a spokesperson said in a statement, per NBC News. Though Loomer's ban was meant to be permanent, her account was reinstated after Elon Musk acquired the site.

Having been banned on the site formerly known as Twitter, Laura Loomer took to Instagram to disseminate her anti-Muslim views. In 2019, she joined right-wingers in reacting to an out-of-context clip of Ilhan Omar discussing the erosion of Muslims' civil liberties in the aftermath of 9/11. "Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country. It should be illegal," wrote Loomer, who also branded Islam as a cancer and claimed that Omar wanted to dispense with the constitution, per The Daily Beast.

In a separate Instagram post (via HuffPost), she urged her followers to "rise up" against Omar to prevent a caliphate, inexplicably claiming that the politician was pushing for another 9/11. Another post claimed that Omar celebrated 9/11, which is untrue (Donald Trump spread similar falsehoods about the politician).

In the wake of these attacks, Omar was subjected to death threats. While an Instagram spokesperson confirmed that Loomer's post was tantamount to hate speech, they said her account would be monitored for further violations, rather than being banned. Instagram's decision was heavily criticized. "In a wildly anti-Muslim rant against @IlhanMN on Instagram, Laura Loomer says 'Islam is a cancer on humanity and Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.' How on earth is she still allowed on @instagram and @facebook?" wrote one X user, per HuffPost. Loomer has since been banned on Instagram.

It's not just supposed liberal organizations that have cut ties with Laura Loomer. In 2019, she found herself banned from the Conservative Political Action Conference after harassing reporters. It was CNN's Oliver Darcy who roused Loomer's anger — apparently because she thought he played a part in her X ban — and she proceeded to heckle him about online censorship. She later used offensive language when discussing Darcy with a group of students.

Speaking to TheWrap, Loomer said that she was incredibly hurt to be banned from CPAC, having assumed that its organizers would support her behavior. "It's egregious that CPAC and Matt Schlapp have decided to bow to the leftist outrage mob and ban one of President Trump's most prominent supporters," she said. "I am extremely offended and appalled that I've been banned by my own people ... I am extremely saddened as somebody who came here to raise awareness of social media biases that I am being censored by CPAC."

In a video uploaded to her YouTube channel, Loomer could be seen pulling an alt-right Karen, attempting to use her MAGA credentials to gain re-entry into the conference. "I'm one of Trump's biggest supporters ... Don Jr. follows me on Instagram, Kimberly Guilfoyle follows me on Instagram, I just had dinner with Katrina Pierson last night," she told a security guard, who proceeded to explain that they already told her why her press credential had been revoked.

During the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Laura Loomer repeatedly downplayed the severity of the virus. She claimed that COVID-19 isn't as dangerous as a case of food poisoning, and declared that she was hoping she'd catch the virus to prove her point. "Have you ever eaten bad fajitas? That will kill you faster than COVID," she wrote on Parler (via Salon). In an interview with 12 News that year, she dismissed reports that COVID is a deadly virus, despite the mortality rate in the U.S. being 1% and Dr. Anthony Fauci warning that it's significantly more lethal than the flu. Additionally, she voiced her opposition to masks and vaccines. "I think that people should have a choice to wear a mask. I'm an advocate for personal liberty," she said.

But the following year, Loomer caught COVID and became incredibly sick, suffering from chills, nausea, and severe pain. "Just pray for me please," she wrote on Telegram (via Salon). "Can't even begin to explain how brutal the body aches and nausea that come with covid are. I am in so much pain. This is honestly the worst part about it."

Despite experiencing first-hand how dangerous COVID is, Loomer continued to spread misinformation about vaccines. Considering that vaccines and masks have both been proven to be highly effective in the fight against the Coronavirus, Loomer will likely remain haunted by her dissemination of misinformation in years to come.

In March 2023, Laura Loomer began feuding with Ron DeSantis, who was then a Republican challenger to Donald Trump. After being barred from DeSantis' book signing, she described the Florida governor as a tyrant.

The feud got uglier that May, after Loomer questioned the validity of his wife, Casey DeSantis', breast cancer diagnosis. "DeSantis supporters say you aren't allowed to criticize Jill DeSantis because she claims she had cancer (I've never seen the medical records), but they have no problem attacking Melania Trump," she wrote on X, referring to Casey by her first name. "Personally, I think Jill's health has been over exaggerated [sic] in a desperate effort to get votes for DeSantis." She claimed that Casey should release her medical records to prove that she has cancer.

Loomer was condemned by fellow Trump supporters for questioning Casey's cancer diagnosis. "@LauraLoomer's disgraceful attacks on Casey DeSantis are inexcusable," pro-Trump commentator John Cardillo wrote on X. "Claiming a young mother faked cancer is about the most reprehensible thing someone can do to score cheap political points." He also called out Trump for failing to condemn Loomer. Meanwhile, Fox News' Joe Concha lambasted Loomer on X, writing, "One of the most disgusting, vile, patently and intentionally dishonest tweets you'll ever read ... This is beyond insulting, even for this person."

Kamala Harris' parents were Donald J. Harris, a Jamaican professor, and Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian scientist. The vice president, who is proud of her Black and South Asian identity, was attacked by Donald Trump due to her heritage. In 2024, Trump expressed confusion over Harris being biracial, declaring at the National Association of Black Journalists convention (via the BBC), "Is she Indian? Or is she black?" Such bizarre sentiments have been taken even further by Laura Loomer, who proceeded to make racist jibes about Harris later that year.

In an X post (via CNN), Loomer declared that "the White House will smell like curry and White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center" if Harris becomes president. Her remarks elicited a furious reaction. Even the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has also been branded an extremist, condemned Loomer as a bigot. In a chat with NBC News, Trump's running mate J.D. Vance, whose wife is of Indian heritage, stated that he didn't like what Loomer wrote. He stopped short of calling her remarks racist, however.

Loomer's offensive tirade caused considerable panic within the MAGA camp. "She has to go. Laura Loomer cannot stay. She just can't," a Trump ally told NBC News. "She is unapologetic ... This woman attacked the vice president of the United States in such a racist manner. It was appalling and she hasn't apologized."

Laura Loomer and Donald Trump's relationship is strange to say the least, with the pair seemingly getting super close over the campaign period. "Best President Ever. I love him so much," Loomer wrote on X in 2023, alongside a video of Trump praising her as an opinionated woman. In September 2024, rumors began circulating that the two were having an affair.

On an episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher" (via X) the titular host claimed that Loomer's influence over Trump may be due to the pair supposedly having an affair. "I think maybe Laura Loomer's in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she's very close to Trump", Maher said. "She's 31, looks like his type." Maher went on to fuel speculation as to why Donald and Melania Trump stay together, vulgarly asserting that the former president doesn't get sex from his wife. "He's been a dog for too long," he continued. "And it's not Melania [he's having sex with]. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer."

Furious over the claims, Loomer took to X to threaten Maher with legal action, calling his claims outright lies. Soon after, she elaborated on her denial in an episode of "Loomer Unleashed" (via X). "Such a salacious lie, so malicious, so disrespectful to Donald Trump and Melania," she said. She then proceeded to make lewd contentions about Kamala Harris supposedly sleeping her way to the top, a claim previously peddled and debunked.

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