On Sunday night, Donald Trump spoke briefly with reporters, one of whom asked the president about right-wing activist Laura Loomer and her influence in the White House. He didn’t hesitate to respond.
“I know she’s known as a ‘radical right,’ but I think Laura Loomer is a very nice person,” Trump replied. “I think she’s a patriot, and she gets excited because of the fact she’s a patriot, and she doesn’t like things going on that she thinks are bad for the country. I like her.” His comments came roughly a month after the Republican also boasted to reporters that the conspiracy theorist is “a very good patriot” who makes “recommendations” he takes seriously.
His affection for her is obvious. In fact, it’s been difficult to keep up with the number of officials — across multiple agencies and federal departments — who’ve either resigned or been fired as a result of Loomer whispering in the president’s ear. (A tally in The Daily Beast put the total number of officials at 16, which sounds about right.)
But her access does not appear to be limited to the West Wing. CNN reported:
Loomer said she recently spoke with [Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth], whom she’s known for a decade, about her work finding disloyal employees within the Pentagon. Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the two spoke, telling CNN in a statement that Hegseth ‘appreciates Laura Loomer’s outside advocacy.’
Note, Loomer’s claims about partnering with the beleaguered Pentagon chief to root out disloyal insiders haven’t been independently verified, but with Hegseth’s own spokesperson effectively confirming the claims on the record, there’s every reason to believe that the activist’s boasts are true.
“Personnel is policy, and Laura has taken that motto to heart. At the Department of Defense, we will never stop working to deliver on the president’s America First agenda,” Hegseth’s spokesperson added in a statement to CNN.
For those who might need a refresher, Loomer is a right-wing activist, a radical conspiracy theorist and a failed Republican congressional candidate who has described herself as “pro-white nationalism.” She was also a close confidant to Trump during the 2024 campaign — even joining the Republican for a Sept. 11 remembrance, despite the fact she’s pushed false conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks having been “an inside job.”
As a New York Times report summarized in April, Loomer is “viewed as extreme by even some of Mr. Trump’s far-right allies.”
Why was there so much focus on Trump’s partnership with Loomer during the campaign? Because of fears she’d have outsized influence in the White House, despite — or more to the point, because of — her radical and fringe views.
Those concerns were, we now know, entirely correct.
Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz put it this way in an item published to Bluesky: “If you had said in October that if Trump were elected he’d end up purging the NSC at the behest of Laura Loomer and ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire the director of the NSA, you’d have been accused of having a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
And yet, here we are, not only watching Loomer steer Trump, oust officials, get one-on-one meetings with Vice President JD Vance, but also lend Hegseth a hand at the Pentagon.
If there’s a compelling defense for giving an unelected, right-wing influencer this much power, I can’t think of it.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
