A conspiracy theorist close to Donald Trump has sparked further controversy after waging war against Indian migrants in the US.
Laura Loomer, 31, a right-wing theorist and social media influencer, flew with the Republican president-elect in his private jet to a presidential debate in September.
She sparked concern among allies that she influenced him to make extreme remarks about immigrants eating pets – a baseless claim about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
And now she is threatening to tell MAGA supporters to ‘stay home’ during the next midterm elections in protest over Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign-born workers.
It comes amid an ongoing feud with ‘tech bros’ Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, both immigrants and major Trump supporters.
Loomer is also raging over Trump’s appointment of Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as a senior policy adviser for AI.
She described workers from India as ‘third-world invaders’, called Krishnan’s appointment ‘deeply disturbing’, and said ‘the average IQ in India is 76’ in response to Musk and Ramaswamy’s defence of the tech industry importing ‘super talented engineers’ from overseas.
In response, Musk said Loomer was ‘trolling for attention’ and called for Trump supporters to ignore her.
According to Loomer, Krishnan and other tech entrepreneurs want foreign students to ‘come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students’.
Loomer previously sparked backlash for making racist comments about Kamala Harris’s Indian heritage, suggesting the White House ‘will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center’.
Even fellow conspiracy theory spreader, Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with that comment, calling it ‘appalling and extremely racist’.
‘It does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA,’ wrote Greene on X. ‘This does not represent President Trump.’
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The rumor had been circulating right-wing channels on the Internet, but many have suspected that Loomer, who had been posting about it, directly inspired Trump to utter it during the critical debate.
Loomer on the day before the debate had put out the eating pets claim on X (formerly Twitter), where she has 1.2million followers.
‘Disturbing reports came out this weekend about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets in Ohio where Democrats like @SenSherrodBrown and the Biden-Harris regime imported over 20,000 cannibalistic Haitians who are now killing people’s pets and hunting domestic animals on the streets of Ohio,’ she posted on Monday.
‘Vote for @berniemoreno. Bernie will help secure our border and he won’t allow Haitian invaders to eat your dogs and cats for dinner.’
‘They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,’ Trump said in his showdown with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. ‘They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.’
Trump reinforced his belief in the claim even when a moderator told him it had been debunked, saying he saw it ‘on television’.
A source close to the Trump campaign expressed ‘100%’ concern around Loomer’s closeness to the former president.
‘Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,’ the source told the news outlet Semafor.
But another source told the outlet that Loomer did not participate in his debate preparations and that she was a ‘positive person to be around’.
Loomer, born in Arizona in 1993, describes herself as an ‘Investigative Journalist’ and ‘Feisty Jewess’ on her X profile.
She has worked as a commentator for the far-right activist group Project Veritas, and for Alex Jones’ far-right conspiracy theory and fake news site, Infowars.
Loomer ran unsuccessfully as a congressional candidate in the Sunshine State twice – for House districts in Palm Beach County in 2020 with Trump’s backing, and in Central Florida in 2022.
Besides flying with Trump the debate that many said he lost, Loomer accompanied him to an event the next day commemorating the 9/11 attacks. Loomer has also attended numerous events at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Loomer last year posted that 9/11 was an ‘inside job’.
In September, she said on X: ’23 years later, and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions.’
On Wednesday, she pushed a conspiracy theory that Harris during the debate wore audio earrings, which have been found to actually be from Tiffany & Co.’s HardWare collection.
She has also given voice to conspiracy theories about pop star Taylor Swift and her romantic relationship with football player Travis Kelce, calling it ‘arranged’ and saying the relationship is meant to help Democrats win the upcoming election.
Loomer has also questioned the reality behind mass shootings, wondering whether they’ve been staged to help Democrats win votes.
Those conspiracy theories are in the same vein as Infowars host Alex Jones’s false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which killed 20 children and six teachers, was a hoax. Jones was bankrupted over the lies, which cost him $1.5billion after the relatives of the shooting victims won defamation lawsuits against him.
Loomer 0reviously said she is not employed with the Trump campaign and was ‘invited as a guest’. She did not respond to questions about her past statements about 9/11.
She has also said on X that she works ‘independently’ to boost Trump, who is ‘truly our nation’s last hope’.
‘To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no,’ Loomer wrote.
‘I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories.’
Trump addressed Loomer on Friday amid rising backlash against her from his base.
‘I don’t know. Laura is a supporter. She’s a strong person,’ he said during a press conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. ‘I don’t control Laura. I can’t tell Laura what to do.’
He also said on Truth Social that Loomer ‘doesn’t work for the Campaign. She’s a private citizen and longtime supporter.
‘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.’
This article was first published on September 14, 2024
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