Donald Trump’s catastrophic performance in Tuesday night’s presidential debate has Republican leaders sounding the alarm over the state of the former president’s campaign. Now Trump’s most high-profile allies and some opponents are placing blame on an unexpected source: MAGA clown and social media troll Laura Loomer.
The far-right conservative activist has been an increasingly visible presence on the campaign trail over the past month. Recent photos captured Loomer standing next to Trump on multiple occasions, a level of access that puts her even closer to Trump’s ear than new campaign chairman Corey Lewandowski. Loomer also played a key role in prepping Trump for his disastrous debate—including the viral moment when Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants are eating Ohioans’ pets.
Trump holds Loomer so close that he invited her to join him at this week’s Sept. 11 commemoration in New York City—despite the fact that Loomer is a strident 9/11 “truther” who falsely claims the attack was an inside job. Far from driving him to the political center, one month’s worth of terrible swing state polls has now pushed Trump to the outer fringes of his MAGA movement. That’s proving too much even for the GOP nominee’s friends.
That includes Loomer’s equally problematic former friend, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who proudly endorsed Loomer’s doomed congressional bid in 2022. In a post to X on Thursday, Greene called Loomer “extremely racist” in response to a stereotype-filled post Loomer made about Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This is appalling and extremely racist,” Greene wrote about Loomer’s vile rant that the White House would “smell like curry” if Harris is elected president, among other racist tropes about people of Indian descent. “It does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA. This does not represent President Trump. This type of behavior should not be tolerated ever.”
In another post to X, Greene acknowledged their longtime friendship and her endorsement of Loomer’s congressional bid. But in a sign of just how quickly that friendship has collapsed, Greene also remarked that “outside of a bubble on this platform, most regular people don’t know who [Loomer] is,” while reiterating her claim that Loomer was “flat out racist.”
Greene’s sudden concern about racism in the Republican Party will come as a surprise to anyone who remembers her racist tirade against Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York in 2023, when Greene trotted out tired stereotypes about “aggressive” Black men. That’s because Greene’s newfound racial tolerance has nothing to do with actually caring about the corrosive damage of racism. Instead, she’s locked in a power struggle with Loomer over who gets to be Trump’s closest adviser—and right now, Greene is losing.
Loomer also seems well aware of what’s at stake. In a lengthy post replying to Greene, Loomer bashed the congresswoman as “extremely jealous and vindictive over the fact that she wasn’t successful in turning Donald Trump against me.”
Not to be outdone, Loomer also threw Greene’s accusations of racism right back at her.
“Speaking of racism,” Loomer wrote, “one of your former staffers told me you have a favorite word that starts with N.” She also called on Democrats and Republicans to unite in defeating Greene in November, deepening the GOP’s public divisions at a time when party leaders are trying to project unity.
Loomer’s rise to prominence in Trumpworld comes as Republicans are desperately trying to pivot away from Trump’s rough debate performance—and his bizarre obsession with the kinds of very-online conspiracy theories peddled by Loomer and other far-right influencers.
As Vox’s Eric Levitz argues, Trump lost Tuesday’s debate in large part because his talking points were incomprehensible to viewers who don’t spend their lives posting memes on Truth Social. Now Loomer is encouraging Trump to cater even more exclusively to his most die-hard online fans, while Republican leaders want the former president to focus on persuadable swing state independents.
Stalwart Trump ally and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham joined the chorus of concern Thursday, telling Huffington Post reporters that Loomer is “toxic” and he Trump should distance himself from her.
“I think that the president would serve himself well to make sure this doesn’t become a bigger story,” Graham warned.
Unsurprisingly, Trump would rather do what feels good, even if it costs him the election. And Loomer fueled the flames further with a combative and homophobic response to Graham’s comments.
On Thursday, Greene told CNN’s Manu Raju and other reporters on the Capitol steps that she was concerned about not just what Loomer was saying, but what voters are hearing from Trump running mate Sen. JD Vance.
I think that’s so important, and I think that that we need to be focused on our policies, the inflation, the economy and the border, and not attacking people for their race, not attacking them because they may not have children and they love their pets, and I don’t want to have anything to do with that, and neither do the people.”
Trump’s erratic behavior has led a growing number of Republicans to abandon the party entirely. On Thursday, former Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced he would support Harris because Trump’s out-there conspiracies and grievances pose a “threat to the rule of law.” That follows major defections from former Vice President Dick Cheney and over 200 aides to senior Republicans including Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, and John McCain.
With Trump now surrounded by MAGA extremists like Loomer, Lewandowski, and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican leaders are acknowledging that their candidate is completely out of control. Instead of pushing a coherent message that boosts struggling Republican candidates in downballot races, Trump is once again arguing that he actually won the 2020 election and including himself in the list of insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
If Trump wants to win in November, he’s listening to all of the wrong people. That’s music to the ears of Democrats, who now see their odds of retaking the House increasing with each rambling rant Trump delivers. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made sure to point out Trump’s very questionable judgment during a Thursday press conference.
“The fact that on September 11th, this sacred day, he would bring a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to participate in events during this solemn commemoration should shock the conscience of all decent Americans,” Jeffries said. “And I believe that it does just that.”
The GOP may want to distance itself from its Laura Loomers and Matt Gaetzes, but those conspiracy-addled voices now make up the majority of the Republican Party. Silencing them has always been an exercise in futility. The National Republican Senate Committee isn’t even trying. As The Bulwark reported Friday, the NRSC has amplified eight of Loomer’s videos since July.
Those extreme voices have once again captured Trump’s attention, and the GOP establishment is now facing its own extinction-level event. The smarter Republicans have already fled the party to join Harris’ growing bipartisan coalition. Time is running out for the few that remain.
