According to four individuals who are acquainted with the arrangements, former President Donald J. Trump recently instructed staffers to employ far-right and anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer for a campaign position. Loomer has a history of expressing prejudiced beliefs, and she has a history of expressing those views.
Two persons who are acquainted with the development have said that Mr. Trump recently met with Ms. Loomer and urged his staff to give her a position in support of his candidature. After Mr. Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday in Manhattan, Ms. Loomer travelled to Mar-a-Lago, the resort and house of the former president, which is located in Palm Beach, Florida. There, she listened to the former president give a speech.
That turned out to be accurate: a story in The New York Times about the planned employment sparked a controversy among some of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken conservative fans, and by the time Friday night rolled around, a high-ranking campaign official said that Ms. Loomer was no longer going to be employed.
Ms. Loomer responded when she was contacted by phone on Friday morning, saying, “Out of respect for President Trump, I’m not going to comment on private conversations that I had with the president.”
She said, “The president is aware that I have always been a Trump loyalist, and that I am committed to assisting him in winning re-election in 2024.” He has a lot of respect for me. And it’s a shame that he’s surrounded by some individuals who rush to a newspaper that is infamous for criticising him in order to attempt to cut me at the knees rather than being loyal to President Trump and keeping their confidentiality agreements. “And it’s a pity that he’s surrounded by some people who flee to a publication that is notorious for attacking him.
Ms. Loomer is notorious for engaging in inappropriate attention-seeking behaviour and has made two failed bids for a seat in Congress.
She has in the past referred to Islam as a “cancer” and tweeted using the hashtag “#proudislamophobe.” Additionally, she has expressed joy at the deaths of migrants who were attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
Because she violated Twitter’s rules on hateful behaviour in 2018, she was suspended from the platform. Ms. Loomer, who is Jewish, decided to protest the ban by handcuffing herself to the door of Twitter’s headquarters in New York City and by wearing a yellow Star of David that she claimed was similar to the ones that “Nazis made the Jews wear during the Holocaust.” She also added that she wore the yellow Star of David on her garments because it was similar to the ones that “Nazis made the Jews wear”
Ms. Loomer has provided The New York Times with a screenshot of the tweet that resulted in the suspension she received for her nasty behaviour. In the tweet, she refers to Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, as being “anti Jewish” and “pro Sharia.”
Because of the racist statements that she made towards Muslim drivers, she was also banned from using the ride-hailing applications Lyft and Uber. Ms. Loomer stated that she made these statements on Twitter in response to a Muslim driver “throwing me out of an Uber for being a Jew on Rosh Hashana.” When asked about these comments, Ms. Loomer said that she was reacting to a Muslim driver “throwing me out of an Uber for being a Jew on Rosh Hashana.”
During his campaign for president in 2016, Mr. Trump placed a heavy emphasis on anti-Muslim prejudice, and as president, he restricted travel from a number of countries that are mostly Muslim. In the past, he has shown his support for Ms. Loomer by contributing to her congressional campaign in Florida in the year 2020. At the time, she was seeking election to represent a district in Palm Beach County that contained Mar-a-Lago.
She was unsuccessful in her bid to win that election in the autumn, despite having the backing of her good friend Roger J. Stone Jr., who is Mr. Trump’s most senior advisor. She won 44 percent of the vote in the primary election for the midterm elections in 2022, and she came quite near to unseating the incumbent Republican in another Florida district, Representative Daniel Webster, who was a Republican.
Ms. Loomer made this announcement on Friday: “I ran for Congress as the first deplatformed candidate in the history of the United States.” “I’m a Jewish conservative woman, a Trump loyalist, and a free speech absolutist,” she said, alluding to the conservative organisation that carries out sting operations on news outlets and leftist organisations. “I also used to work for Project Veritas, too,” she said, referring to the organisation that advocates absolute free speech. “It’s not like I’m some kind of outlier or something,” the speaker said. I not only won the primary election for the Republican Party in 2020, but President Trump really voted for me.
Ms. Loomer has, over the last few months, gained the attention of individuals who are part of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, as well as Mr. Trump himself, by uploading videos on social media that directly criticise his likely competitor for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Ms. Loomer has accused Mr. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, of seeking “to play the ‘cancer survivor’ card to make people think they are untouchable from criticism.” Casey DeSantis was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013.
Ms. Loomer wrote the following on her Twitter account in February: “Ron and Casey DeSantis are social climbers who will NEVER be Donald and Melania Trump.” She continued by saying that “Ron DeSantis will never have what it takes to be ICONIC like Trump.”
Ms. Loomer arranged for a gathering of Trump fans to congregate outside of an event in Leesburg, Florida, at which Mr. DeSantis was signing copies of his newest book.
