Laura Loomer, a notorious white nationalist social media personality, has joined Donald Trump’s campaign entourage, much to the chagrin of many of his other supporters. “Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly spouts disgusting garbage,” says Senator Thom Tillis. “Ms. Loomer’s past statements are beyond disturbing,” complains Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “I hope this issue is resolved.”
Who could have predicted that Donald Trump, of all people, would be associated with a bigoted conspiracy theorist? It’s an insult to the former president’s good name! Donald Trump’s once excellent reputation is now associated with completely unfounded claims and strange tirades about minority groups. A shocking fall from grace.
Yes, Loomer’s criminal record, which includes describing himself as “pro-white nationalist,” is comparatively more scandalous than Trump’s, and we should not underestimate the importance of every single move by the party to legitimize explicit racism. But Republicans’ fear of Loomer’s influence is not an attempt to set limits. On the contrary, it is an expression of Republicans’ inability to confront the mental disorder and racism expressed by the party leader.
The furore surrounding Loomer’s influence is difficult to understand ideologically and morally. News reports that attempt to explain what makes Loomer’s views unacceptable often fall short. “Loomer has promoted a number of conspiracy theories in the past,” NBC reports. “She has also called for the execution of Democrats for treason,” Huffpost sneers. Trump, of course, has also supported conspiracy theories in the past and called for the execution of various opponents.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Loomer’s most prominent opponents, complained about one of her recent social media posts: “This is appalling and extremely racist. It does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA. It does not represent President Trump.” Taylor Greene is herself a fan of paranoid, bigoted social media posts, and this complaint should not be taken to mean that Loomer has gone too far, but rather that Loomer has interfered in MTG’s machinations.
Loomer has made enemies by fighting her way into Trump’s inner circle. Trump is the center of Loomer’s personal and professional life. She doesn’t date, she told the Washington Post. post in a revealing profile in May and reshaped her body to be acceptable as Trump’s future press secretary, her apparent dream job. “I try to eat really healthy,” she told the Post. “I want to work for Trump. He doesn’t really like it… I’m not saying you have to be thin to work for President Trump. I’m just saying if I wanted to work for the president and have a job in communications, I would have to look presentable.” Steve Bannon compared her to “a monk in medieval France” and said with obvious admiration, “I don’t know anyone who has devoted their body and soul to not only Trump but to MAGA like she has.” (Bannon himself has devoted only his soul).
Loomer’s rise is due not only to her cult-like devotion to the great man himself—which is just a given in Trump’s world—but also to her willingness to call out other sycophants for their perceived disloyalty. Her trademark, which she calls “loomering,” involves confronting Republicans at close range with a camera and attacking them for a real or imagined betrayal of Trumpism. This tactic has the advantage of simultaneously drawing public attention to Loomer and helping her climb the corporate ladder at Mar-a-Lago.
A typical Loomer scandal of late was a dispute with Republican spokeswoman and former Miss Ohio Madison Gesiotto Gilbert. The latter attacked Loomer as a “racist” and a “crook,” to which Loomer responded by calling her opponent “a silly girl who calls herself a ‘beauty queen,’ and you didn’t defend Donald Trump once tonight when he was attacked while you were dressed up on a network in a segment that was supposed to attack Donald Trump.” (Who says Trump’s campaign isn’t a healthy work environment for women?)
Marc Caputo reports that Loomer “has long been viewed as a Rasputin-like figure by one faction in Trump country.” It’s a telling comparison. Rasputin undoubtedly had a deeply unhealthy influence on the tsars. But the problem with the Russian government was not Rasputin, but the tsars themselves. The consternation surrounding Rasputin’s influence on the tsarist family in St. Petersburg served as a distraction from the fundamental decay of the Romanov dynasty and the dysfunctional state it had spawned.
Trump himself is both a racist and a conspiracy theorist. These facts are too damning for his Republican allies to admit, but too obvious to deny. And so they channel their dismay into those around Trump. Like indulgent parents of a delinquent teenager, they direct their anger at the other children who may be a bad influence on their beloved child, ignoring the obvious possibility that their child is the bad influence themselves.
