How far-right activist Laura Loomer is shaping the Trump administration

Amna Nawaz:

A right-wing political activist who's spread conspiracy theories and used hate speech has become a central figure in the hirings and firings of Trump administration staffers.

Laura Loomer has successfully lobbied to remove aides from several key government roles, including the National Security Council. Despite her close alliance with the president, she's drawn some foes within the Republican Party, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Stephanie Sy has more on her mission to shape the Trump administration in her vision.

Laura Loomer, Conservative Activist:

The state of Minnesota is a Somali (bleep) hole. I don't have any sympathy for self-hating liberal Jews. We need to be focused on America first, not Black people first.

Stephanie Sy:

"She regularly utters disgusting garbage." That's how Republican Senator Thom Tillis once described the self-styled journalist Laura Loomer.

Laura Loomer:

All of the, like, meritless DEI Shaniquas talk the same way. It's very obnoxious.

Stephanie Sy:

But despite her detractors, the online influencer seems to wield real influence, and she knows it.

Laura Loomer:

I got multiple people fired this week.

Stephanie Sy:

Observers say it's not a coincidence that more than a dozen high-ranking officials in the Trump administration have either lost their jobs or had their nominations revoked after Loomer questioned their loyalty to the president.

Laura Loomer:

You think he's all these terrible things that all of his detractors call him. Why do you want to work for him? Aren't I doing you a favor?

Donald Trump, President of the United States: She doesn't like things going on that she thinks are bad for the country. I like her.

Stephanie Sy:

The woman Trump calls a patriot got her start in media with Project Veritas, known for using deceptive tactics, including undercover videotaping, often to make false or exaggerated claims about its targets.

Derek Bley, University Employee:

How can I help you, Laura?

Laura Loomer:

I just have some questions about…

David Gibert, Wired:

To get to where she is today is — it's truly mind-boggling.

Stephanie Sy:

David Gilbert has covered Loomer's rise for Wired.

David Gilbert:

I don't think anyone would ever have guessed 10 years ago, starting out with kind of gotcha clips for Project Veritas, that she would end up being where she is today.

Laura Loomer:

This is unacceptable. You cannot…

Man:

Get off the stage.

Stephanie Sy:

In 2017, she stormed the stage of a controversial Shakespeare performance in New York.

Woman:

Security, please.

Stephanie Sy:

In the production, Julius Caesar, who's assassinated, bore President Trump's likeness.

David Gilbert:

That got her arrested, but it also more partly got her on the radar of figures like Donald Trump and the wider MAGA movement.

Stephanie Sy:

Her ambush interviews put Trump's political opponents on the spot.

Laura Loomer:

What happened to your 33,000 e-mails?

You're going to get prosecuted, Comey.

Rashida, are you willing to admit, as a congresswoman, that Hamas is a terrorist organization?

Stephanie Sy:

In 2018, after unleashing a tirade of Islamophobic tweets about then-congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar, she was banned from the platform for hateful conduct. Loomer handcuffed herself to Twitter's headquarters in protest.

She was also banned from Lyft, Uber, Instagram, and several online banking platforms.

Laura Loomer:

My life is ruined! Does anybody understand how ruined my life is? I'm sick of it.

David Gilbert:

What she really wanted to do was get the attention of Trump and his base by basically going one step further than anyone else in terms of making extreme claims, making up conspiracies, and posting openly racist and Islamophobic content online simply in order to get clicks, likes and followers on social media.

Narrator:

A fighter is running for Congress, and her name is Laura Loomer.

Stephanie Sy:

Two runs for Congress followed, with a million in financial support from the likes of Alex Jones, Roger Stone, and Matt Gaetz, fellow bombastic personalities and conspiracies on the radical right. She refused to accept her 2022 primary loss.

Laura Loomer:

I'm not conceding, because I'm a winner.

Stephanie Sy:

Election denialism inspired by Donald Trump, who Loomer redoubled her support for in the wake of her electoral losses.

During the 2024 campaign, Loomer posted: "If Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry."

But now on Elon Musk's rebranded X platform, the post was left live, although again tagged for potential hateful content.

Donald Trump:

A fantastic woman, a true patriot, Laura Loomer.

Stephanie Sy:

Trump mentioned her in fond terms on the stump, and she was spotted getting on his campaign plane last fall. But he's never given her a job. Still, she fights for him.

Laura Loomer:

I'm starting to have some serious doubts about who is in control in the Oval Office, because I have just seen so many instances of Donald Trump giving orders and then his orders not being respected by his own staff.

Stephanie Sy:

After an Oval Office meeting with Loomer in April, the president fired six National Security Council officials.

Donald Trump:

She makes recommendations on things and people. And sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody. I listen to everybody. And then I make a decision.

Stephanie Sy:

Even when the president doesn't give it, Loomer has taken credit for the firings or resignations of more than a dozen people, including his nominee for surgeon general, the top lawyer at the National Security Agency, and the vaccine chief at the FDA, who was rehired last weekend.

Laura Loomer:

I'm not working for President Trump. I'm not getting paid by President Trump. I'm not in the Trump White House. I wasn't even on the Trump campaign. And yet I feel like every single day it's a full-time job just to make sure the president is protected and that he's receiving the information that he needs to receive.

Stephanie Sy:

A full-time job no one hired her or elected her to do.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.