Donald Trump’s relationship with conspiracy theorist and far-right commentator Laura Loomer has been examined by everyone from Bill Maher to Fox News this week after she flew to the debate Tuesday with Trump. On Friday, Maher flipped Loomer’s claim that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are in an “arranged relationship” to help the 2024 election and told his audience, “I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to affect the election, because she’s very close to Trump. She’s 31, looks like his type.”
“We did an editorial here a few years ago. It was basically, ‘Who is Trump f–king,’” Maher continued. “Because I said, you know, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long. And it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer — I am just saying.”
Loomer fired back, writing on X, “I should sue Bill Maher @billmaher for Defamation. This is beyond the pale and it’s a complete and blatant lie. I have never in my life seen such a coordinated attack by the mainstream Media, the White House and leftist personalities to target a private citizen and investigative journalist simply because I flew on a plane and I support Donald Trump.”
“This is unacceptable. And it’s a full blown LIE and incredibly disrespectful to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump,” Loomer said, while not specifically stating the parts of Maher’s statements that she was taking issue with. “It’s very obvious some type of memo went out because the reaction to what I said is completely overblown and it’s a full-blown character assassination campaign. This is a full-blown lie from @billmaher, and he is maliciously and deliberately defaming me.”
On Saturday, the X account for the Kamala Harris campaign shared a clip from Fox News in which Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if Loomer would continue to travel with the GOP candidate.
“I… will leave it to President Trump,” Leavitt answered.
The question concluded a series of inquiries into the nature of the relationship between Trump and Loomer. Leavitt also described Loomer as a “supporter of the president” and noted that Trump “doesn’t agree with everything she’s said.”
After the host noted that Loomer “once called 9/11 ‘an inside job’” and made a racist joke that the “White House will smell like curry” if Harris, who is half-Indian, wins, Leavitt added, “President Trump denounced those statements yesterday when he said he does not agree with all of the comments that this individual has made.”
“And I think it’s pitiful that the media is constantly asking questions like this of President Trump, but not asking Kamala Harris if she agrees with all the statements made by her supporters, like maybe Vladimir Putin, who recently endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Does she agree with him?” she continued — though some outlets have noted that it is believed Putin was likely joking about his alleged endorsement of Harris.
The relationship between Loomer and Trump has now jumped from the fringes of social media — where some have speculated about their relationship potentially being intimate, or even about whether she might be pregnant — to more mainstream outlets. Loomer has appeared to take a page from Trump’s playbook and spent most of Saturday posting in defense of her stances on social media and decrying those questioning her “friendship” with Trump, as well as denying being a 9/11 truther despite comments about the terrorist attack being “an inside job.”
In a lengthy message posted to the platform, she compared the media’s comments about her to Trump’s shooting in Pennsylvania and wrote, “Sometimes you have to take one for the team. I’m doing that right now. I’m taking the hits and the blows but they will never knock me down. Donald Trump took a bullet for every American. I can handle the attacks and blows and still get up to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!”
In another message, Loomer wrote, “It’s disheartening that I am being called a 9/11 truther when I have spent many years of my life calling out Islamic terrorists.” She went on to make exaggerated or false claims about Harris and Biden, including claiming, “If anyone spits in the faces of 9/11 victims, it’s Kamala Harris.”
On Thursday, CNN reported that Loomer has been accused of advising the Trump campaign to question Harris’ racial and ethnic identity.
Loomer’s long history of conspiracies has seen her previously banned on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She has also launched two failed bids for Congress in Florida and campaigned on her relationship with Trump throughout each. In 2023, Trump urged his campaign to hire Loomer — a request that was shot down.
“Laura Loomer doesn’t work for the Campaign. She’s a private citizen and longtime supporter,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. Seemingly referring to particularly racially charged comments Loomer made about Harris, Trump continued, “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, even to the point of doing anything to stop their Political Opponent, ME! I am now in California, which Democrats like Comrade Kamala Harris and Governor Gavin Newscum have completely DESTROYED. I will turn it all around and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Earlier in the same day, Trump told a group of reporters, “Laura’s a supporter. I don’t control Laura, Laura has to say what she wants, she’s a free spirit.”
Loomer’s previoius comments are even too much for far-right conservative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted in response to Loomer’s comments about Harris, “This is appalling and extremely racist. 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.”
Former RNC Chair Michael Steele also described the relationship between Trump and Loomer as “too close.”
“Donald Trump has these people around him, not because he’s seeking advice from them, not because they’re offering any particular intellectual insight, but because they affirm his worst instincts,” Steele said Friday. “They affirm his bad judgment. They tell him what they want. You showed that picture of Loomer sitting, standing up under Donald Trump. First question crossed my mind was, where the hell is Melania?! That’s a little too close for a pic. But it’s that kind of closeness that Donald Trump likes.”
