How Laura Loomer became one of the most feared people in Washington 😱

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A few years ago, Laura Loomer was a political gadfly. Her open Islamophobia and embrace of conspiracy theories (she called 9/11 an “inside job”) had won her something of a following among the very online right but beyond that world she was someone of little impact or influence.

Today? Loomer is the de facto personnel director at the White House. She has “Loomered” (her terminology for getting someone fired or never hired by the Trump White House) a number of prominent officials in recent months including the head of vaccines at the Food and Drug Administration and several top officials at the National Security Agency.

To be clear, the White House doesn’t acknowledge that Loomer’s opposition research into the supposed lack of loyalty to Trump demonstrated by these people was the reason behind their ousters.

But, what’s clear is that Loomer has the ear of President Trump. And that when she targets someone for supposed disloyalty, more often than not that person’s time in the Trump administration is over.

Here’s the New York Times on Loomer:

For her part, Ms. Loomer — who was denied jobs in both Mr. Trump’s campaign and in his administration — has said that she is determined to prove that she is a better judge of personnel than the president’s own staff.

“I was raised to dress for the job you want, and even if you don’t have the job, pretend that you do,” Ms. Loomer said in an interview this summer. “I want to do vetting, so I’m going to do the job I want.”

Ms. Loomer now appears to have other officials on her radar. Late last week, she was seen walking through the West Wing, cradling a large stack of documents that she had brought into the White House.

Loomer, undoubtedly, has her enemies in the White House. As the Times noted, she has been blocked from serving in an official capacity in the administration — not once but twice.

And, a previous Times story on Loomer shares this delicious anecdote:

On June 11, Mr. Trump attended the opening night of “Les Miserables” at the Kennedy Center. So did Ms. Loomer, who ascended the stairway to the V.I.P. section, where the president awaited the curtain. But she was stopped at the top by a White House aide. Ms. Loomer insisted that she had permission to visit Mr. Trump’s section. The aide held his ground. A Kennedy Center employee joined the scene. For several minutes, the employee and the aide blockaded Ms. Loomer’s path to Mr. Trump. Finally, furious, she stormed back down the stairs.

I mean, when Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks you are too extreme and racist…

And yet, Loomer has persisted despite those obstacles. She now functions, effectively, as Trump’s loyalty enforcer. That she does so from outside the government — and with such a long record of provocative and controversial statements — is yet another feature of this presidency that we have simply never seen before in the office.

Trump likes people who are loyal to him — no matter what else they say or do. And Loomer has repeatedly made clear that he is her top priority. “President Trump comes first,” she told the Times she has told her boyfriend, “and if you can’t handle that, then go find somebody else.”

For Trump, that’s enough. Which is why he continues to listen to her — and support her vigilante missions to expunge anyone who has ever expressed an anti-Trump sentiment from his administration.

Remarkable.

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