Kathy Willens/AP
On Friday, the New York Times reported that former president Donald Trump would be interested in hiring Laura Loomer, despite the concern of potential backlash.
Staffers anticipated pushback because Loomer is a bigot.
There is no other way to describe her. Loomer is not a political operative who is also known to be racist. She is not a right-wing influencer who has also said horrific things about Muslims. As I wrote when she ran for Congress (and lost), racism is her whole thing:
Loomer hasn’t served in office before. Instead, she is famous for being a conservative activist, and being cartoonishly bigoted. She has a years-long history of raw, unfiltered Islamophobia that possibly reached its zenith when she said, after 50 people were killed in a New Zealand mosque, that: “Nobody cares about [the] Christchurch [shooting]. I especially don’t. I care about my social media accounts and the fact that Americans are being silenced.” (Loomer was bemoaning those kicked off websites like Twitter for being racist.)
As I reported, she has a close association with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. She once toasted with Fuentes to “the hostile takeover of the Republican Party.” Right Wing Watch documented her saying things like “I’m a really big supporter of the Christian nationalist movement,” and “I’m going to fight for Christians, I’m going to fight for white people, I’m going to fight for nationalist movements.” (The Times report has plenty more of this.)
Trump wanted to distance himself from Fuentes after their dinner. There is no ambiguity if he hires Loomer. Anyone who employees her knows full well what they are doing.
