Amid speculation that people close to Donald Trump have grown weary of right-wing activist Laura Loomer, NBC News reported that she was welcomed back to the White House complex this week for her latest high-level meeting.
Vice President JD Vance met [Tuesday] with the far-right activist Laura Loomer in a one-on-one meeting inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, two sources familiar with the meeting confirmed to NBC News. … The meeting was first reported by CNN.
Shortly after the report was published, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged during a briefing that the vice president and Loomer did have a private discussion, though she didn’t elaborate on the details of the meeting.
And while it’s certainly of interest to know what the two talked about, that Loomer was even offered the opportunity for high-level access is extraordinary.
Loomer might not be a household name, but in political circles, she has earned an unfortunate reputation. Loomer is a right-wing activist, a failed Republican congressional candidate who has described herself as “pro-white nationalism” and a radical conspiracy theorist who has claimed that deadly school shootings were staged and the Sept. 11 attacks were “an inside job.”
She was also a close confidant to Trump during the 2024 campaign — whose access and influence appears to have grown.
Last month, for example, Loomer reportedly had a hand in derailing Dr. Janette Nesheiwat’s surgeon general nomination. Around the same time, Mike Waltz was ousted from his national security adviser position after getting on Loomer’s bad side. Two weeks earlier, Loomer was also reportedly involved in the firing of a U.S. attorney in California.
But perhaps the most important example came to the fore in early April.
It was striking enough to see the president oust several members of the National Security Council and the two top leaders at the National Security Agency, but the story became even more dramatic when the public learned that the firings came on the heels of a meeting with Loomer, who promptly took credit for the developments. The New York Times published a striking behind-the-scenes look at what transpired at the White House.
Sitting directly across from the president in the Oval Office, Ms. Loomer, the far-right agitator and conspiracy theorist, held a stack of papers that detailed a litany of accusations about ‘disloyal’ members of the National Security Council. The national security adviser, Michael Waltz, had arrived late and could only watch as Ms. Loomer ripped into his staff. Fire them, Mr. Trump instructed Mr. Waltz, according to people with knowledge of the meeting on Wednesday. The president was furious and demanded to know why these people had been hired in the first place.
The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that the situation “perfectly encapsulates Mr. Trump’s longtime penchant for soliciting information from dubious sources. The difference now, in Mr. Trump’s second term, is that he has fewer people around him who try to keep those voices away.”
In a normal and healthy White House, such a cartoonish scenario wouldn’t even be possible. The idea that a sitting president would not only meet with someone like Loomer but would take her recommendations about national security personnel — as the actual White House national security adviser watches helplessly — sounds like the script of an unrealistic television show. But if the Times’ account is accurate, that is what happened two months ago, before Loomer was rewarded again with one-on-one access to the vice president. The Times’ report from April added that during the president’s first term, officials “spent a large portion of their days blocking off people they described as ‘the crazies.’” Those aides have been replaced by others who approach their gatekeeping role very differently. And therein lies the point: It is hardly a secret that both parties have fringes, but only one party offers the fringe this kind of access and influence. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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