Weeks of handwringing over Signalgate apparently weren’t enough to convince Donald Trump that accidentally texting confidential military attack plans to a journalist is a screw-up worthy of consequences. But one Oval Office meeting with the dogfood-eating, 9/11 truthing, self-proclaimed “proud Islamaphobe” Laura Loomer was reportedly enough to prompt the president to send six National Security Council officials packing for alleged disloyalty.
Loomer came to the 30-minute meeting, which also included Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, with a list of people she believed were working to undermine the Trump administration, according to The New York Times. Loomer has lately been leading an online brigade attempting to out allegedly traitorous Trump officials on X.
In a statement to Dropsite News following the meeting, Loomer said, “It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings.” And while Trump denied that Loomer had anything to do with the firings, he acknowledged that Loomer is often a source of advice. “She makes recommendations of things and people, and sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One.
That the president of the United States is taking cues from someone like Loomer is supposed to be shocking. And it would be, of course, if it hadn’t been for the president’s extensively documented, utterly relentless, decades-long embrace of political paranoia. Birtherism. The Big Lie. The death of Vince Foster. And lest we forget, “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs.” This is a person so steeped in fabulous falsehoods that he insists on calling them “truths.” Who else would?
Unless you’ve been Rip Van Winkled into a blissfully oblivious slumber these last few years (sounds nice, to be honest), nothing about Loomer’s influence on the president should surprise you. It takes a conspiracy theorist to know one, and Loomer happens to know the biggest one of all. She also seems to understand what matters to him most.
The fact is, there are a lot of things this president can abide: What is the casual spilling of government secrets to a man who was himself indicted for allegedly storing classified documents in the bathroom? Sure, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault (which he denies) and admitted to paying a woman off who threatened to disclose his alleged behavior, but who hasn’t? So, former national security advisor Michael Flynn told a little fib to the FBI? At least it was to help Trump. A presidential pardon will clean that right up. Even people who have wronged Trump in the past can slide back into his good graces if they’re willing to kiss the ring. See Mark Zuckerberg: Who Trump once threatened with “life in prison,” but who now enjoys easy access to Mar-a-Lago and the White House.
In Trump’s world, these indiscretions are forgivable, perhaps, even ignorable. But being charged with something less than total fealty is a non-starter. By his own admission, Trump is “not a trusting guy,” as he told Newsweek way back in 1987 to explain why he doesn’t like to rely on friends. That mistrust breeds a voracious appetite for stories of nefarious plots hiding in plain sight. Getting a list of alleged turncoats from a fellow traveler like Loomer whets that appetite.
In his remarks aboard Air Force One, Trump didn’t deny that perceived disloyalty may have played a part in the firings. “We’re always going to let go of people — people we don’t like or people that take advantage of, or people that may have loyalties to someone else,” he said.
As for people who inadvertently leak state secrets? So far, they’re in the clear.
