Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winner Labels Laura Loomer Trump’s ‘De Facto National Security Adviser’
James Risen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author, took a deep dive into MAGA influencer Laura Loomer and her sway over President Donald Trump on Sunday.
Risen, a veteran national security reporter who has worked everywhere from the New York Times to the LA Times, published an analysis on Loomer in The Guardian and labeled her “ Trump’s de facto national security adviser.” He began the piece by marveling at how the MAGA movement, which was meant to be rooted in non-interventionist foreign policy, so quickly rallied around Trump’s strikes on Iran.
“Maga’s quick flip-flop has made it clear that Maga was never really anti-war. Maga is about xenophobia, not isolationism, and its support for Trump’s decision to bomb a Muslim country fits in with its support for his draconian campaign against immigrants,” wrote Risen, which was an easy transition into discussing Loomer – who in the past has described herself as a proud Islamophobe.
Risen argued that Loomer, who has major figure in the MAGA “civil war” between the likes of dovish Tucker Carlson and the hawkish Mark Levin, has “emerged as the most prominent Maga America First influencer in the early days of Trump’s second term, has given her full support to his Iran strike.”
He then went back and looked at the Loomer’s role in ousting Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz in April. Loomer “met with Trump and gave him a list of names of people on the staff of the national security council that she believed were not loyal enough to Trump or at least had professional backgrounds that she considered suspect. Trump fired six staffers. Later, national security adviser Mike Waltz, whom Loomer had criticized for his role in the Signalgate chat leak scandal, was ousted as well.”
Risen argued that Loomer’s “direct access” to Trump has allowed her to successfully “push for ideological purges inside the administration, instilling fear and anger among national security professionals.” He added:
In fact, when it comes to the national security side of the Trump administration, Loomer has been something akin to a one-woman Doge. Now the big question is how long her influence with Trump will last, or whether she will soon go out the same way as Elon Musk.
Loomer’s power in the Trump administration is ill-defined. Her many critics say she has just been taking credit for moves that Trump was already planning. But Trump himself has said he takes her seriously, so it may be more accurate to describe her as Trump’s de facto national security adviser.
Currently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pulling double duty, serving as national security advisor as well. Risen, however, also offered a warning to Loomer that the more powerful she becomes, the more likely her fall in Trump world would seem.
“But like Musk, Loomer has been so red-hot in the early days of Trump’s second term that her fall seems almost inevitable, especially after she began to call out White House actions she didn’t like,” Risen noted, mentioning Loomer’s condemnation of Trump accepting a luxury airplane as a gift from Hamas-backing Qatar.
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