Footage of conservative activist Laura Loomer has resurfaced, showing her with white supremacist Nick Fuentes celebrating a “hostile takeover of the Republican Party.”
Loomer, who has propagated the false claim that Haitian migrants have been eating pets in Springfield, is thought to have Donald Trump‘s ear, having been seen on the former president’s trips to New York and Pennsylvania on September 11.
Now, with speculation growing about the depth of her influence, a video of her and Fuentes celebrating a planned conquest of the Republican Party is being shared on social media.
Posted on X, formerly Twitter, on September 13, the account Republicans Against Trump shared the video with the caption, “Here’s Trump ally Laura Loomer with neo-N*zi Nick Fuentes toasting to ‘The hostile takeover of the Republican Party.'”
The video was posted online over two years ago when Loomer ran to represent Florida’s 11th Congressional District. Loomer lost the primary by less than six percentage points to incumbent Dan Webster.
Conspiracy theorist and far-right activist Lauren Witzke shared the video of Fuentes and Loomer on Telegram on August 22, 2022.
“CHEERS to the Takeover of the Republican Party,” Witzke wrote.
While it’s unclear whether Loomer and Fuentes meant what they said in seriousness or jest, both have cozied up to Trump and Republicans.
In November 2022, only a few months after the “hostile takeover” video was filmed, Fuentes and rapper Kanye West met Trump for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Fuentes is a white nationalist who has expressed antisemitic views. The Anti-Defamation League describes him as a “white supremacist leader and organizer.”
West claimed that Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes,” although Trump said he didn’t know who Fuentes was, which Fuentes corroborated on NBC News.
Nevertheless, members of the Republican Party criticized the meeting. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said anyone “meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president.”
While Trump and Fuentes have not been seen together since 2022, the former president and Loomer’s relationship appears to have only built since. In August 2023, Loomer spent the day with Trump at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, calling it “the best day of my life.”
Laura Loomer outside the federal courthouse in Miami, Florida, on June 13, 2023. A video of Loomer celebrating the “hostile takeover” of the GOP with Nick Fuentes resurfaced this week.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
“Donald Trump inspires me to never give up, he inspires me to be a fighter, and he has inspired me for years, even before he was a candidate for President,” Loomer wrote on X.
“Everyone who knows me knows I am President Trump’s biggest fan and have been since I was a teenager and in college where I was the President of College Republicans.
“I will be fighting as hard as I can to get him elected in 2024. And then once he’s elected, I will give up my entire life in Florida where I have lived for most of my adult life, and I will to move to DC to work for him and fight for him in the swamp where I will protect him from disloyal people… if he wants me to!”
However, both Fuentes and Loomer have criticized the Trump 2024 campaign. Fuentes said it had “alienated” him and his supporters, while Loomer said that Trump’s “surrogates” sounded “weak” on TV.
“We can’t talk about a stolen election for another 4 years. Time for some offense. And if you don’t know how to be on offense you probably should stay far away from President Trump’s campaign,” she added.
Loomer has been a committed but unorthodox supporter of the former president throughout the 2024 campaign. She attacked then-presidential primary candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis and made unverified claims about the jury on Trump’s New York hush money trial.
She also has a reputation for repeatedly sharing baseless and dangerous conspiracies, including claims that 9/11 was an inside job, that students in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, were being directed to speak out against gun violence, and suggested that the 2018 Sante Fe High School shooting in southeast Texas was staged.
Having previously referred to herself as a “proud Islamophobe,” Loomer caused anger within the Republican Party this week after making comments called “extremely racist” about Kamala Harris’ heritage.
