By Alexandra Ulmer
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday refused to disavow far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, whose presence on the campaign trail this week has drawn criticism from fervent Trump supporters as well as the White House.
“She is a strong person, she’s got strong opinions,” Trump said to reporters at his Southern California golf club. He called Loomer a ”free spirit.”
Loomer says she does not work for Trump. She has traveled on his campaign plane, showing up at his debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday against Democratic rival Kamala Harris and then in New York on Wednesday to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Loomer has previously suggested the attacks were an inside job by sharing a video last year on X, formerly known as Twitter, that promoted that conspiracy theory. She has since changed her position and told CNN in an interview published on Thursday that the attacks were carried out by “Islamic terrorists.”
Trump said on Friday he was unaware of past statements by Loomer, who has more than 1.2 million followers on X.
She sparked a fierce blowback when she posted on X earlier this week that if Harris, who is of Indian descent, won the Nov. 5 election, “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.”
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre denounced Loomer’s remarks as “racist poison” and criticized Trump for associating with her.
Several prominent Trump-supporting Republicans, including U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis, also denounced Loomer after her comment about Harris.
Tillis wrote on X on Friday that Loomer “is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans.”
During Trump’s press conference in California, Loomer was busily promoting his remarks on X and making incendiary comments about immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally.
Afterward, she posted: “I’m simply a ride or die supporter of President Trump.” In a separate post on Friday, she said the Republicans attacking her were jealous that they were not with Trump on his plane.
Loomer, a Floridian who has twice unsuccessfully run for Congress, has a long history of expressing anti-Muslim sentiment. Her views caused her then-Twitter account to be banned, a decision that was reversed after Elon Musk bought the company.
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in California; Writing by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)
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