(Headline USA) Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and investigative journalist who alleged last year that 9/11 was an “inside job,” joined Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in New York and Pennsylvania on Wednesday as he commemorated the anniversary of the attacks.
The 31-year-old provocateur and influencer posted photos from ground zero and shared a video of Trump talking with firefighters in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
“They were thrilled to see him,” she wrote.
She also accompanied the former president to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the planes crashed 23 years ago after crew members and passengers fought back against the hijackers.
“HAPPENING NOW: President Trump just visited the Shanksville Fire Department after visiting the memorial site of United Flight 93 and meeting with family members of 9/11 terrorist attack victims in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,” she posted on X on Wednesday afternoon. “NEVER FORGET!”
HAPPENING NOW:
President Trump just visited the Shanksville Fire Department after visiting the memorial site of United Flight 93 and meeting with family members of 9/11 terrorist attack victims in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/1BGH5nrbKn
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) September 11, 2024
Loomer said in a text message to the Associated Press that she doesn’t work for the Trump campaign and that she was “invited as a guest.”
She did not respond to questions about her past statements about 9/11.
The Trump campaign responded with a statement from an unnamed campaign official: “Today, President Trump put politics aside and stood beside Kamala Harris and Joe Biden to honor those who lost their lives during the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history,” it read. “The day wasn’t about anyone other than the souls who are no longer with us, their families, and the heroes who courageously stepped up to save their fellow Americans on that fateful day.”
Loomer was also spotted departing Trump’s plane when he landed in Philadelphia for Tuesday’s debate.
Last year, Loomer shared a video on X that said “9/11 was an Inside Job!” and claimed it was somehow related to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s announcing $2.3 trillion in “lost” government funds on Sept. 10, 2001.
Rumsfeld’s remarks ostensibly were about a challenge in tracking funds due to outdated technology. The day before 9/11 was not the first time the problem had been discussed.
The belief that U.S. officials are hiding information about the Sept. 11 attacks or were somehow involved in the planning has taken hold among a segment of determined skeptics, sometimes referred to—either pejoratively or endearingly—as “truthers.”
Loomer’s stepped-up presence in Trump’s entourage comes as he has made a number of staff changes in recent weeks, including bringing back veterans of his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, like former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski was known for the mantra “Let Trump be Trump.”
She has long served as one of Trump’s fiercest supporters in the Make America Great Again wing of the Republican Party.
She led attacks against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Trump’s behalf during the primary phase of the 2024 campaign and has been deeply involved in pro-Trump politics—and the more extreme elements it has attracted—for years.
Some Trump allies would prefer the former president to distance himself from Loomer, but Trump has welcomed her as a semi-regular presence in recent months.
When she ran as a Republican for Congress in Florida in 2020, Loomer celebrated her primary win at a party attended by controversial figures including Gavin McInnes, the founder of the far-right Proud Boys.
She later lost the 2020 House race to Democrat Lois Frankel. She also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
