The presence of hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.
Ms Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” carried out by the US government.
She joined Trump at an event on Wednesday commemorating the attacks, raising eyebrows and prompting outrage in some US media outlets.
And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump’s plane for the presidential debate in the city.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of that debate came when Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. “They are eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.
City officials later told BBC Verify that there have been “no credible reports” this has actually happened.
Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the baseless theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the baseless claims to her 1.2m followers on X.
While the level of access Ms Loomer has to Trump is unclear, and his running mate JD Vance has also spread the baseless theory, external, Ms Loomer’s post and her presence in Philadelphia has led some Republicans to blame her for the former president making the unfounded claim on stage.
An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor, external that they were “100%” concerned about Ms Loomer’s proximity to Trump.
“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” the source was quoted as saying.
Another source, however, told the outlet that Ms Loomer did not interfere in debate preparations and said she was a “positive person to be around”.
Dennis Lennox, a Republican consultant, was much more pointed in his criticism of Trump’s debate performance and Ms Loomer. “That’s what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News-X bubble, and rely upon Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer,” he told Semafor.
Ms Loomer did not respond to several requests for comment from the BBC.
But on X, formerly Twitter, she said that she operates “independently” to help Trump, who she referred to as “truly our nation’s last hope”.
“To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no,” she wrote. “I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories.”
Born in Arizona in 1993, the self-styled investigative journalist has worked as an activist and commentator for organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones’s Infowars.
In 2020, she ran – with Trump’s support – as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.
She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.
Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump’s assassination.
These posts led her to be banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, Instagram and even, according to her, Uber and Lyft for making offensive comments about Muslim drivers. She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.
Ms Loomer frequently attends events in support of Trump and has been seen previously at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.
Earlier this year, she travelled on his plane to Iowa where she was given a shout-out by him on stage at an event. “You want her on your side,” Trump said. The former president has also shared several of her videos on Truth Social.
And last year, the New York Times reported, external that Trump had expressed an interest in hiring her for his campaign, relenting only after top aides expressed concern that she could damage his electoral efforts.
“Everyone who works for him thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Ms Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.
Another outspoken Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with Ms Loomer this week over her comments questioning Harris’s race and a post in which she said the White House “will smell like curry” if Harris – who is partly of Indian descent – is elected.
Greene said Ms Loomer’s comments were “appalling and extremely racist” and did “not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA” – prompting a flurry of furious messages in her direction.
This feud in Trump’s orbit played out just a day after Ms Loomer appeared at events with Trump commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania.
Asked about her attendance there by the Associated Press, she said she did not work for the campaign and was “invited as a guest”.
