Laura Loomer has been paid thousands of dollars by private clients to make political posts on social media without telling her followers, according to an exclusive Washington Post report published Saturday. The Post cited a former Trump campaign aide and three other people familiar with the arrangements, along with financial documents, and described the payments as part of a business practice by one of the most influential online voices around Trump.
Loomer is a right wing activist with a direct line to Trump. Her posts have been credited with pushing the administration to fire officials she accused of disloyalty, including national security officials, which is why paid posts from her carry more weight than a typical influencer endorsement. If clients were paying her, they may have been paying for influence over who stays and who goes in the government.
The Post story followed a public fight between Loomer and Alex Bruesewitz, Trump’s social media adviser, that broke out on X on Wednesday, the day after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress in the midterms. Bruesewitz started by calling Loomer “basically the Republican version of Hasan Piker,” the left wing livestreamer Republicans often attack Democrats for associating with. He said Democrats had tried to tie Republicans to her for years and that voters “simply don’t care enough about ‘influencers’ or streamers.”
The political news that affects your wallet, your rights and your vote, broken down in plain language. Free in your inbox.
Loomer pushed back on the label. “I’m not an ‘influencer’ Alex,” she wrote, pointing out that Bruesewitz had run a firm focused on influencer marketing. When he asked what she was, if not an influencer, she answered, “I’m a journalist and an opposition researcher,” meaning someone who digs up damaging information on political targets. Then she turned on his business ties, asking what he does for financier Omeed Malik and adding, “He’s a Muslim right? Half Iranian and half Pakistani if I’m not mistaken.”
Bruesewitz brushed it off. “Okay lol. But is it common for journalists to get paid for their opinions and tweets?” he asked. Loomer fired back that his company, X Strategies, had reached out to her for help the year before.
That is when Bruesewitz said the quiet part out loud. “No I don’t deny that. I’ve paid you for tweets before. I haven’t for at least a year though,” he wrote. “I also know you still get paid by others for tweets so I do think it’s fair to refer to you as an ‘influencer.’ What percentage of your tweets are paid for?”
Loomer never answered that question. Hours later, she announced she was taking a break from Loomer Unleashed, the show she livestreams twice a week. In a lengthy post, she said she had been “running on empty for too long” and that her family, personal life and upcoming wedding had been on hold. “I am a machine. Some days I work more than 18 hours,” she wrote. She said she wanted to redesign her studio, plan her wedding and spend more time with her fiancé, and that she would keep posting, breaking news and “fully supporting President Trump” while the show is off. Her post did not mention the paid tweets.
Video:
The break also came after Loomer posted 119 times on X in less than 28 hours following the midterm results, according to a Newsweek analysis. She denied it was a meltdown, calling it “just reality.”
The Post report does not change what has been missing from Loomer’s posts all along: any disclosure that some of them were paid for.
