COLUMBIA, S.C. — President Donald Trump has downplayed the influence of Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur known for her incendiary social media presence, in his administration’s decision-making.
But the list of administration officials who have drawn Loomer’s ire and swiftly thereafter gotten the axe from Trump has been growing.
Among the latest is Dr. Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing vaccine chief, who announced this week he was leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of Trump. Prasad had recently become a target of right-wing activists, including Loomer, who flagged Prasad’s past statements criticizing Trump and praising liberal independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.
On Wednesday, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll directed the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to remove Jen Easterly, a newly announced hire who led the nation’s cybersecurity agency under President Joe Biden, shortly after Loomer criticized her.
Loomer, who has publicly encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the “Make America Great Again” agenda, has taken credit for some of the ousters, tearing into some of Trump’s allies and advisers and calling out what she calls a “vetting crisis” within the White House. Trump, meanwhile, has long praised Loomer while distancing himself at times from her most controversial comments and downplaying her direct impact on his choices.
Here’s a rundown on connections between Loomer’s criticism and Trump administration departures:
Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Prasad was ousted following several recent controversies. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters.
Last week, Loomer posted on X of Prasad, “How did this Trump-hating Bernie Bro get into the Trump admin???”
Prasad did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning. He joined the FDA in May after years as an academic researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, where he frequently criticized the FDA’s approach to drug approvals and COVID-19 vaccines.
Loomer was also vocal in opposition to Trump’s first choice for surgeon general, whose selection was ultimately withdrawn.
Trump pulled the nomination of former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat just before Senate confirmation hearings in May. Loomer had posted on X that “we can’t have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn’t go to medical school in the US” as the surgeon general.
Driscoll’s directive that West Point remove Easterly, shared on X, came just a day after she was announced as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in West Point’s social sciences department. Easterly had served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, facing harsh criticism from Republicans who argued that her work to counter misinformation about elections and the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to censorship.
On Tuesday, Loomer posted on X about Easterly’s new role at West Point, saying “Biden holdovers” at the Defense Department were “undermining” Trump’s administration.
On April 3, Loomer presented “research findings” to Trump, Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and others including then-national security adviser Mike Waltz, during an Oval Office meeting, according to people speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
A day later, Trump said he had fired “some” White House National Security Council officials, downplaying Loomer’s influence on the moves. The departures included the director of the National Security Agency, Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh, who also oversaw the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, along with Haugh’s civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble.
When reached for comment, Loomer referred The Associated Press to an X post, saying she was not going to divulge any details about her Oval Office meeting with Trump “out of respect” for the president.
In a subsequent X post, Loomer appeared to take credit for the firings, writing, “You know how you know the NSC officials I reported to President Trump are disloyal people who have played a role in sabotaging Donald Trump?” She noted, “the fired officials” were being defended by Trump critics on CNN and MSNBC.
Loomer called for Waltz’s ouster in the weeks following revelations he had mistakenly added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to a Signal chat being used to discuss military plans. As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration — he was ultimately nominated as United Nations ambassador — she appeared to take credit, writing “SCALP” in an X post.
Adam Schleifer, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, received an email in March saying he was being terminated “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump,” according to a person familiar with the matter. The email came exactly an hour after Loomer called for him to be fired in a social media post that highlighted Schleifer’s past critical comments about Trump while Schleifer was running in a Democratic primary for a congressional seat in New York.
Earlier this month, Loomer took a victory lap after the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan who worked on the cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, three people familiar with the matter told The AP.
Comey’s ouster, Loomer said on X, followed her two-month “pressure campaign.”
Yes, chief among them Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Loomer has called for Bondi’s resignation over failure to keep promises to release more files from the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation of Epstein, branding her a “total liar.”
Earlier this month, following DOJ’s revelations that no Epstein “client list” existed and no more files would be released, Loomer posted on X that she was told that FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning” amid his ongoing clashes with Bondi over the case. Weeks later, both Bondi and Bongino were still on the job.
In April, Trump denied that Loomer had anything to do with aides being ousted from their jobs at the National Security Council, calling her a “very good patriot and a very strong person” who only made recommendations.
“Sometimes I listen to those recommendations, like I do with everybody,” Trump said then, adding: “She’s usually very constructive. She recommended certain people for jobs.”
Loomer was seen traveling with Trump during last year’s campaign, accompanying him on a trip to New York and Pennsylvania as he commemorated the 9/11 attacks. She also traveled with Trump to Philadelphia for a debate against then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Loomer said she never officially joined the campaign after Trump’s allies preferred he would keep his distance.
After a Harris-related post on X in which Loomer played on racist stereotypes, Trump called Loomer “a supporter of mine” with “strong opinions,” but denied knowledge of her comments. He later posted on his Truth Social account that he disagreed with what she had said.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.