Laura Loomer Proudly Styles Herself as MAGA’s Joseph McCarthy

Laura Loomer just compared herself to one of the most feared political figures in U.S. history for the role she has carved out in President Donald Trump’s world, purging MAGA’s ranks of the unfaithful and excoriating the movement’s enemies.

“I think people now realize he wasn’t as crazy as they thought he was,” the far-right conspiracy theorist said of anti-communist Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy in a New York magazine interview published Monday.

“He was one of the most underrated and under-appreciated political figures in history,” she went on. “He was trying to warn us about the rot and the infestation in our government and within our educational institutions. People acted like he was un-American for simply trying to protect America. Everything he said turned out to be true.”

galleries/2010/11/04/boozy-politicians/politicians-drinking---mccarthy_jybjem — Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led inquisitions into the Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s, remains one of the most feared political figures in modern U.S. history. AP Photo

McCarthy rose to prominence in the late 1940s by claiming large numbers of communists and Soviet spies had infiltrated the U.S. government. His aggressive investigations and public accusations, often made with little to no evidence, fostered a widespread climate of fear and persecution that became known as “McCarthyism.”

The senator’s downfall was eventually precipitated by a series of televised hearings on the ruthlessness of his methods, during which he was famously asked by one lawyer, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”

Laura Loomer argues with anti-Trump demonstrators in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 24, 2023. — Loomer has styled herself McCarthy’s heir for her role purging the Trump administration of disloyal servants and excoriating MAGA’s opponents. DUSTIN CHAMBERS/REUTERS

Loomer’s self-styled comparison, presaged by her calls earlier this summer to “make McCarthy great again,” would appear to be borne out by her work in tandem with the second Donald Trump administration.

While the 32-year-old holds no formal role at the White House, her highly public online eviscerations of government officials deemed insufficiently loyal to the MAGA cause have over the past several months resulted in a swathe of firings.

She also led a rabid social media campaign in September to have critics of Charlie Kirk, himself a self-styled champion of free speech, fired for mocking the late conservative activist following his Sept. 10 assassination at Utah Valley University.

Loomer’s McCarthy comparison wasn’t the only insight into the MAGA influencer’s state of mind in the course of her sit-down with New York. Noting she had once described herself as a modern-day Cassandra, “a prophet of doom whose warnings of disaster are condemned and ignored,” the magazine writes that Loomer often feels she shares the same thoughts with the president.

“I don’t want to say, ‘Oh, President Trump is me,’ or, ‘I see myself in Trump,’” she said. “But I do. I mean, I do. Every time I listen to him speak, I feel like I’m listening to myself speak to myself. Does that make sense?”

While Loomer’s boyfriend apparently enjoys her “abrasiveness,” others interviewed for the magazine’s piece offered less generous assessments, from “Trump’s Rasputin” and “MAGA Grand Inquisitor” to “one-person wrecking crew” and “part loyal bagman, part Roy Cohn figure.”

One person even compared Loomer to Jiang Qing, wife of Chinese communist despot Mao Zedong, who was partly responsible for maintaining a list of influential figures to be purged during his country’s bloody, decade-long Cultural Revolution.

New York further reports that some D.C. operatives appear to have begun using Loomer’s trademark vindictiveness and vitriol to further their own agendas. Figures close to the White House told the magazine there’s a widespread suspicion that Loomer has used her social media platform to push certain political issues—like Venezuelan oil leases or Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy crisis—for pay from lobbying interests.

Others say that aides at the White House and various government departments have also taken to leaking information via Loomer’s tipline to advance their own interests and settle internal grievances.

It’s perhaps that level of access, going all the way up to her cozy relationship with the president himself, that assures her continued prominence as one of MAGA’s most prominent voices outside of the administration. As one White House consultant told New York: “I was on an hour-long Zoom call, which probably cost—when you think about how much everyone was getting paid—at least $50,000, to talk about what to do about Loomer.”

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