Terry Gross

She's an unofficial advisor to President Trump and describes herself as Trump's chief loyalty enforcer, a proud Islamophobe, and a prophet who speaks the truth.

I'm a very, very aggressive person, which is why a lot of people have very strong feelings about me.

To those who love her, she's Trump's protector and informs him about conspiracies against him.

To her detractors, she's a wacky conspiracy theorist who uses her connection to Trump, as well as her large following on social media and her streaming show, Loomer Unleashed.

to have people she accuses of disloyalty fired.

It appears she's been pretty successful.

She considers herself a journalist, although she doesn't follow journalistic ethics.

And what she writes often has a distorted relationship or no relationship with the facts.

When many top news organizations declined to submit to the Pentagon's new rule that credentialed Pentagon reporters could only write information that was officially approved by the Pentagon, Loomer was one of the replacements for the reporters who left.

She's been banned for hate speech by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but was reinstated on Twitter, now X, after it was bought by Elon Musk.

Loomer describes what she does as a selfless act for which she's not compensated.

But she has her own company now doing opposition research and other consulting.

Questions have been raised about whether her efforts to take down people she sees as disloyal to Trump are being funded secretly by individuals or groups with special interests.

My guest, Antonia Hitchens, has written a profile of Laura Loomer titled Laura Loomer's Endless Payback that's in this week's New Yorker.

Hitchens is a staff writer for the magazine.

As part of her research, she spent a lot of time with Loomer, including at Charlie Kirk's memorial and at Loomer's home, where she records her video show.

Hitchens also interviewed Loomer allies and detractors.

Antonia Hitchens, welcome to Fresh Air.

Let's start with some of the conspiracy theories that Loomer has promoted.

One of the things she's known for are very extreme protest actions.