Lara Trump campaigned on Tuesday withLaura Loomer , a self-proclaimed "proud Islamophobe" and far-right GOP nominee for Congress in Florida.- Loomer is well-known for celebrating the deaths of migrants and being banned by Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms for her bigotry, among other scandals.
- The president publicly congratulated Loomer after she beat five Republican opponents in the GOP primary last month, tweeting, "Great going Laura."
- Despite the president's claim that Loomer has a "great chance" in the general election, the 27-year-old is a longshot in Trump's safely blue home district in Palm Beach.
Loomer is best-known for railing against Islam and immigrants, spreading conspiracy theories about mass shootings, and being banned by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms for her open bigotry.
The president publicly congratulated Loomer after she beat five Republican opponents in the GOP primary last month, tweeting, "Great going Laura." Trump didn't endorse any candidate in the primary, but Loomer found support in Trump-aligned lawmakers including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020
Loomer is considered a longshot in the general election against four-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel — a fact that makes the president's enthusiastic support for her particularly noteworthy. The safe blue district she's competing in is home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, which he has made his official residence.
In 2017, Loomer celebrated the deaths of 2,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean and called for "2,000 more" deaths. Uber and Lyft banned Loomer that same year after she tweeted, "Someone needs to create a non Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver."
Loomer's right-wing activism — she's worked for the conspiracy site Infowars and conservative group Project Veritas — kept her on the fringes of GOP
- Read more:
- Trump and the GOP want voters to fear 'chaos and anarchy' under Biden, but not the virus that's killing 1,100 Americans a day
- Trump's acceptance speech at the RNC was an exercise in misinformation that didn't stack up with reality
- Legal insiders brace for a world where Trump loses in November and the ex-president faces down a slew of reinvigorated court fights