The Washington Post cited former Trump advisor Alex Bruesewitz and three anonymous sources to report that “Trump ally Loomer was paid thousands for political tweets, people familiar say”. While she denied that she’s paid to post on social media, she admitted to being paid for research and consulting. She also suspiciously announced shortly after they contacted her about their story that she’s taking a supposedly preplanned break from her show to focus on her personal life ahead of her wedding.
None of this in itself is too scandalous, but their report goes on to state their four sources “said she is an effective, if sometimes unpredictable, messenger and a key way of trying to get a line directly to Trump.” For background, she’s considered to be one of his closest advisors by dint of him deeming her among his most loyal allies, so she essentially betrayed Trump by functioning as an undeclared lobbyist knowing that her reportedly paid posts could influence him on her clients’ behalf without him being aware of it.
While the Washington Post wrote that “One person who said they had paid Loomer to tweet on behalf of clients said she was deliberate in her work and would only tweet if she agreed with the position”, this still raises questions due to her sway over the world’s most powerful man. In particular, it prompts speculation about whether the Ukraine government or someone associated with it financially incentivized her to flip-flop from supporting Russia to supporting Ukraine.
Her summertime reversal coincided with what Zelensky described as Ukraine’s 40-day “influence operation” aimed at coercing Russia into agreeing to a ceasefire without preconditions, so it’s reasonable to wonder whether he also planned to influence Trump as part of his efforts, perhaps to pressure Putin. A potentially effective means to that end would be paying Loomer to flip-flop on the conflict, which she was already arguably considering doing for semi-personal reasons, due to her influence over Trump.
A congressional investigation will likely never be approved by the Democrats since they just captured control of both chambers during the midterms, but the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division could still look into it, especially if Trump’s Attorney General tasks them with doing so. After all, what Ukraine might have done under Zelensky’s orders is try to influence the President of the United States’ foreign policy by paying one of his top advisors for this purpose, which is indisputably a case of foreign meddling.
Loomer’s Ukrainegate scandal could also land her behind bars if she functioned as an unregistered foreign agent in violation of the “Foreign Agents Registration Act”, but its most meaningful consequence by far is that it could push Trump into punishing Zelensky. In particular, instead of pressuring Putin like Zelensky hoped that he’d do under Loomer’s influence in the event that Ukraine paid her to flip-flop on the conflict, he could pressure Zelensky by curtailing arms, intelligence, and/or Starlink/Starshield.
One of the ways that Trump could rally his demoralized base after MAGA’s midterm walloping is swiftly ending the Ukrainian Conflict, which could be achieved via the “creative coercion” of Europe and Ukraine that was recently proposed here, and Loomer’s Ukrainegate scandal could motivate him to do so. He hates being made a fool out of like Zelensky might have tried doing by attempting to manipulate him via Loomer, and he’s known to have a short temper, so there could be hell to pay if Trump suspects this.
