{"id":783959,"date":"2026-07-25T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/783959\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T15:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:59:15","slug":"after-being-bamboozled-by-russian-propaganda-laura-loomer-says-shes-all-in-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/783959\/","title":{"rendered":"After being \u2018bamboozled by Russian propaganda,\u2019 Laura Loomer says she\u2019s all in for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n For years, Laura Loomer\u2019s<\/a> unflinching support for President Donald Trump was matched only by her fervent opposition to the US assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia.\n <\/p>\n

\n The far-right figure has accused Ukrainian soldiers of committing war crimes and President Volodymyr Zelensky of faking his Jewish faith. She once encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to seize the entire country.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet, on Friday, Loomer released an exceedingly friendly 45-minute interview with Zelensky recorded in Kyiv where she praised the country\u2019s drone tactics, acknowledged she spread falsehoods about the war and expressed regrets for amplifying narratives that benefited Russia.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI was bamboozled by Russian propaganda,\u201d she told Zelensky, \u201cand I came to believe a lot of untrue things about Ukraine.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The admission marked a stunning reversal by one of Trump\u2019s most loyal allies \u2014 one the president appeared to immediately embrace. On Thursday, Trump shared a promotional clip of the interview on Truth Social and wrote: \u201cVery good!!!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Two senior administration officials told CNN that the White House was unaware that Loomer had made the trip to war-torn Ukraine \u2014 a 30-hour journey that she said included a lengthy train ride from Poland to Kyiv because of airspace restrictions. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to questions from CNN about her appearance there.\n <\/p>\n

\n Her visit nevertheless presented a striking reminder of the unconventional currents that sometimes shape Trump\u2019s foreign policy orbit. Images of her appearing alongside Zelensky emerged the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in the Philippines. Loomer received a commitment from Zelensky to sign a peace deal with Russia at the White House or Trump\u2019s Palm Beach estate; Rubio, meanwhile, acknowledged there\u2019s been little movement toward an agreement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Zelensky is set to meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday, a White House official told CNN. Zelensky said earlier this week that he\u2019d spoken to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. \u201cIt was a good, important conversation on how to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring peace closer,\u201d he posted on X<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\"Communal<\/p>\n

\n Until recently, Loomer \u2014 who spends a significant amount of her time identifying and criticizing allegedly disloyal employees<\/a> within the Trump administration \u2014 seemed unlikely ever to express sympathies for the Ukrainian people. In addition to using her massive digital platform to rally MAGA against the country in the war, she also previously wrote a series of op-eds for RT, the Kremlin-funded international television network.\n <\/p>\n

\n A person in Kyiv with knowledge of how the Zelensky interview was arranged told CNN that there was a \u201cconsiderable effort\u201d in recent weeks to change Loomer\u2019s worldview.\n <\/p>\n

\n Reached briefly by phone as she toured the wreckage from a Russian airstrike, Loomer said she had a positive experience speaking with Zelensky. In subsequent messages with CNN, she did not elaborate on how the trip was arranged.\n <\/p>\n

\n In her conversation with Zelensky, Loomer distanced herself from past statements accusing him of supporting neo-Nazi militias and praised the country\u2019s new law criminalizing antisemitism. During her visit, she also met a prominent Ukrainian rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman.\n <\/p>\n

\n Loomer\u2019s conversion drew a range of reactions, including deep skepticism from liberals and anti-Trump Republicans on X, some of whom questioned whether her change in view was genuine or financial. Loomer told the news outlet Puck that she paid for her own plane ticket but declined to say how other arrangements were covered, like security and her train ticket.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe government of Ukraine did not pay for me to go, if that\u2019s what you\u2019re asking,\u201d she told Puck.\n <\/p>\n

\n Tim Pool, another far-right commentator and outspoken Ukraine critic, appeared to mock Loomer on X by posting his own change-of-heart on the war that he later seemed to reveal was insincere<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, Zelensky\u2019s inner circle was pleased with the initial reaction to Loomer\u2019s appearance, the Kyiv source said, and they are optimistic she can now be an influential voice of support for Ukraine given her credibility with the president and many of his supporters. During the interview, Zelensky praised Trump and was receptive to Loomer\u2019s overtures on how to win over MAGA, though he declined to say who he thought was better between President Joe Biden and the current office holder.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHistory will answer,\u201d he said, before naming Abraham Lincoln as the country\u2019s best leader.\n <\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

\n Loomer\u2019s revisiting her longstanding opposition to Ukraine follows an escalating feud with Tucker Carlson over his opposition to Trump\u2019s war with Iran. Like Loomer, Carlson has regularly shared Russian talking points while opposing US support for Ukraine\u2019s defense.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Loomer has grown increasingly suspicious of Carlson\u2019s motivations, exposing a deep ideological fracture within the MAGA movement over foreign policy. Amid her travels to Ukraine, Loomer took aim at Carlson. At one point, she ate at a McDonalds still operating amid the rubble caused by airstrikes, a gesture intended to evoke Carlson\u2019s controversial visit to Moscow two years ago, when he interviewed Putin<\/a>, praised it as \u201cnicer than any\u201d US city and ate a Russian knock-off of the golden arches. McDonalds pulled out of the country in 2022 shortly after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n

\n The emerging divisions within Trump\u2019s base over the war comes amid intensifying air strikes between Ukraine and Russia. June marked the deadliest month for Ukraine civilians in more than four years<\/a>, the United Nation\u2019s recently reported, while drone attacks on Russian infrastructure<\/a> and its warships have led to mounting casualties and presented new challenges for Putin.\n <\/p>\n

\n Congress is weighing punishing Moscow with further sanctions in a bill designed to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Trump has expressed a willingness to sign the bill if it also includes sanctions against Iran.\n <\/p>\n

\n Asked about the sanctions legislation, Zelensky told Loomer that Trump \u201cexactly understood who really doesn\u2019t want to stop the war.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe understood that we really want peace,\u201d Zelensky said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, Laura Loomer\u2019s unflinching support for President Donald Trump was matched only by her fervent opposition to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-783959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}