What’s behind Maga influencer Laura Loomer’s about-face on Ukraine?

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sits with Laura Loomer on 23 July 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/AP View image in fullscreen The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sits with Laura Loomer on 23 July 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian presidential press office/AP Analysis What’s behind Maga influencer Laura Loomer’s about-face on Ukraine? James Risen After a Kyiv visit, rightwing firebrand now supports Ukraine – but perhaps it’s just because Trump favors a winner Laura Loomer, the online Maga provocateur, has never worked in the White House or anywhere else in the government, but her sudden conversion to the Ukrainian cause this week is significant because her social media posts often have real policy implications in the second Trump administration . The rightwing commentator has spent the last few days in Kyiv , where she announced a newfound sympathy for Ukraine in its long war with Russia , and admitted that she had previously fallen for Russian propaganda. Loomer – who has previously echoed Kremlin talking points to her 2 million followers on social media – has enjoyed direct access to Trump since the 2024 presidential campaign. During the early months after Trump returned to office, Loomer used her online presence to push for ideological purges of government personnel, including many in the national security arena. For a time, her power to break careers among foreign policy officials made her seem as if she were Trump’s de facto national security adviser . It is unclear whether she still has that kind of pull inside the White House, but Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, certainly took her seriously when she arrived this week, holding a private meeting with her on Thursday. Maga influencer and de facto national security adviser Laura Loomer holds outsized sway on Trump Read more Three days earlier, Loomer posted about experiencing her first air raid, as Russian missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital “This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” she posting, adding she felt that she had been “an asshole for minimizing the struggle of Ukrainians for the last 5 years”. “I often said I don’t care. Looking back, that wasn’t very nice of me to say. There are people in Ukraine who have to run to a bomb shelter everyday and some of us had the audacity to say Russia wasn’t wrong because we believed the lie that Ukraine is a country full of Nazi sympathizers. We have been so propagandized by Russia and we don’t even realize it.” Before their meeting on Thursday, Zelenskyy’s office posted a statement saying: “It is really important that @LauraLoomer is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are.” Loomer’s change of heart is potentially important not only because she is close to Trump, but also because she has long served as a reliable barometer of Maga attitudes. Loomer has long been disdainful of Ukraine, adopting what could only be described as a pro-Russian perspecti