Laura Loomer, a right-wing conspiracy theorist and close ally of former President Donald Trump, has gotten to the bottom of why there might be a snowstorm surrounding next week’s Iowa presidential caucuses. And no, it’s not because it’s January in the Midwest.
Pointing to Trump primary opponent Nikki Haley’s “friends in the defense industry and Military industrial complex” and the likelihood that Haley is set to lose to Trump in the contest, Loomer thinks this “looks like weather manipulation.”
“Is the Deep State using HAARP to rig the Iowa Caucus?” she added.
It would be irresponsible not to ask.
(Loomer responded to her own post with several laughing emojis and a call for her followers to “Stay warm everyone. And stay safe!”)
HAARP, the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is “a scientific endeavor aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere” which was originally operated by the U.S. Air Force but was transferred to the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2015.
HAARP “has long been the center of wild speculation that the program is designed to control the weather — or worse,” NBC News reported.
Conspiracy theorists have invoked it for decades; Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and Russian state media outlet RT reportedly blamed HAARP for the 2010 Haitian earthquake, for instance. Infowars’ Alex Jones reportedly told Joe Rogan a few years back that HAARP can be used for weather control.
While this is laughably unhinged — and conspiracy theories about weather manipulation are the currency of crackpots like Jones — Loomer is a member of Trump’s inner circle. He routinely amplifies her posts on social media and reportedly wanted her to be part of his reelection team.
According to The New York Times, Trump wanted to hire Loomer for his current presidential campaign but was talked out of it. Since then, he has repeatedly praised Loomer, and campaign adviser Jason Miller recently appeared on her program, where he called her “the best” and said of Trump: “I know he's very appreciative for everything that you do, Laura.”
Donald Trump Jr. praised Loomer and called for her to be appointed as White House press secretary in a second Trump term. She in turn said she would “gladly” serve.
Loomer has claimed that “every time President Trump sees me, he always says, 'You're so smart. I love your site so much. You're so intelligent. I love your articles,'” adding that Trump supposedly told her that he “read[s] your website every day.”
A self-described “proud Islamophobe,” Loomer has a long record of extremism, including using anti-immigrant rhetoric. Loomer also said during a podcast: “Someone asked me ‘Are you pro-white nationalism?’ Yes. I’m pro-white nationalism.”
More recently, Loomer has pushed birther smears aimed at Haley as the former South Carolina governor's poll numbers have slightly risen in recent weeks.
