MAGA influencer Laura Loomer gets credentials and desk at Pentagon after media purge
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailFar-right influencer and outside Trump adviser Laura Loomer officially has a desk and credential at the Pentagon, after virtually all mainstream news organizations covering the Defense Department handed in their badges in October rather than agree to a new set of rules restricting their coverage to pre-approved information. “The Washington Post and Dan Lamothe used to occupy this desk inside the Pentagon Press room,” Loomer wrote on X on Monday. “Now it’s mine!”Reporters from other newly welcomed outlets including RedState and Fearless Media soon were also claiming to be using Lamothe’s old desk, sharing photos of what appeared to be different spaces inside the Pentagon press offices. The mix-up prompted mockery and corrections from the recently exiled Defense Department press corps.On X, Lamothe said he actually gave up the desk in March, well before the new crop of reporters came in, and joked that he had now “lost count” of how many alleged desks he had at the military HQ. open image in galleryRight-wing influencer Laura Loomer is now a credentialed reporter inside the Pentagon, though observers were quick to note she and her colleagues appeared to commit an error on their first day by claiming to be at a desk that was previously held by a Washington Post reporter (AP)“Y'all are going to have to work this one out for yourselves,” he wrote.“May it treat you well on your occasional trips to Washington, Laura,” he added in a message for Loomer, an online influencer known for her Islamophobic views and attacks against nominees and staff deemed insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump. “I assume it'll sit empty much of the time, as it has for weeks now.”Defense journalist Kevin Baron wrote on X that Loomer’s new digs meant a pro-Trump “party mouthpiece” had been installed at the Pentagon. A Bloomberg reporter later said Fearless Media was actually in an area formerly housing Bloomberg reporter Anthony Capaccio, prompting further mockery from press observers.open image in galleryThe shakeups at the Pentagon come at a time of heavy scrutiny for the Trump administration’s defense strategy, which has included boundary-pushing military-style strikes on alleged civilian drug boats in the Caribbean and military pressure on Venezuela (US Secretary of Defense Pete Heg)“These people can't even accurately report what chair they're currently sitting in,” reporter Sam Biddle wrote on X. The mockery soon spread beyond media circles, with California Governor Gavin Newsom reprising his role as the left’s new troll-in-chief and posting a meme comparing Loomer to a child playing with blocks, along with the caption, “I’m a real journalist now.”The upheaval at the Pentagon comes at a time when the Trump administration’s military strategy is under heavy scrutiny. Legal questions are mounting about the Trump administration’s ongoing military buildup in the Caribbean, including a September 2 strike on a drug boat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly commanded troops to leave no survivors, seemingly violating the laws of war, though the White House insists Hegseth only gave a general order to take out the vessel in “self defense” of U.S. interests. The president was expected to gather top national security leaders on Monday to discuss his ongoing pressure campaign against Venezuela as part of the regional operation.
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