Trump ally Laura Loomer, once pro-Kremlin, says she would 'take care' of Putin after Ukraine visit

Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer and close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has made headlines by reversing her long-standing pro-Kremlin stance. In an interview with the Kyiv Independent, Loomer said that if she were president and Russia supplied weapons to Iran, a country the U.S. was at war with, she would kill Vladimir Putin. She did not call on Trump to do the same, but said she would find a way for the Russian leader to die unexpectedly of a heart attack. Loomer also argued that Putin is afraid of Trump and that the U.S. president could take a much harder line against him.

Her change of heart comes after a trip to Ukraine in July, where she met President Volodymyr Zelensky and saw the devastation caused by Russian forces, including in the east near the front line. In an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, she admitted that she had been deceived by Russian propaganda and previously believed false claims about Ukraine, including that it was a 'Nazi state.' The interview was moved to a bomb shelter after Kyiv came under another Russian ballistic missile attack.

Loomer said the shift in her views was gradual. She was angry after the 2020 U.S. election, which she still believes was stolen from Trump, and after being blocked from several social media platforms she moved to Telegram, where Russian media content is widespread. She also noticed that podcast hosts such as Tucker Carlson had begun criticizing Trump, and their rhetoric was being amplified by Russian sources.

The influencer, who calls herself an independent journalist, claims her new stance is already influencing MAGA supporters. She says she receives messages from people who say they had no idea how much they had been lied to. Her remarks also drew a sarcastic response from Russian state TV chief Margarita Simonyan, who expressed relief that 'leading Russophobes are in their right mind.'

Loomer has a history of spreading conspiracy theories, including claiming that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and falsely suggesting that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating pets—a claim later repeated by Trump in a debate. She had also long blamed Ukraine for the war and called it a Nazi state. Now she urges other American conservatives to check facts themselves and not rely only on podcast comments. Trump, for his part, has often heeded Loomer's advice; she traveled with him during the 2024 campaign, and last year he dismissed several National Security Council staff members after she raised concerns about their loyalty. He has also shared a video of her interview with Zelensky on social media, writing 'Very good!!!'.