Trump Adviser Loomer Peddles Falsehoods About San Diego Mosque Shooting Victims

Following the deadly shooting at an Islamic center in Southern California on Monday, Laura Loomer, a right-wing commentator and informal adviser to President Donald Trump, issued multiple social media posts disparaging the victims and their community.

The shooting occurred late Monday morning, when two individuals opened fire on the Islamic Center of San Diego. The pair reportedly killed three people in the center before killing themselves.

Investigators have said “there was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved” in the motivation for the shooting. The incident is currently being investigated as a potential hate crime.

Reacting to the shooting, Loomer — a frequent peddler of conspiracy theories who regularly spews racist and Islamophobic rhetoric targeting Muslims — expressed doubt that the shooting was legitimate, saying that the center was “‘supposedly’ shot up” in a post she made on X.

Instead of unequivocally condemning the attack, Loomer spread lies about the victims, claiming they were undeserving of sympathy. “People who attend this mosque want us all to be killed,” she said in her post.

Loomer also said that, despite the center and its members being victims of a shooting, it “should be raided by ICE and the FBI.” In a later post, she advocated for the deportation of “every Muslim in America.”

Although not officially part of the Trump administration, Loomer is considered a White House insider, as she helped Trump with hirings and firings at the onset of his second term in office. She is also considered an informal adviser to the president.

Aside from Loomer, multiple Trump allies (including far right members of Congress) have made Islamophobic statements over several weeks and months prior to the San Diego shooting.

“Islam is not a religion. It’s a cult,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) said in December.

“Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenneessee) said in March.

“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) said earlier this year. (Fine has also said that “mainstream Muslims” in the U.S. should “be destroyed.”)

Some far right members of the GOP conference in Congress have also created a so-called “Sharia-Free America Caucus.” The group’s purported aim is to limit the spread of “Sharia Law” (which is merely a religious doctrine) in local, state, or federal governments, despite no such government in the U.S. adopting or even considering adopting those religious tenets into codified law.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has repeatedly defended Islamophobic remarks by members of his conference, wrongly claiming that Sharia poses a threat to Americans.

“It’s not about people as Muslims, it is about people who seek to impose a different belief system that is in direct conflict with the Constitution,” Johnson said in March.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement this week condemning the San Diego shooting, suggesting that Islamophobic rhetoric from lawmakers likely inspired the shooters.

“Hate against American Muslims is completely out of control. … Time and time again, we have seen that hate speech like this can lead to hate crimes,” CAIR’s statement read.

The organization added:

A deadly attack on an American mosque was as predictable as it is unacceptable. Anti-Muslim hatred is one of the last acceptable forms of bigotry in American society, and it is long past time for the tolerance of this hate to end.