The Plutocracy Wins Another Round Against MAGA Nation

Neither side of this donnybrook came with clean hands. It began after Trump chose an Indian immigrant and venture capitalist named Sriram Krishnan to be senior White House policy adviser on Artificial Intelligence. (Now a United States citizen, Krishnan arrived not on an H-1B visa but an L-1-visa, which allows American companies to transfer employees to the United States from overseas.) The appointment prompted a vicious attack on Krishnan by Loomer. Loomer is a twice-failed candidate for Congress from Florida, a 9/11 conspiracist and a self-described “white advocate” and “proud Islamaphobe” who shocks even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene; in September Greene told CNN, “I have concerns about her rhetoric and her hateful tone.” But for some reason Trump is fond of Loomer. Although campaign aides successfully resisted Trump’s directive that she be given an official role in his re-election effort, Loomer travelled frequently with Trump.

It became evident in September that the fetid bouquet of Loomer’s racial prejudices includes a revulsion toward people of Indian heritage. The evidence was her toxic tweet that “If  @KamalaHarris wins, the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.” On December 23, Loomer tweeted that Krishnan’s appointment was “deeply disturbing.” After somebody answered, “This nation was built by immigrants,” Loomer replied: “Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third world invaders from India” where people are “still shitting in the water they bathe and drink from.” After more posts along these lines, Musk wrote on Twitter, “Loomer is trolling for attention. Ignore.” The next day, Loomer and 13 other conservatives taking her side lost their “blue-check” verification badges and said that Musk, a self-professed “free speech absolutist,” was censoring them. “Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me for supporting original Trump immigration policies,” Loomer posted on X.

Amid all this Sturm und Drang it was easy to overlook that, buried under Loomer’s racism against Indians, there was a legitimate disagreement about immigration policy. Krishnan, Loomer pointed out, posted on X after the election (but before Trump named him as White House aide), “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.” That was in reply to Musk’s request for suggested policies for his Department of Government Efficiency (which is really just a White House commission). Loomer answered Krishnan by saying that without country caps and other such restrictions skilled foreign labor might displace “American STEM students.” Bannon weighed in on Loomer’s side by stating on his War Room podcast, “The H-1B visa program is a total and complete scam from its top to the bottom.”