RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — Donald Trump refused on Friday to condemn recent racist and conspiratorial comments from right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who traveled with him earlier this week to Tuesday night’s presidential debate and several 9/11 memorial events.
“Laura’s been a supporter of mine,” Trump told reporters at a press conference near Los Angeles, where he was pressed on concerns from Republican allies about his ongoing association with Loomer, who once declared herself a “proud Islamophobe” and has a long history of promoting ugly and extreme conspiracies.
Trump said Loomer has “strong opinions,” but insisted he was unaware of her recent comments, including a post on X in which she played on racist stereotypes by writing that “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center” if his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, wins in November. Harris is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.
“I don’t control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants,” Trump said. “I can’t tell Laura what to do.”
He later said Loomer “brings a spirit to us that a lot of people have,” adding that, “in all fairness to her, she hates seeing what’s happened to the country.”
Trump has a history of association with extremists, including dining last year at his Mar-a-Lago club with Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who had used his online platform to spew antisemitic and white nationalist rhetoric. Trump had said at the time that he “knew nothing about” Fuentes before his dinner with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
Loomer’s appearances on the campaign trail with Trump have alarmed many top supporters who’ve taken the rare move of publicly airing their concerns that he is hurting his chances of winning in November against Harris, who is driving up Democratic enthusiasm and repeatedly put Trump on the defensive in Tuesday’s debate. Harris was campaigning Friday across Pennsylvania.
Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Congresswoman known herself for spreading conspiracies, called the post about curry “appalling and extremely racist” and said it did not represent Trump’s “MAGA” movement.
Speaking at a news conference at his Los Angeles-area golf club, Trump unleashed a litany of attacks against Harris and California, as he stood on a cliff overlooking the rugged Pacific Ocean.
“She destroyed San Francisco and she destroyed the state,” Trump said of Harris, who represented California in the Senate and also served as the state’s attorney general and the district attorney of San Francisco before becoming vice president. He accused her of having been soft on crime in her previous positions — something aides had suggested he would focus on during the debate.
Trump, who said he wanted to be known as “the border president,” also continued to rail against the dangers of illegal immigration, claiming that the country has had “thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants.” In fact, there has been no spike in violent crime nationally or in the major cities where many migrants have settled, and national statistics show violent crime is on the way down.
Trump, who during the debate amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were abducting and eating pets, also dismissed concerns about the impact of such allegations on Springfield, Ohio, the town at the center of the claims.
Bomb threats prompted the evacuation of schools and government buildings there for a second day on Friday. Threats were directed at the homes of Springfield’s mayor and other city officials, as well as Springfield City Hall and schools.
“No no, the real threat is what’s happening at our border,” said Trump, who will travel later Friday to northern California for a fundraiser, followed by a rally in Las Vegas, the largest city in swing state Nevada.
President Joe Biden on Friday said the Haitian community was “under attack” and the false claims had to stop.
Harris, meanwhile, was campaigning in Pennsylvania Friday, with stops in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre, — two counties Trump won in 2016 and 2020 — as she tries to capitalize on her momentum after Tuesday night’s debate.
In Johnstown, she dropped in to meet with owners and supporters at Classic Elements, a bookstore and cafe, to discuss her plans to support small businesses if elected.
“Small businesses are so much part of the fabric of a community,” she told the shop owners. Harris said she would be in the state a lot and that “we got to earn every vote.”
It was her second day of back-to-back rallies after holding two events in North Carolina, another swing state, on Thursday. Her campaign is aiming to hit every market in every battleground state over four days, with stops by Harris, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and other surrogates in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia.
While speaking in Charlotte, Harris took a victory lap for her debate performance in which she needled Trump and kept him on the defensive. Recounting one moment while campaigning in North Carolina, she mocked Trump for saying he had “concepts of a plan” for replacing the Affordable Care Act.
“Concepts. Concepts. No actual plan. Concepts,” she said as the crowd roared with laughter.
Her campaign said she raised $47 million from 600,000 donors in the 24 hours after her debate with Trump.
After appearing at his golf club in upscale Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump will head to a fundraiser in the afternoon in the Bay Area town of Woodside that is being hosted by billionaire software developer Tom Siebel and his wife, Stacey Siebel. Tom Siebel is the second cousin once removed of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and surrogate for Harris.
It’s Trump’s second fundraising stop in California in as many days as he tries to make up fundraising ground against Harris.
Even before she raked in cash after the debate, the vice president reported raising $361 million in August from nearly 3 million donors, her first full month as a candidate after replacing Biden. Trump brought in $130 million over the same period. Harris’ campaign reported that it started September with $109 million more on hand than Trump’s did.
On Friday night, Trump heads to Las Vegas, where he’ll have a rally in the city’s downtown area. Trump was in the city last month for a brief stop to promote his proposal to end federal taxes on workers’ tips, something that’s expected to especially resonate in the tourist city, where much of the service-based economy includes workers who rely on tips. He announced a new proposal Thursday to end taxes on overtime pay.
Madhani reported from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Colvin from New York. Associated Press writers Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, Chris Megerian in Washington, Melissa Goldin in New York and Tom Verdin in Sacramento contributed to this report.