After being ‘bamboozled by Russian propaganda,’ Laura Loomer says she’s all in for Ukraine

For years, Laura Loomer’s unflinching support for President Donald Trump was matched only by her fervent opposition to the US assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia. The far-right figure has accused Ukrainian soldiers of committing war crimes and President Volodymyr Zelensky of faking his Jewish faith. She once encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to seize the entire country. Yet, on Friday, Loomer released an exceedingly friendly 45-minute interview with Zelensky recorded in Kyiv where she praised the country’s drone tactics, acknowledged she spread falsehoods about the war and expressed regrets for amplifying narratives that benefited Russia. “I was bamboozled by Russian propaganda,” she told Zelensky, “and I came to believe a lot of untrue things about Ukraine.” The admission marked a stunning reversal by one of Trump’s most loyal allies — one the president appeared to immediately embrace. On Thursday, Trump shared a promotional clip of the interview on Truth Social and wrote: “Very good!!!”

Two senior administration officials told CNN that the White House was unaware that Loomer had made the trip to war-torn Ukraine — a 30-hour journey that she said included a lengthy train ride from Poland to Kyiv because of airspace restrictions. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to questions from CNN about her appearance there. Her visit nevertheless presented a striking reminder of the unconventional currents that sometimes shape Trump’s foreign policy orbit. Images of her appearing alongside Zelensky emerged the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in the Philippines. Loomer received a commitment from Zelensky to sign a peace deal with Russia at the White House or Trump’s Palm Beach estate; Rubio, meanwhile, acknowledged there’s been little movement toward an agreement. Zelensky is set to meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday, a White House official told CNN. Zelensky said earlier this week that he’d spoken to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. “It was a good, important conversation on how to reinvigorate diplomacy and bring peace closer,” he posted on X.Until recently, Loomer — who spends a significant amount of her time identifying and criticizing allegedly disloyal employees within the Trump administration — seemed unlikely ever to express sympathies for the Ukrainian people. In addition to using her massive digital platform to rally MAGA against the country in the war, she also previously wrote a series of op-eds for RT, the Kremlin-funded international television network. A person in Kyiv with knowledge of how the Zelensky interview was arranged told CNN that there was a “considerable effort” in recent weeks to change Loomer’s worldview.