Did This Far-Right Troll Get Trump's National Security Adviser Fired?
In a podcast interview on The Tara Palmeri Show released Thursday, Trump's favorite far-right conspiracy theorist said that she'd had concerns about Waltz's loyalty after he signed off on the hiring of individuals who'd previously criticized the president.
In the infamous meeting where she presented her so-called evidence to support the firing of several more traditionally neoconservative foreign policy hawks, Loomer had wanted to present a supposedly damning video of Waltz to the president too. Loomer claimed she'd been unable to show the video to Trump because Waltz had entered the room, but she shared the video on Palmeri's podcast.
Loomer played a 2016 advertisement for an anti-Trump PAC featuring Waltz, in which he criticized Trump's statement mocking service members who'd been captured in combat. 'It's something that I just personally can't stomach,' Waltz said in the video.
'So if you can't stomach it, why do you want to work for President Trump? If you can't stomach it, why do you want to work for the administration?' asked Loomer, who evidently has a strong stomach for moral bankruptcy, as she has described herself as 'pro-white nationalist' and a 'proud Islamophobe.'
The far-right activist clarified that she hadn't been gunning for Waltz during the meeting. 'No, I was not trying to fire Michael Waltz. My question is, if Michael Waltz is telling the president of the United States that these people are good people, that he personally signed off on, and that he personally vetted, well, what does a Michael Waltz vet entail? And is it biased, given the fact that he himself has made anti-Trump comments in the past?' she said.
'I wasn't trying to get him removed, I was just making the point that, you know, he's not exactly a Trump loyalist,' Loomer said.
Loomer was adamant she hadn't been trying to get Waltz sacked, and claimed she was simply doing her due diligence while stressing her own enduring loyalty to the commander in chief.
'I don't want you framing this as, 'Oh, Laura Loomer tried to get Michael Waltz fired!' I didn't go in there trying to get him fired, I was just making the point that I'm a Trump loyalist. I never said—I never campaigned against Trump. Michael Waltz was working with a PAC that was trying to actively campaign against Donald Trump in 2016. So my point was, Michael Waltz is not going to have the same standard of loyalty that I have because he himself was a Trump hater, right? So I was trying to explain that,' she insisted.
'But how would that not make Trump want to fire him?' Palmeri asked.
'I think it's important that President Trump see these things,' Loomer replied. She said that she didn't know if Trump had been made aware of the video before tapping Waltz.
When Palmeri asked the White House whether Waltz had ever spoken to Trump about his critical comments, a Trump administration official responded with the following statement: 'Mike has supported President Trump since after the primaries of 2016. He is a steadfast supporter of the president's America First agenda, and works everyday to implement it.'
Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, are expected to leave their posts by the end of the day Thursday, but Trump announced that afternoon that he was nominating Waltz to serve as the ambassador to the United Nations.
Crucially, it's not clear that Waltz was removed from his post over concerns about loyalty. The hapless national security adviser had been the subject of multiple scandals during his brief time in the Trump administration, including mistakenly inviting a reporter to join a Signal group chat about plans to bomb Yemen.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
9 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Mistrust and fear: The complex story behind strained Syria-Lebanon relations
Recent skirmishes along the border have killed and wounded several people, both fighters and civilians, including a four-year-old Lebanese girl. Beirut and Damascus have somewhat coordinated on border security, but attempts to reset political relations have been slow. Despite visits to Syria by two heads of Lebanon's government, no Syrian official has visited Lebanon. Here is what's behind the complicated relations. Advertisement A coldness that goes way back Many Syrians have resented Hezbollah for wading into Syria's civil war in defense of Assad's government. Assad's fall sent them home, but many Lebanese now fear cross-border attacks by Syria's Islamic militants. There are new restrictions on Lebanese entering Syria, and Lebanon has maintained tough restrictions on Syrians entering Lebanon. The Lebanese also fear that Damascus could try to bring Lebanon under a new Syrian tutelage. Syrians have long seen Lebanon as a staging ground for anti-Syria activities, including hosting opposition figures before Hafez Assad — Bashar Assad's father — ascended to power in a bloodless 1970 coup. Advertisement In 1976, Assad senior sent his troops to Lebanon, allegedly to bring peace as Lebanon was hurtling into a civil war that lasted until 1990. Once that ended, Syrian forces — much like a colonial power — remained in Lebanon for another 15 years. A signature of the Assad family rule, Syria's dreaded security agents disappeared and tortured dissidents to keep the country under their control. They did the same in Lebanon. 'Syrians feel that Lebanon is the main gateway for conspiracies against them,' says Lebanese political analyst Ali Hamadeh. Turbulent times It took until 2008 for the two countries to agree to open diplomatic missions, marking Syria's first official recognition of Lebanon as an independent state since it gained independence from France in 1943. The move came after the 2005 truck-bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that many blamed on Damascus. Two months later, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon under international pressure, ending 29 years of near-complete domination of its neighbor. When Syria's own civil war erupted in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled across the border, making crisis-hit Lebanon the host of the highest per capita population of refugees in the world. Once in Lebanon, the refugees complained about discrimination, including curfews for Syrian citizens in some areas. Hezbollah, meanwhile, rushed thousands of its fighters into Syria in 2013 to shore up Assad, worried that its supply lines from Iran could dry up. And as much as the Lebanese are divided over their country's internal politics, Syria's war divided them further into those supporting Assad's government and those opposing it. Advertisement Distrust and deadlock A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial. Damascus is asking Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials say Beirut won't release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately. In July, family members of the detainees rallied along a border crossing, demanding their relatives be freed. The protest came amid reports that Syrian troops could deploy foreign fighters in Lebanon, which Damascus officials denied. Another obstacle is Lebanon's demand that Syrian refugees go back home now that Assad is gone. About 716,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the U.N. refugee agency, while hundreds of thousands more are unregistered in Lebanon, which has a population of about 5 million. Syria is also demanding the return of billions of dollars worth of deposits of Syrians trapped in Lebanese banks since Lebanon's historic financial meltdown in 2019. The worst post-Assad border skirmishes came in mid-March, when Syrian authorities said Hezbollah members crossed the border and kidnapped and killed three Syrian soldiers. The Lebanese government and army said the clash was between smugglers and that Hezbollah wasn't involved. Days later, Lebanese and Syrian defense ministers flew to Saudi Arabia and signed an agreement on border demarcation and boosting their coordination. In July, rumors spread in Lebanon, claiming the northern city of Tripoli would be given to Syria in return for Syria giving up the Golan Heights to Israel. And though officials dismissed the rumors, they illustrate the level of distrust between the neighbors. Advertisement Beirut was also angered by Syria's appointment this year of a Lebanese army officer — Abdullah Shehadeh, who defected in 2014 from Lebanon to join Syrian insurgents — as the head of security in Syria's central province of Homs that borders northeastern Lebanon. In Syria, few were aware of Shehadeh's real name — he was simply known by his nom de guerre, Abu Youssef the Lebanese. Syrian security officials confirmed the appointment. What's ahead Analysts say an important step would be for the two neighbors to work jointly to boost security against cross-border smuggling. A U.S.-backed plan that was recently adopted by the Lebanese government calls for moving toward full demarcation of the border. Radwan Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, says the best way forward would be for Syria and Lebanon to address each problem between them individually — not as a package deal. That way, tensions would be reduced gradually, he said and downplayed recent comments by prominent Syrian anti-Assad figures who claimed Lebanon is part of Syria and should return to it. 'These are individual voices that do not represent the Syrian state,' Zaideh said. Associated Press writer Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Investors Were So Fired Up About First Solar Stock on Friday
Key Points Data center operators are unhappy with potential changes to federal incentives for green energy solutions. A group of them are lobbying the Trump administration to leave these incentives alone for now. 10 stocks we like better than First Solar › The solar industry has struggled mightily for years to achieve meaningful growth and post net profits. During the Biden administration, the green energy sector as a whole received something of a break in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, with a slew of tax incentives for building out alternative-energy solutions. In its attempt to reverse this, President Donald Trump has tasked his administration to make the current subsidies harder to obtain. Thankfully for green energy companies, a theoretically influential lobbying group stepped in on Friday to push back against this effort. Numerous solar stocks popped on the news, including First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR), which rose a sturdy 11% by market close. A mighty lob by a lobbying group The business grouping behind Friday's pushback is the Data Center Coalition. News broke that the coalition sent a formal request to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to maintain the subsidy policy as it is, rather than changing it. The organization -- which lists as members Amazon, Oracle, and CoreWeave, among other prominent tech companies -- told Bessent that any regulatory roadblock limiting green energy solutions will hamper the development of artificial intelligence (AI). Many data center operators are currently building out their facilities to handle the vastly increased resource demands of AI. To do so, they require more energy, hence their support of renewable sources like solar. Does the silence speak volumes? Bessent hasn't yet publicly responded to the coalition's lobbying effort, nor has anyone else in the Trump administration. But investors seem convinced that they've not only digested the letter, they're taking it seriously, since the organization behind it has many prominent members who drive the U.S. economy. Should you invest $1,000 in First Solar right now? Before you buy stock in First Solar, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and First Solar wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $663,630!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,115,695!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,071% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, First Solar, and Oracle. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Investors Were So Fired Up About First Solar Stock on Friday was originally published by The Motley Fool
New York Times
40 minutes ago
- New York Times
China's Biotech Is Cheaper and Faster
Just outside of Shanghai, in the city of Wuxi, China is building its future of medicine — a booming biotechnology hub of factories and laboratories where global pharmaceutical companies can develop and manufacture drugs faster and cheaper than anywhere else. Amid the Trump administration's tariffs on China, I figured manufacturing hubs like this one would be wracked with anxiety. But when I visited Wuxi in April, government officials insisted that its research hub was flourishing. They were proud to tell me about their superstar labs and companies that are continuing to thrive. The fact that Chinese biotechnology stocks have surged over 60 percent since January seems to bolster this claim. The city's researchers certainly seemed positioned to be busy for decades. In its quest to dethrone American dominance in biotech, China isn't necessarily trying to beat America at its own game. While the U.S. biotech industry is known for incubating cutting-edge treatments and cures, China's approach to innovation is mostly focused on speeding up manufacturing and slashing costs. The idea isn't to advance, say, breakthroughs in the gene-editing technology CRISPR; it's to make the country's research, development, testing and production of drugs and medical products hyperefficient and cheaper. As a result, China's biotech sector can deliver drugs and other medical products to customers at much cheaper prices, including inexpensive generics. These may not be world-changing cures, but they are treatments that millions of people around the world rely on every day. And as China's reach expands, the world will soon have to reckon with a new leader in biotech and decide how it wants to respond. One such company that embodies the Chinese approach to biotech is Wuxi AppTec. It's a one-stop shop for pharmaceutical research and development, streamlining everything from early-stage drug discovery to young scientist recruitment and medication production. The company, whose clients have included Chinese firms like Innovent and Jiangsu Hengrui, as well as American and European drugmakers like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, was involved in, by one estimate, a quarter of the drugs used in the United States, including blockbuster cancer drugs. Though the Chinese government bargains hard with both foreign and domestic pharmaceutical companies to provide products at the right price in exchange for market access, the low prices that Chinese consumers pay are ultimately the result of Chinese biotech companies' ability to test and manufacture drugs at a pace far faster than their American counterparts. So far, American biotech giants don't seem to mind the competition, since their own use of companies like Wuxi AppTec allows them to dedicate more of their money to breakthrough research. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
