Meet Trump’s misinformation muse

As Donald Trump flew to what would be his ruinous performance at last week’s presidential debate, he hosted a special guest on his private plane — Laura Loomer. You might not know her name, but you have probably read her words:

“If @KamalaHarris wins, the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand.”

Even mega-MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called Loomer’s words “Appalling and extremely racist.”

But Loomer upped the bigot ante to even more absurd heights Thursday when she posted to X that: “Haitian immigrants aren’t just eating cats and dogs. They eat HUMANS. It’s a FACT.”

No, it’s not, and I’m not going to give a platform to any more of the long list of outrageous lies and obscenities from the self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe” here, either. But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for one, has had enough. Thursday, he “went off on ‘toxic’ Laura Loomer and advised (Donald) Trump to ‘make sure this doesn’t become a bigger story,’ ” according to Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio. (Loomer responded that night by calling Graham gay on X.)

Sorry, Sen. Graham — this is already big, and deservedly so. Because Loomer is at Trump’s side now, as she was at an observance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — events she calls “an inside job.”

Be worried. Loomer has been banned from most major social networks for misinformation and abuse, but she’s back on X after Elon Musk bought, renamed and ruined it. And she clearly has the truth-challenged GOP presidential candidate’s attention.

The general tenor of most social media is sarcasm, willful exaggeration and detachment. Watching Trump’s earnest, angry blather Tuesday night about people eating cats and “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” is all the evidence you need that the GOP nominee absorbs what he sees on the internet at face value — and some closest to him appear to be his dealers.

Because the whole “eating the cats” thing is basically one big right-wing online joke.

Earlier in the week, before it turned into a major political liability, Trump’s running mate JD Vance and Musk both amplified claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, supposedly “carved up” house pets for food. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and the House Judiciary GOP X account (aka Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a Trump favorite) also got in on the act as Vance urged his followers, “Keep the cat memes flowing.” This, despite Springfield city officials’ denial that such a thing is happening — and also despite the obvious fact that it’s just the latest recirculation of age-old xenophobic slurs directed at Chinese restaurateurs.

“YOU STUPID **’ers JUST GOT TRUMP TO REPEAT YOUR LIE ABOUT THE PETS,” talk radio host Erick Erickson posted on X during Tuesday’s debate — right about the same time Kamala Harris was rightly laughing at Trump’s foolishness. “CONGRATS ON SETTING THE NEWS STORIES TOMORROW BY LYING SO TRUMP PICKS IT UP AND SAYS STUPID S***.”

Erickson, who can’t seem to decide whether he’s on the never- or always-Trump train, said the quiet part out loud: Like other GOP enablers, he’s well aware that Trump either doesn’t discern fact from fiction, or doesn’t care — and gladly parrots any tidbit of misinformation he thinks will score him points.

From the fraudulent 9/11 movie “Loose Change,” to the grotesque lie that the 26 children and adults murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School were fake, to the absurd notions that “very powerful light” cures COVID-19, the fabrications, conspiracy theories and outright propaganda of humanity’s three-plus decade grand experiment with the internet show no signs of abating.

We know Trump lied at the debate not just about eating pets, but also that he “saved” the Affordable Care Act, and that there’s even such a thing as abortion “after birth.” But does he really buy all that garbage himself?

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” Trump famously told a Kansas City Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in 2018. I’d never pretend to know what Donald Trump sees and what he reads. But if Laura Loomer is putting that nonsense in front of his eyes — and she seems to be, by all indications — the prospect of this clearly diminished candidate getting a second go at the White House should horrify every American.

Republican-leaning voters, believe what you’re seeing. And, please, trust your own eyes — and think about the future of your party — when you head to the polls this November.

Derek Donovan is a columnist for The Kansas City (Mo.) Star.