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The MAGA civil war over the specter of America joining Israel’s conflict with Iran has grown increasingly ugly in recent days as Donald Trump superfan and “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer is now accusing Tucker Carlson of being bankrolled by Qatar, prompting Carlson’s team to call out Loomer’s “lie.”
Loomer, who generally sides with the hardcore “America First” wing of Trump’s coalition, has split from the MAGA isolationists and found common cause with the hawkish Republicans and right-wing commentators who are incessantly nudging the president to take military action against Tehran.
In doing so, Loomer — who has the president’s ear — has also pledged to snitch on any of her fellow conservative pundits and influencers who “is sh*t talking Trump right now,” anointing herself the “loyalty enforcer” of MAGA.
“I am screenshotting everyone’s posts and I’m going to deliver them in a package to President Trump so he sees who is truly with him and who isn’t,” Loomer tweeted this week. “And I think by now everyone knows I mean it when I say I’m going to deliver something to Trump.”
The rabid Trump supporter and self-described “investigative journalist,” who has already taken credit for Trump axing his national security adviser and other “disloyal” aides, is now looking to use her influence with the president to kneecap another longtime Trump ally who has been critical of the administration’s Iran saber-rattling.
During a recent discussion with Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who has also warned the president about attacking Iran, Carlson denied the implication lobbed by Fox News host Mark Levin that he was being paid by the Qatari government. Levin, who has been engaged in a months-long back-and-forth with his former Fox colleague over the brewing tensions with Iran, also accused Carlson of leaking stories to the press about him.
“Chatsworth Qatarlson is very angry,” Levin tweeted last week. “Busy leaking to and planting stories with his media pals. Burning up his cellphone with calls to his embeds in government and his Koch-heads at the Quincy institute. A desperate man does desperate things.”
The “Qatarlson” jab appeared to refer to a Washington Examiner story last month about Qatar’s foreign influence operation targeting conservative media figures, specifically noting that the Muslim kingdom’s “biggest victory in its post-election right-wing media campaign” was Carlson’s friendly interview with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in March.
The story noted that Foreign Agents Registration Act records showed that consulting firm Lumen8 Advisors LLC helped facilitate the interview, adding that the Qatari government was paying Lumen8 Advisors $180,000 per month “to provide media and communication coaching and consulting services.”
Meanwhile, the story that Levin suggested Carlson “planted” was a Politico article about the “MAGA vs. hawk battle” over Iran and Trump. Politico reported that Levin had a private lunch with Trump earlier this month in which he told the president that “Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon” despite American intelligence saying the opposite. The previously unreported meeting, where Levin urged Trump to allow Israel to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, was sourced to “an intelligence official as well as another Trump ally familiar with the matter.”
During his sitdown with Bannon earlier this week, Carlson outright refuted that the Qatari government had paid him. “They know I’m not working for Qatar,” he declared. “I’ve never taken a dime from any foreign country or anybody. They’re the ones who have these weird, complex motives, and so they project onto everyone else the same.”
Sharing a screenshot of the FARA documents that the Examiner had reported on last month, Loomer — who backtracked on her criticism of Trump accepting a free Qatari jet last month — claimed that she had caught Carlson lying and that he was peddling “propaganda” on behalf of “genocidal Muslims.”
“Tucker is controlled by Muslims. People need to wake up and stop pretending like this is a conspiracy theory,” she tweeted. “Qatar and Iran are buying off conservative podcasters to push pro-Islamist, anti-American and anti-Israel talking points to undermine President Trump.”
She also urged Bannon to “correct the record for his viewers” and tell them Carlson was “lying” about Qatar funding him, claiming that the Qataris had dished out $200,000 for Carlson’s interview.
“Tucker is in fact being influenced by foreign money to spew propaganda for Islamists,” she added. “This is un-American and dishonest.”
The actual FARA document, however, shows that Lumen8 Advisors had not disbursed any money in connection with activity on behalf of Qatar over the past six months, something Neil patel – the CEO of Carlson’s media company and longtime friend of the former Fox News star – pointed out this week while denying Loomer’s accusations.
“Allegations that Tucker Carlson or Tucker Carlson Network took money from any foreign country for an interview or for any other reason are categorically and definitively false and defamatory,” Patel posted on X on Wednesday, which Carlson retweeted. “Neither Tucker nor TCN has ever taken a penny from Qatar or any foreign country. To the contrary, TCN bought out all its investors last March to achieve total and absolute independence. Almost no other major media company can make that claim.”
Patel followed that up by sharing a statement from Lumen8 Advisors that also denied that Carlson had received any compensation for his interview with the Qatari prime minister. “Tucker Carlson, TCN, and its affiliates have never received payment from Lumen8Advisors, entities affiliated with it, or its client,” the statement noted.
“This is a lie. This contract and filing has nothing to do with us. Tucker and TCN have never accepted any foreign money, Qatari or otherwise,” Patel responded to Loomer’s “screenshot” tweet.
“None of this is even about the interview anyway, of course. It's about you not liking Tucker's views on a war that you want,” he added. “That's your right, but it would be more honest if you addressed Tucker directly on the real topic.”
Loomer, meanwhile, has continued to double and triple down on her claims, moving the goalposts by demanding that Carlson “post all the receipts from the trip” for the interview. “What type of consultant would ask Tucker Carlson to do an interview with the Prime Minister of Qatar and not pay for expenses or pay a fee?” Loomer wondered at one point.
She has also turned her attention to Patel directly, noting that he once served as an adviser for former Vice President Dick Cheney while bringing up his ethnic background. “How can they have any credibility to call Trump ‘pro-war’?” Loomer raged.
While Carlson and Patel appear to have moved on – Carlson did not respond to a request for comment – Loomer continues to try to make hay out of the Qatari interview, which has even resulted in her approvingly retweeting Levin congratulating her for a job “well done.”
