Laura Loomer, whose criticisms of Trump officials helped bring about their ouster, has a new target outside the administration: Pope Leo XIV.
The 9/11 conspiracy theorist was among those on the right who voiced their displeasure over the development of Robert Francis Prevost, an American, being elected 267th pope on Thursday, just the second day of conclave.
“He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis,” Loomer argued in a social media post. “Catholics don’t have anything good to look forward to. Just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.”
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Loomer was responding to an incident in which Prevost, in 2015, shared a Washington Post opinion piece by Cardinal Timothy Dolan titled, “Why Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic.”
Loomer was joined in her criticism by far-right podcaster and Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec.
“What I’m seeing from his social media does not bode well for Trump supporters,” he said on Real America’s Voice, adding later: “God save the church.”
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, meanwhile, promoted a guest on his show who would explain why the new pope “is a continuation of the globalist takeover of the Catholic church & will be used to wage war against President Trump.”
One highly followed X user similarly responded to the news by slapping a pejorative label on the world’s Catholic leader.
“I can now officially diagnose the new Pope with a high level of ‘Trump & Vance Derangement Syndrome.’ The evidence suggests he’s a mass migration lover like Francis,” user BehizyTweets wrote.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly opted against name-calling in favor of a more measured—yet still wary—reaction.
“Is it too much to hope that some 20-year-old ran the new pope’s X account and he never looked at it?” she weighed in.
As for Trump, whose ear Loomer apparently has, the president has thus far had kind words for the new pope.
“It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
Another post by Prevost likely to generate criticism from Loomer and others is how he shared an article that called Vice President JD Vance—an adult Catholic convert—“wrong” for effectively promoting a ranking system for how to best show love for others.
And in 2017, after Trump had suspended the U.S. refugee program, Prevost reposted a tweet saying, “We’re banning all Syrian refugees? The men, women and children who *most* need help? What an immoral nation we are becoming. Jesus weeps.”
