Far-right activist Laura Loomer has chosen her next target in her campaign against those she sees as disloyal to President Donald Trump: Col. Earl Matthews, Trump’s nominee to be the Pentagon’s top lawyer.
Loomer, in a series of X posts on Tuesday and Wednesday, alleged that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was at risk of being “subverted and obstructed” by Matthews. The posts came after Matthews appeared before lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday for his nomination hearing.
Loomer’s targeting of Matthews also came less than a week after she took credit for persuading Trump to fire several top national security officials, including the director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Tim Haugh, over loyalty concerns.
The conservative activist, who has a history of promoting conspiracy theories and Islamophobia, has established opposition research firm Loomer Strategies and has tried to get a contract to do vetting for the Presidential Personnel Office.
Matthews, in a response Wednesday to Loomer’s allegation, reiterated his support for the president and his policies.
“The notion that I am a so-called Bolton-Milley guy seeking to undermine the president’s policies is ridiculous. I firmly support the policies of the president, and if I didn’t he would not have nominated me,” wrote Matthews, referring to former national security adviser John Bolton and former Chair of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, who have both spoken out against Trump since stepping down from their roles.
“To be clear, I do not blame Laura Loomer, she is only doing what others have asked her to do. Ask yourself, who benefits from the removal of Earl Matthews?” he wrote.
Contacted for comment, Loomer declined to say whether she was in communication with the White House or Department of Defense about Matthews.
Loomer denied Matthews’ suggestion that she had been recruited to tank his nomination.
Loomer has also accused Matthews of being responsible for blocking Hegseth from volunteering as a member of the National Guard at former President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 after he was discovered to have a tattoo of a Latin phrase used by Christians that has also become popular among extremist groups.
Matthews strongly denied the claim in his post on X.
Matthews, now a member of the Army Reserve, held a number of high-level positions during the first Trump administration, including as senior director for defense policy at the National Security Council under Bolton. Loomer emphasized his connection to Bolton in one of her posts.
Matthews also served as the chief legal adviser to the D.C. National Guard during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building and sharply criticized the Army’s response to the attack in a memo to a congressional investigation into the attack.
In a 36-page memo to the Jan. 6 committee, which was established to investigate the siege, Matthews described two Army generals as “absolute and unmitigated liars” in their account of why the military was slow to respond as Trump supporters overran the capitol complex.
Senators pressed Matthews during his Tuesday hearing over how he would maintain the independence of the Pentagon’s legal counsel, and he committed to exercising legal judgment free of political influence.
Senate Armed Services Committee Republicans, whose support will be crucial, were caught off guard Wednesday by Loomer’s criticism, and several brushed it aside.
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), when asked whether Loomer’s criticism would sway him or influence Matthews’ confirmation, gave a curt: “Heavens, no.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a retired Marine Corps Reserve colonel, said Matthews had been adequately vetted.
“I thought he did well in his hearing,” Sullivan said. “That matters more to me — what he was saying and his focus.”
One senior Senate Republican aide granted anonymity to discuss internal GOP dynamics said Loomer cannot be ignored because of her reported influence in the firings of other national security officials but argued that with Matthews, she had “overplayed her hand.”
“There’s a lot of jockeying to be the captain of the loyalty police, but Earl Matthews did well in his hearing, and this is a job that requires him to be apolitical,” the aide said.
A second senior Senate GOP aide granted anonymity to discuss internal party dynamics warned against Trump embracing Loomer’s personnel advice lest he trigger a backlash from within his own party.
“A lot of Republicans on the Hill, so far, have been pleasantly surprised that the mistakes of the first administration have largely been avoided, and that includes locking the crazies out of the White House,” the aide said. “The downstream effects of her attacks will sour the mood here quickly.”
One Senate Democratic aide suggested Loomer’s efforts could backfire. “Senators know that Loomer is a lunatic,” the aide said. “Her disparagement is an endorsement.”