Laura Loomer is all the talk in Washington, D.C. The right-wing influencer, whose greatest hits include handcuffing herself to Twitter’s office in New York City and sparring with Marjorie Taylor Greene, can’t land a job in the White House. But she touts herself as President Donald Trump’s informal adviser and argues—not incorrectly—that she has more power than many people inside it. 

“I wanted to work for the president,” Loomer told me. “That’s obviously not happening, despite being directly hired by President Trump four times, so now I am doing what I can to have maximum impact on the outside with my skills as an investigative journalist and a master networker.”

What that means, in practice, is mostly getting people fired who she believes are disloyal to the president. 

A self-described opposition researcher, Loomer broadcasts her findings on her X account (1.7 million followers), her Loomer Unleashed podcast (85,000 subscribers), and her Loomered website, with a “tip line” that says, “Tell me what you know.” (If you are just catching up on who Loomer is and how she positioned herself as a Trump whisperer, read my previous article about her.)

When Loomer talks, things happen. In the past seven months, Loomer’s attacks were followed by firings inside the White House, the National Security Agency, the Department of Justice, and other agencies. Most notably, when Loomer criticized National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and his deputies—and met in the Oval Office with Trump to discuss their loyalties—they were soon gone. And just this weekend, the State Department halted all visitor visas from Gaza after Loomer claimed that the program was “a national security threat.”

Inside the White House, though, some senior officials have had it with Loomer. They are increasingly suspicious of her true motives, and have speculated that what she says and does is influenced by lobbying firms and companies trying to advance their own interests, according to four White House officials and another Trump administration official...