Who is Laura Loomer and why do Republicans want her away from Trump?

Republicans are concerned about former United States president Donald Trump ties with hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer and her potential influence on him as she has been frequently spotted on the campaign trail recently.

Loomer, a self-styled investigative journalist known for her association with organisations like Project Veritas and Infowars, has a history of promoting anti-Muslim rhetoric and spreading conspiracy theories.

The 31-year-old social media influencer, who has previously claimed that the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job" carried out by the US government, drew significant criticism as she accompanied the 78-year-old former US president at an event commemorating the attacks.

She also travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump's plane on Tuesday for the presidential debate between him and Vice President Kamala Harris in the city.

During the debate Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti were eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. However, according to the BBC, there have been "no credible reports" that this has actually happened.

Trump cited hearing these claims on television, but the baseless theory was repeated by Loomer to her 1.2 million followers on X, just a day before the debate.

Some Republicans have blamed her for Trump making the unfounded claim on stage.

An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor that they were "100%" concerned about Loomer's proximity to Trump.

"Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working," the source was quoted as saying.

While Loomer has not spoken to the media about the allegations, she took to her X account and said that she operates "independently" to help Trump, who she referred to as "truly our nation's last hope".

"To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no," she wrote. "I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories."

In 2020, she ran as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida with Trump's support, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.

She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.

Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump's assassination.