“Purchasing Russian oil returns money to the treasury of Iran’s Islamic regime, chanting ‘Death to America’.
We know this.”
On October 11, 2026, American political activist Laura Loomer, one of the most famous supporters of Donald Trump and a staunch supporter of Israel, sharply criticized the purchase of Russian energy resources. According to her, such deals help not only the Russian military machine but also the Iranian regime, threatening the United States and Israel.
Author: Stas Shifer
The day before, on October 10, she had already warned that money from Russian diesel supplies would allow Moscow to continue killing Ukrainians and support Iran.
The peculiarity of these statements is not only in their content. Loomer is a staunch Trump supporter, a Jew, an open defender of Israel, and a representative of the far-right wing of the American MAGA movement. She has not joined the Democrats, has not renounced her political beliefs, and still supports the US president.
But on the issue of Russian diesel, she found herself on the opposite side from him.
Just a few months ago, such a position by Loomer would have been hard to imagine. She herself admits that she spread Russian propaganda for years. Everything changed after a trip to Ukraine, getting acquainted with the consequences of Russian shelling, and the unexpected discovery of her own family history.
“Russia will spend this money on killing Ukrainians”
On October 9, Donald Trump announced an agreement with Putin on the supply of Russian diesel fuel to the American and world markets.
The US president named the initial volume — more than 300 thousand tons. In November, it is planned to supply another 500 thousand, then a million tons, and later, if production capabilities allow, up to three million tons more.
The US Treasury simultaneously temporarily eased sanctions restrictions on certain operations with Russian diesel.
Trump explained the decision by the need to reduce fuel prices. But Loomer saw a completely different danger in it.
On October 10, she wrote on the social network X:
“Russia will use all the money it receives from US diesel supplies to continue killing Ukrainians and help Iran attack Americans.”
She also reminded of threats against Trump himself from the Iranian regime and accusations of Russia transferring satellite reconnaissance data to Tehran.
On October 11, another statement by Loomer followed:
“Purchasing Russian oil again fills the treasury of the Iranian Islamist regime, which chants: ‘Death to America’. We know this.”
It is important here to separate political assessment from the proven mechanism of financing. Oil revenues go directly to Russian sellers, not automatically to Iran’s budget. However, Loomer’s argument is based on the real military-political cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.
It is this alliance that she considers a threat to US national security.
As a result, an unusual debate has arisen in the American conservative environment. Trump promises to ease the lives of American consumers with Russian fuel. One of his loudest supporters warns that such a decision could strengthen America’s adversaries.
Why Loomer is unlike other critics of the deal
For Israeli readers, it is worth explaining: MAGA is an abbreviation of the slogan Make America Great Again. It is a political movement of Trump supporters, within which there are different views on relations with Russia, support for Ukraine, and the role of the US in international conflicts.
Loomer occupies a special place in it.
She is not an official White House advisor and does not represent the American administration. But she maintains direct contacts with Trump, speaks to his supporters, and has repeatedly participated in political campaigns against officials she considered insufficiently loyal to the president.
On October 2, Trump publicly welcomed Loomer at a rally in Alabama. And a week later, she effectively challenged his Russian oil initiative.
Meanwhile, other MAGA representatives are developing the opposite theme.
Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, political blogger Jack Posobiec, and Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee accused Volodymyr Zelensky of trying to harm Trump ahead of the November elections.
According to their version, Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries deliberately complicate the position of Republicans, raising fuel costs. Posobiec even demanded to stop funding Ukraine and transferring intelligence data to it.
Loomer did not support this line. Her messages concern who benefits from Russian oil revenues and why cooperation with Putin’s Russia may contradict American interests.
The July trip, after which almost everything changed
In July 2026, Laura Loomer went to Ukraine for about ten days. According to her, she wanted to personally verify the claims she had previously spread among her multimillion audience.
The route turned out to be far from touristy.
On July 21, she visited Bucha near Kyiv, saw the site of the mass burial of civilians killed during the Russian occupation of 2022, and talked to people who survived these events.
Then there were air raid alerts, Kyiv, Dnipro, and Kharkiv, stories of Ukrainian soldiers freed from Russian captivity, and a visit to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra damaged by a Russian strike.
In Dnipro, Loomer visited the Menorah Jewish Center — one of the largest Jewish community complexes in the world. There she saw the life of the community in a city under constant threat of Russian strikes.
On July 23, she met with Zelensky at the Mariinsky Palace and recorded an hour-long interview. By her own admission, before the trip, she called him a corrupt dictator, but the personal conversation shattered the established image.
On July 24, another important meeting took place — with the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Asman in the Central Synagogue of Kyiv.
Asman told the American guest about the life of Jewish communities during the war. Loomer saw that the claims of alleged systematic persecution of Jews in Ukraine, which she previously believed, did not correspond to what she saw.
NAnews has already detailed these events in the article “Laura Loomer came to check Russian myths: after Bucha and meeting with Moshe Asman, Trump’s ally admitted she was wrong”.
On August 28, Loomer published a large author’s article in RealClearPolicy I Spent Years Regurgitating Russian Propaganda. Then I Visited Ukraine.
She directly admitted her mistake and said that in 2021 she wrote for the Russian state channel RT, not understanding how she was used to promote Kremlin theses. At the same time, Loomer claims that the Russian channel did not pay her.
It was a public admission, not an attempt to quietly change her previous position.
But even more importantly, she proposed what to do next.
From admitting a mistake to a program of assistance to Ukraine
In the August article, Loomer formulated a quite specific program for American conservatives.
She proposed developing joint production of American and Ukrainian drones, accelerating the supply of PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptor missiles for Patriot systems, expanding the production of these air defense systems, strengthening financial sanctions against Moscow, and using frozen Russian state assets to support Ukraine.
Patriot is an American air and missile defense system well known to Israelis. Ukraine uses it, in particular, to intercept Russian missiles threatening cities and critical infrastructure.
Loomer also insisted that European states pay for most of the aid, including purchasing American weapons.
Her argument remained conservative: supporting Ukraine should strengthen America itself, its defense industry, and international positions.
Therefore, the October criticism of Trump’s deal did not appear out of nowhere. It logically continues the August demand to block financial flows allowing Russia to wage war.
A Jewish family from Vinnytsia and Kyiv
There is a circumstance in Loomer’s story that is especially important for the Israeli audience.
During her stay in Ukraine, she learned previously unknown details of her origin.
Ukrainian archivists established that her great-grandfather Pinkus Loomer was born on February 10, 1895, in Vinnytsia. Historical documents also contain information about the enrollment of family members in the petty bourgeoisie as early as 1875.
Later, the family moved to Kyiv, and then its representatives emigrated to the United States.
Loomer knew about her Jewish roots but had almost no documents. Copies of archival records were handed to her during an interview with Ukrainian TV presenter Marichka Padalko, published on July 24.
The American activist admitted that she might never have learned this story if she had not abandoned previous Russian propaganda views about Ukraine.
The discovery of family documents was previously reported by the editorial team in a separate article “Laura Loomer learned about Ukrainian Jewish roots: a family secret from Vinnytsia and Kyiv coincided with her turn towards Ukraine”.
This does not mean that Loomer became a Ukrainian politician or ceased to be an American nationalist. And archival data do not provide grounds for calculating any exact ‘share of Ukrainian origin’.
But the history of Vinnytsia and Kyiv became personal for her. The war, which she previously judged by other people’s publications, unexpectedly found a connection with her own family.
Why the Russian-Iranian alliance became Loomer’s main argument
I would draw attention to one detail of Loomer’s October statements. She does not speak only about Ukraine.
Iran is constantly present in her reasoning.
For Israel, this is a fundamental difference. Russian aggression against Ukraine and the Iranian threat to Israel are different wars, but Moscow and Tehran are developing military-technical cooperation.
Initially, Iran provided Russia with Shahed strike drones and assisted in organizing their production. These devices are used by the Russian army against Ukrainian cities.
Now there are reports of possible arms supplies in the opposite direction.
On October 9, Bloomberg, citing a Western official, reported that Russia is supplying missiles to Iran. However, specific models, quantities, and routes were not disclosed, and independent documentary confirmation of individual supplies has not been published.
NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already analyzed this in Lev Varshavsky’s article “Bloomberg: Russia supplies missiles to Iran — what Tehran retained after strikes by Israel and the US”.
Earlier, there were also reports of the Russian side transferring intelligence information to Iran. Moscow denied such accusations.
The essence of Loomer’s concerns becomes clearer. Russia’s income from energy exports can support its ability to finance the war, military industry, and cooperation with Tehran.
No one has publicly proven the direct transfer of proceeds from a specific diesel deal to the Iranian regime. But the strategic problem does not disappear from this.
If Russia helps Iran obtain weapons or intelligence capabilities, Moscow’s economic strengthening potentially affects Israel’s security.
Why Trump needs Russian diesel
The American president found himself under strong pressure due to fuel prices.
As of October 9, the average diesel price in the US was about $6.28 per gallon. On September 22, it reached a record $6.53. The price increase affects freight transportation, agriculture, and food costs.
However, the causes of the crisis are not limited to Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries — oil refineries producing gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel.
The war around Iran has seriously disrupted Middle Eastern oil refining and maritime transport through the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow passage from the Persian Gulf, crucial for global oil trade.
Experts interviewed by the Associated Press doubt that Russian supplies will significantly reduce American prices. The initial 300 thousand tons is a small volume relative to US needs, and redistributing existing supplies does not necessarily increase the overall global supply.
For Russia, opening additional markets, on the contrary, creates an opportunity to receive export revenue.
On November 3, the US will hold midterm elections: Americans will re-elect the entire House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate. These are not presidential elections, but their result will determine how freely Trump can pursue his policy in the remaining two years of his term.
Against this background, accusations against Zelensky of deliberately raising American diesel prices become part of the election campaign.
However, not all Republicans are ready to support this version. Congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick and Don Bacon opposed easing oil restrictions on Russia. Fitzpatrick announced the preparation of a bipartisan bill aimed at blocking Russian oil purchases.
Loomer has her own argumentation — she links the consequences of the deal not only with Ukraine but also with Iran.
Ukraine offers reciprocity, but not capitulation
For Kyiv, Russian refineries remain an important part of the enemy’s military economy.
Strikes on them can reduce fuel production, complicate logistics, and create additional expenses for the Russian state.
Zelensky proposed an energy truce: Ukraine stops strikes on Russian energy if Russia simultaneously stops attacking Ukrainian power plants, networks, and other relevant facilities.
NAnews analyzed this formula in detail in the publication “Zelensky is ready to stop strikes on Russian energy”.
But a unilateral cessation of Ukrainian attacks without reciprocal obligations from Moscow would mean a completely different agreement.
On October 10, Trump publicly accused Zelensky of creating fuel problems and suggested that Ukraine find another president capable of making a peace deal.
On the same day, Russia delivered a heavy blow to Zaporizhzhia. Zelensky reported 12 dead, including three children, and linked Russian aggression to the easing of American sanctions. This is a political assessment by the Ukrainian president, not proof that a specific strike was the result of the diesel deal.
In the article “Russia thanked Trump for lifting sanctions with five air bombs”, I have already analyzed the circumstances of the tragedy and Zelensky’s reaction.
It is against this backdrop that Loomer’s speech sounds especially sharp: she warns that money from Russian fuel can work against Ukrainians and Americans, even though the initiator of the deal was the president she supports.
Can Loomer influence Trump
It is not worth exaggerating her capabilities.
She does not lead US foreign policy, does not manage sanctions, and does not determine Pentagon decisions. Public disagreement of one influential supporter does not mean a change in the White House’s course.
But Loomer has a resource that Ukrainian diplomats and European politicians often lack: she knows how to talk to the most devoted part of Trump’s audience in their own political language.
She does not demand to abandon America First. On the contrary, she claims that America’s interests require countering Russian-Iranian cooperation.
Here I see three possible directions for further developments.
- First — The White House will maintain diesel concessions, and Loomer’s criticism will remain one of the manifestations of disagreements within MAGA.
- Second — objections from Ukraine supporters among Republicans will intensify, and Congress will attempt to limit the president’s ability to ease oil sanctions.
- Third — Trump will continue energy agreements with Moscow while trying to convince his own electorate that they do not contradict his tough stance on Iran.
Which scenario will be realized is unknown today.
Why this story is important for Israel
In Israel, they are accustomed to evaluating American policy primarily through support for the Jewish state, attitude towards Iran, and military cooperation with Washington.
But the story of Laura Loomer shows that the Ukrainian issue is also capable of changing the balance of power within the American conservative movement.
The political activist, known for her radical rhetoric and justifiably criticized for previous conspiratorial and discriminatory statements, after a trip to Ukraine, admitted her own mistake. She met Jews living under shelling, met with a rabbi, learned the history of her family, and now views Russia through its cooperation with Iran.
At the same time, her views cannot automatically be considered the position of American Jews, Israel, or all Trump supporters.
For me, the main thing here is different.
Not long ago, Loomer herself participated in spreading Russian propaganda. Now she asks her own president an uncomfortable question: why help Russia make money if it continues the war against Ukraine and cooperates with a regime threatening America and Israel?
This does not guarantee changes in Washington. But it shows that even within MAGA, the debate about Ukraine is gradually ceasing to be exclusively a debate about American budget expenditures.
And for Israel, this is a good reason to closely follow what Laura Loomer will say next.