A second figure in Trump’s orbit says he personally paid Laura Loomer to post on X – and that what the money really bought was a line to the President.
Florida political operative Jacob Engels, founder of Command Station Consulting, wrote on X that he paid her “a good amount of cash” earlier this year, two days after Trump 2024 campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz said he had paid her for posts too.
I personally paid @LauraLoomer to post tweets earlier this year. A good amount of cash too. I will gladly share screenshots, receipts, texts, and the names of other people who paid her. It was always very intresting to hear from her who she was willing to be paid to trash and who… pic.twitter.com/eDrmdsxUeQ
— Jacob Engels (@JacobEngels) November 8, 2026
Engels said he would “gladly share screenshots, receipts, texts, and the names of other people who paid her,” and that Loomer told him “who she was willing to be paid to trash and who was off limits.” The post drew more than 713,000 views overnight. Loomer had not responded to him on X by Sunday morning.
In replies over the next three hours, Engels went further. “I can’t control who the President listens to. I can only make sure my clients get their message to him and Loomer rules the WH,” he wrote, adding that he felt “ashamed” and “didn’t like paying her.” Explaining why he went public, he wrote:
Because I don’t want this story to die. I want the grifting to stop. This system that’s been created where the only way to get to the President is to pay someone like Loomer is responsible for way more of the corruption and bad admin choices than you know. I feel ashamed to have…
— Jacob Engels (@JacobEngels) November 8, 2026
He also says Loomer still has the President’s ear. Citing an administration official he spoke with on Wednesday, Engels wrote early Sunday that “as of then she and Trump were still talking daily,” which of course means the IC is aware (hence the WaPo report?).
I spoke with an Admin official on Wednesday as of then she and Trump were still talking daily
— Jacob Engels (@JacobEngels) November 8, 2026
In another reply he claimed the trade reaches into national security: “the people who can give her Pentagon info can get anything done for free,” he wrote, alleging “Actual seats next to Trump given by Loomer for access to the Pentagon world.” That, he said, was “not my lane but I’ve seen the fallout.” And he said Loomer wasn’t the only one taking money – “Nope not just Loomer,” he told another user, adding that she “actually has some of the lowest rates.”
Engels isn’t the only one with a story about her rates. Ari Teman says Loomer demanded $40,000 from him for two months of posts – and that he refused. Teman, a comedian and entrepreneur, was convicted of bank fraud in federal court and has sought a pardon from Trump.
Loomer demanded $40k from me for 2 months of posts. I refused.
Later the same corrupt Judge blocked DOGE and @elonmusk called on him to be impeached.
There is a circle around Trump that put a price on EVERYTHING with zero concern for right or wrong. Harmeet Dhillon, Mike Davis,… pic.twitter.com/E66rmT1xB7
— Ari Teman (@AriTeman) November 8, 2026
Coming from anyone else, a pay-to-post claim would be a story about influencer ethics. Loomer is different, because her campaigns have cost officials their jobs. After she brought what she said was evidence of disloyalty to an Oval Office meeting in April 2025, the White House fired several National Security Council staffers, as we reported at the time, and the head of the NSA, Gen. Timothy Haugh, was fired the same week. Trump denied she was behind the dismissals but acknowledged she had made some recommendations: “Sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” he said. Her detractors say several high-ranking defense and national security officials have been dismissed after she publicly rebuked them.
Her critics say that ear is exactly the problem. After Tuesday’s election, Loomer posted that “America is over” and told followers to stock up on supplies and finalize their wills, as commentator Baron Coleman read aloud in a clip that circulated Sunday. “This is the person who has Donald Trump’s ear. This is the person who can call Donald Trump and he’ll answer the phone,” Coleman said.
🚨Laura Loomer posted seventeen tweets saying America is over.
Baron Coleman: this is who has the president’s ear. She’s psychotic, and that’s the problem. pic.twitter.com/BB7xY3RGyY
— Grace Bella Ashford (@RealGraceBella) November 8, 2026
The fight over her payments broke into the open Thursday. After Democrats’ midterm gains, Bruesewitz posted that attacking Democrats over their ties to streamer Hasan Piker “wasn’t an effective hit,” and Loomer, who defended those attacks, fired back. “I’ve paid you for tweets before. I haven’t for at least a year though,” Bruesewitz replied, asking what share of her posts were paid for, according to screenshots published by the Daily Beast.
Engels posted hours after the Washington Post’s report. Bruesewitz, who first posted his allegations Thursday, told the Post he paid Loomer for tweets last year through his firm, X Strategies, for posts on policy issues – deals he brokered himself, though he says the practice has “gotten out of hand.” Bank records and a wire statement the Post reviewed show four payments totaling more than $60,000 to Loomer and King Breaker Media, a Florida company registered in her name, since May 2025. The documents do not state a purpose. Two of three other people the Post spoke with said they paid her directly for posts; the third oversaw clients who did. Two sources said she charges $3,000 to $5,000 per tweet.
Access is what clients were buying, according to the Post’s sources. One described Loomer as “a key way of trying to get a line directly to Trump”; another said some clients hired her “assuming she had an audience in the White House.” She has traveled with Trump and met privately with him in the Oval Office during his second term.
Loomer denies being paid to tweet. She told the Post that Bruesewitz’s firm paid her for “a one-page research document” that “he wanted me to distribute,” accused him of “lashing out” at her over her political beliefs, and said, “I certainly don’t charge $5,000 for a tweet.” She added, “I’m not some influencer that makes money from tweeting,” though she also said, “I’m not going to apologize for monetizing the fact that people fear me.” In 2025 she told The Bulwark she was “not paid for [her] posts.”
Loomer thanked the Post for “promoting my public affairs company and my opposition research firm” in a post pitching Loomered Strategies to clients – “You can hire me, or your opposition will” – and in another turned on Bruesewitz, saying his firm, X Strategies, “is one of the firms most common for paying so called conservative influencers to tweet.” She asked why he waited “till after the election” to speak up, and whether he was “afraid he’s going to be investigated by Democrats because of his proximity to 1789 Capital,” the investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner.
Engels is no neutral party. He has spent the past week attacking Loomer, Susie Wiles, James Blair and Roger Stone by name, and offered on Saturday to explain “how Wiles, Blair, Loomer, Stone work from someone on the inside.”
About an hour after the Post contacted her, Loomer announced a hiatus from her show, “Loomer Unleashed,” citing a “healthy work life balance” and an upcoming wedding; she said the announcement had been scheduled in advance. The disclosure question is unsettled: the FTC requires disclosure of paid endorsements but does not cover political ads, the Campaign Legal Center asked the FEC last year to consider “paid for by” rules for influencers, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a law penalizing undisclosed paid political posts. The White House declined to comment.
