That all changed this month.

“I fell for Russian propaganda,” she announced to her followers on Wednesday’s edition of Loomer Unleashed, describing how she had believed that Ukraine needed to be “denazified” without realizing that Russia was killing Christians in its war.

Loomer is one of the most influential outside figures in Trumpworld. She is a frequent visitor to the Oval Office, with her visits known to be followed by the dismissal of national security figures on her recommendation.

Her U-turn on Ukraine is a victory for Ukraine advocates, who say they face an uphill struggle to combat Moscow’s $2 billion propaganda campaign.

Secrets can reveal that the tipping point came with the help of a former Republican strategist and chief of staff, who took one of Loomer’s journalists to Ukraine, where he embedded with the 34th Marine Brigade.

Andrew Moore, a reporter for Loomer Unleashed, was also in Kyiv during one of the heaviest Russian attacks. On the show, he described what he saw when he emerged in the morning from a bomb shelter.

“We went and visited wreckage around the city,” Moore told Loomer. “One of those sites was an evangelical church that was completely exploded in the middle of it. A cruise missile had hit it, and the damage was extensive.”

He described how Americans would have recognized the church as one used by American televangelists such as Joel Osteen. Before it had been pulverized.

His trip was facilitated by Steven Moore, founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project. In a previous life, he spent seven years working in the House of Representatives as chief of staff for former Rep. Pete Roskam, the former chief deputy Republican whip.

“When you bring people to Ukraine, even if they’re skeptics, they see that it’s a fight for freedom,” Steven Moore told Secrets over a cup of coffee during a visit to Washington this week. “They see that Russia is doing terrible things to Ukrainian Christians and they come around, they change their mind.

Steven Moore said he could not compete financially with a regime that spends $2 billion a year on propaganda.

“But we have the truth,” he said. “And even in today’s world, the truth still works.”

The second part of his message, aside from attacks on Christians, is the way Russia and Iran have formed a nexus.

He said Andrew Moore saw that for himself with the 34th Marine Brigade, and their work protecting Kherson by taking out Russia’s Shahed drones, the same model that was being used against American personnel in the Middle East.

“Russia is sending these new and improved Shahed drones to the Middle East to target US service members, and Ukraine is sending the weapons to defend US service members,” he said. “It’s not a complicated story once you boil it down to that.”

Loomer’s switch in stance is a huge win. But it still leaves the likes of Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, and Candace Owens, the far-Right commentator, pushing Russian talking points.

Steven Moore said he would like to see Joe Rogan, whose podcast gets more than 10 million listeners for each episode, get better information on Ukraine.

“Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, they know what they’re saying is not true, and they say it anyway,” he said. “Joe Rogan just hangs out with the wrong crowd.”

Loomer told her listeners that the Russians were masters at finding and using divisions.

“The Russians are very good at tapping into emotions, they’re very good at exploiting the anger of the American people, especially the anger of the MAGA movement, and I think we need to take a step back and sometimes think about how our emotions are being exploited,” she said.

Why Trump agreed to ceasefire with Iran

Amid all the bluster and rambling of the president’s press conference at the G7 in France on Wednesday — and the chaos of the document rollout — there were moments of illumination and, indeed, possibly truth among Trump’s words.

“The one president I did not want to be was the late great Herbert Hoover. I didn’t want that, and who knows what would have happened, but bad things happened,” he said, invoking a man whose presidency was dominated by the Great Depression.

Trump elaborated a little later about why now was the time to agree the memorandum of understanding with Iran, despite not securing the unconditional surrender he had once demanded.

“The one thing I didn’t want to see is, I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe,” he said. “If you kept this going, that could have happened, but all I know is every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shot up like a rocket ship, it never went down.”

Jill’s secret message to Trump

Secrets read Jill Biden’s new memoir, View from the East Wing, so you don’t have to. If you have read the excerpts and reviews elsewhere, then you have probably seen the best bits.

But Secrets was tickled by a section where Dr. Biden, as she likes to be known, describes the Bidens’ last day in the residence in 2025 before the Trumps moved back in.

It is cold and frosty, and she notices that the windows where the Bidens watch TV have frosted on the outside, with a thin watery film on the cold glass on the inside. “Hmm, the perfect place for a message,” she thinks to herself, realizing that any message would disappear before reappearing the next day.

“Tempting,” she writes. “The residence staff wouldn’t observe it because the sun would have warmed the glass by the time they would come into that part of the house. Yes! I would write it with my finger in the steam. I looked at the message for a few moments… Should I let it remain? Finally, I left that room for the last time, heading upstairs to get ready.”

She doesn’t explain later whether she left it there. But reader, I think we can assume she did!

Lunchtime reading

Feeble Iran deal a fitting end to a foolish war: There is little love for Trump’s deal with Iran. And our Tom Rogan explains why.

Fox’s World Cup problem: Zlatan Ibrahimović and Alexi Lalas: It’s almost as if they have leaned into the idea that hate-watching can drive viewership.

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