Laura Loomer and more: Atlantic article shows what Susie Wiles has dealt with atop Donald Trump campaign

Northeast Florida political operative Susie Wiles faced a number of challenges in leading the Donald Trump campaign along with Chris LaCivita.

And many of them, note Tim Alberta in “The Atlantic,” came from inside the campaign itself.

Alberta describes a disciplined operation this summer that was undermined by a bored candidate introducing two known chaos agents to the equation, suggesting that if Kamala Harris ultimately wins the election, the former president’s penchant for drama and elevating questionable figures is to blame.

Wiles worked to stop much of this, but at personal cost … and perhaps cost to Trump’s final political campaign.

One of those figures is familiar to Florida political observers: Laura Loomer, a former Congressional candidate and online provocateur who made news earlier this week for interviewing Sen. Rick Scott despite a career of controversial comments.

Alberta offers narrative detail into Wiles’s strenuous objections to the decision to allow Loomer to travel with Trump in September, and the eventual unraveling of her proximity to the campaign during travel to the debate with Harris and to a 9/11 memorial ceremony, after Loomer declared the terror attacks an “inside job.”

After pressure from Loomer, Trump acquiesced to allowing her to travel with the campaign during one of the most important weeks.

“Sir, our next trip is to Philadelphia for the debate,” Wiles told Trump, per sources to Alberta. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Wiles knew that nothing good could come of this. Still, after one more round of gentle pushback, she acquiesced. (Even people like Wiles, who have a track record of talking Trump out of certain reckless ideas, learn that you cannot retain a seat at the table if you tell the man “no” one time too many.) Wiles decided that allowing Loomer on the trip was not a hill to die on. Perhaps, she would later remark to friends, it should have been,” Alberta added.

Eventually, Loomer was off Trump Force One, but not because of political calculations, per Alberta. Rather, it was “the extent of her facial alterations” via “plastic surgery” that mattered as much as her “racist diatribes.”

We reached out to Loomer for comment. While she did not immediately respond, we will include her comments if and when she does.

Our sources tell us there is some truth to Alberta’s account of the Loomer imbroglio.

Wiles and LaCivita faced another major challenge from the return of Corey Lewandowski, a central role in 2016 who was sidelined this cycle during the Trump campaign’s best performance in polls, with Trump’s apparent triangulation stirring the pot in what has been described to Florida Politics as an attempted coup on campaign leadership.

“Lewandowski believed—and told anyone who would listen—that he would outrank the existing campaign leadership. Trump himself, meanwhile, assured Wiles and LaCivita that Lewandowski would be a utility man, serving as a key surrogate while helping to organize election-security efforts and field operations in swing states,” Alberta writes.

Lewandowski went to Trump with burn rate criticisms to undermine campaign leadership, leading to a testy exchange between Wiles and him.

“Wiles told him that she took offense at such conjecture—and that she didn’t need to justify anything to him. Still, Wiles spent the next hour walking Lewandowski through the choices made about vendors, contracts, and costs. When he continued to suggest that things weren’t on the level, Wiles ended the conversation, preferring to focus on preparing Trump for the upcoming debate.”

Due to the pressure, Wiles was compelled to manage the operation’s internal threats as much as she was able to handle the high-powered Harris campaign

“We need to step back and think hard about what we’re doing,” Wiles told Trump at one point. “Because this can’t go on.”