January 13, 2024

Far-Right Trump Activist Thinks the Deep State Created the Blizzard in Iowa

Now it’s the weather that is rigging votes.

Snow plow in front of sign that says "Des Moines"

A snow plow drives past a mural during a blizzard in Des Moines, Iowa on January 12, 2024. Photo by Julia Nikhinson/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)Abaca Press/Associated Press

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

In Iowa this weekend, subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions are wreaking havoc on the caucuses, forcing candidates to cancel events and threatening to keep voters home.

Uncomfortable and inconvenient conditions are not especially unusual for January in Iowa—but that fact isn’t stopping far-right activist and Trump supporter Laura Loomer from insisting that they are actually part of a sinister government agenda. Here’s Loomer on X, explaining how the “Deep State” is harnessing its Queen Elsa-like powers to orchestrate the storm for nefarious political purposes:

Loomer is alluding to a conspiracy theory about the University of Alaska’s High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, which studies the ionosphere. It alleges that the project is actually a front for a top-secret government initiative to control the weather. Proponents of this wild speculation have included former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Sandy Hook denialist Alex Jones.   

Paranoia about HAARP persists, despite frequent and decisive debunking by scientists. As Bob McCoy, director of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told the AP in 2018, “No, it’s not a weapon, and it couldn’t be…the way high-frequency radios work is that the atmosphere is transparent to those signals. If we made this 10 times bigger and tried, we still couldn’t affect the weather.”

DECEMBER IS MAKE OR BREAK

A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again—any amount today.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

DECEMBER IS MAKE OR BREAK

A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again—any amount today.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate