By David Averre
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Shortly after 9/11, the architect of the most lethal terror attack on American soil coined a phrase that far outlived him: "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse."
That sentence, uttered by Osama bin Laden in a November 2001 recording, has been used countless times to explain power dynamics in the Middle East, arguing that power and strength command respect and support, while weakness loses them.
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Perhaps the same observation could be made to explain why some of the MAGA movement's staunchest critics of American support for Ukraine's defense against Russia have suddenly displayed a very public change of heart.
In the past week, notorious MAGA mouthpiece and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who once lambasted Ukraine as a country "full of Nazi apologists," said she had been "bamboozled" by Russian propaganda and recorded an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This coincided with a rapid about-face by Tim Pool, the right-wing broadcaster who in 2024 declared, “Ukraine is one of the greatest enemies of our nation…We should pull out all military support and apologize to Russia,” only to change his tune, writing on Thursday, “I see now the importance of the Ukrainian victory against Russia. I hope Trump and the people of the United States will lend their support.”
One has to wonder how these shrewd and astute commentators achieved such mental clarity. Here are a couple of possible explanations.
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A Great Moral Awakening
Charity starts at home, as they say, so here’s the most charitable explanation.
Perhaps Loomer and Pool spent the past few months—nay—years, in quiet study surrounded by maps, front line casualty reports and history books, gently illuminated by a lamp of conscience flickering silently in the corner.
There they contemplated sovereignty, meditated on empire, reread the Budapest Memorandum and examined Russia’s record of bombing Ukrainian cities—and ultimately concluded that the people who experienced a brutal, full-scale invasion by a much larger, nuclear-armed power might, after all, have a point.
This is certainly the version Loomer has offered. She recently traveled to Ukraine, met Zelensky, and spent an evening camping out in a bomb shelter as Russian drones and missiles soared overhead. During her interview with the Jewish president, she explained, “I’ve come to realize I was bamboozled by Russian propaganda and I came to believe a lot of untrue things about Ukraine. I used to think that this was a country full of Nazis.”
She went on, “You don’t need to listen to a podcaster and let them influence your opinion about a country. You can look at those facts yourself.”
One could argue she should’ve followed her own advice four years ago, but this is nevertheless a positive statement. People can be wrong, get new information, and then be less wrong. This is one of civilization’s better features, somewhere between antibiotics and indoor plumbing, and is to be encouraged.
One could also make a different argument.
Wait…Is Russia The Weak Horse?
This is where Osama might’ve been on to something.
Funnily enough, it comes after a summer in which Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes crippled Russian oil refineries and triggered a fuel crisis; Russia’s Central Bank lowered its 2026 GDP growth forecast to between 0.0 percent—1 percent at a time when Russia’s inflation rate sits at 6 percent; Russia’s casualty rates are exceeding its recruitment rates; and Vladimir Putin’s own pollsters show he’s starting to lose support at home.
After four years of campaigning against support for Ukraine in no uncertain and often quite vile terms, it seems strange that the likes of Loomer and Pool would come to such a shocking realization that sees them cast all prior claims made in tweets, podcasts, broadcasts, and articles out the window.
Perhaps a far simpler explanation is that no one likes to bet on a losing horse. Having seen the tides turn and the outlook for Russia growing bleaker by the week, maybe these social media connoisseurs decided they’d better hedge their bets after all. Support for Moscow-flavored talking points becomes less edgy and more embarrassing the closer the Kremlin comes to failure, and nobody, but nobody, wants to be the last influencer at the Putin fan club.
Now, as Zelensky gears up for a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office this week, one can safely wager that both Loomer and Pool will be watching closely.
“It’s looking good for Ukraine, right?” Loomer said last week in Ukraine. “Going into this meeting next week at the Oval Office is looking pretty good.”
Yes, Laura, it is looking all right for Ukraine, isn’t it?
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Secret Option Number 3: Attention, Obviously.
The least mystical and sadly rather likely explanation of them all: they will do almost anything for attention.
Complaining about the U.S. sending millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine is content. Claiming that Ukraine is full of Nazi apologists is content. Traveling to Ukraine to sit in a bomb shelter is content. Being wrong loudly, then right loudly, then persecuted for having been wrong loudly, is a sure-fire social-media money-making machine if you’ve got the stomach for it.
Evidently it works, because here we are writing about them.
At least Kyiv seems to be making the most of it.
“Laura is very powerful and she’s very authoritative in the U.S., so I hope that everything she has seen by her own eyes will help her to spread the truth when she is back in the U.S.,” Tetyana Berezhna, the deputy prime minister and Ukrainian Minister of Culture, told the AP last week.
“I do really hope and I believe that her visit will have a huge impact on relations with the U.S. administration.”
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