Trump admin. halts "medical-humanitarian" visas for Gaza children after Laura Loomer tantrum
Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration recently decided to stop a program providing visas for wounded Palestinians after a far-right provocateur threw a fit.

In an X post shared on Saturday, the Department of State announced, "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days."
The announcement appears to be in response to pressure from Laura Loomer, a close MAGA ally of Trump's, who recently shared a series of X posts with videos showing wounded Palestinian children with their families arriving in the US to get medical care.
Loomer, who claimed the videos were exclusive after taking them from other sources, described the families as "Islamic invaders from an Islamic terror hot zone," and argued that the children "are not that sick if they can sit on a plane for 22 hours."
She also took aim at HEAL Palestine, an Ohio-based humanitarian group that has been providing such help, which she said was "mass importing Gazans" under the "false claim" of humanitarian aid.
Following the State Department's decision to halt the visas, Loomer shared a post calling it "fantastic news," suggesting all Gazans should be banned from the US, and argued that "the US is not the world's hospital!"
Pro-Palestinian and aid organizations respond to the State Department's decision

The State Department's move comes as Israel continues its occupation of Gaza, which to date has resulted in nearly 62,000 dead Palestinians. Most recently, the conflict has brought about famine and mass starvation in the region.
Multiple pro-Palestine and aid groups spoke out against the decision to halt visas.
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund said in a statement that evacuations "are a lifeline for the children of Gaza, who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure."
"We urge the United States government to reverse this dangerous and inhumane decision and to establish clear and accessible pathways for Palestinian children seeking medical care," the group added.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also condemned the move, describing it as "sheer cruelty" that will "put the lives of more children at risk."
"This ban is just the latest example of our government’s complicity with Israel’s genocide, which is increasingly rejected by the American people," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / UPI Photo & BASHAR TALEB / AFP