Tomi Lahren

About

Tomi Lahren is an American television and online conservative political commentator known for her talk show Tomi on The Blaze.^[1] In 2016, she gained national attention for her conservative commentary on the 2016 United States presidential election, most notably through the videos of her “Final Thoughts” segment which spread widely on social media.

History

Lahren first hosted her own show, On Point With Tomi Lahren, on One America News Network beginning in August 2014. There, she began drawing attention following her commentary on the Chattanooga shootings^[2] and commentary in which she countered the idea that Republicans are old rich and white by pointing to prominent Democrats, saying, ''Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden. Old, rich, white, and if the pantsuit fits … male too?''

In August 2015, she did her final show with One America News Network and in November of that year began her show with The Blaze. Here, she introduced her "Final Thoughts" segment, which became particularly popular on social media. One of her first segments to draw national attention was her "Final Thoughts" on the Colin Kaepernick National Anthem Controversy, aired in August 2016 (shown below).

On November 30th, 2016, Lahren appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah for a 26-minute interview segment (shown below).

While Noah attempted to listen and reason with her, critics noticed that Lahren dominated the segment, reiterating her opinions without regard for Noah's objections.^[3] This led to a divided reaction among liberals. Some praised Noah for his candor in the face of Lahren's obstinance,^[4] while others criticized him for allowing Lahren's viewpoints to reach their widest audience yet.^[5]

The Blaze Suspension and Termination

On her March 17th, 2017 appearance on The View, Lahren claimed that she was pro-choice (shown below).

In the appearance, Lahren says:

“I am a constitutional, y’know, someone that loves the Constitution. I’m someone that’s for limited government. So I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies. I can sit here and say that, as a Republican and I can say, you know what, I’m for limited government, so stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”

Lahren's comments clashed with earlier statements she made on her Blaze series. "The pro-choicers are supposed to be about rare and safe abortions. That's how they avoid sounding like straight-up baby killers," said Lahren. ""Then we have Lena freakin' Dunham out there wishing she could have murdered a fetus."^[15]

On March 18th, 2017, Lahren tweeted a defense, and one day later, Glenn Beck, owner of The Blaze and Lahren's employer, responded (shown below).

Beck continued to call her "intellectual honesty" into question on the March 20th installment of his radio show. "If you’re pro-choice, you can have a job at TheBlaze," said Beck. "I don’t hire people who are sycophants or don’t have my opinion."^[16] Later that day, Beck suspended Lahren for one week.^[17] Lahren responded to the suspension on Twitter, receiving over 9,000 retweets.

On March 26th, 2017, The New York Post reported that The Blaze had permanently banned Lahren from their network.^[18]

Reputation

Lahren is known for her controversial, conservative stances on issues, particularly issues of race. She is most known for being anti-Black Lives Matter, and many critics have called her racist, which she disputes.^[6] Some critics have even gone so far as to call her "White Power Barbie" and "the next Ann Coulter."^[7]

Water Throw

On May 19th, 2018, Tomi Lahren and her mother, Trudy, were accosted at a Minneapolis restaurant by a group of women at the restaurant. After an argument, an unknown person threw a glass of water at Tomi.^[21]

On May 21st, Twitter^[22] user @aVeryRichBish posted a short clip of the water throw taken from Jasmine Kohler's Snapchat story. The post was captioned, "Whoever threw this drink at Tomi Lahren, thank you." The post (shown below) received more than 6,100 retweets and 15,000 likes in two days.

Whoever threw this drink at Tomi Lahren, thank you pic.twitter.com/RJE8xTDMZ3

— I Luh God ✨ (@aVeryRichBish) May 21, 2018

They responded added to the thread with a video of a man screaming "Hey, fuck that bitch" as Tomi spoke to a bouncer at the restaurant. The video was captioned,^[23] "Whoever the guy is that cussed her out, I hope you're having an amazing day." Within two days, the post (shown below, right) received more than 5,600 retweets and 16,000 likes.

Whoever the guy is that cussed her out, I hope you're having an amazing day pic.twitter.com/wpr4egwtBQ

— I Luh God ✨ (@aVeryRichBish) May 21, 2018

Online, people debated about the water throw, with some saying that they feel no sympathy for Lahren and others claiming that that is not an effective form of debate. Comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted,^[24] "I couldn’t disagree more with @TomiLahren, but I don’t think it’s cool to resort to physical actions to make your point. The first amendment is a beautiful thing – use it." The post (shown below, left) received more than 300 retweets and 2,300 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter^[25] user @Scout_Finch tweeted, "Really hard to find one ounce of sympathy for Tomi Lahren while she's building her reputation and brand centered on racism and generally being a mean girl." The post (shown below, center) received more than 625 retweets and 3,500 likes in 24 hours.

On May 23rd, President Donald Trump expressed his support for Lahren on Twitter.^[26] He said, "Everybody is with Tomi Lahren, a truly outstanding and respected young woman! @foxandfriends." The post (shown below, right) received more than 10,000 retweets and 54,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

Over a series of two tweets, Lahren tweeted,^[27][28] "I’m tough and I can handle it. My hope is that we as a country don’t have to resort to this nonsense over political differences[…]I appreciate the words of support- even from those who normally dislike me. Free speech is a gift- no need to resort to that kind of attack. I’ll discuss the restaurant incident on @foxandfriends tomorrow morning."

On May 23rd, Twitter^[29] published a Moments page on the reaction to the water throw.

Online Presence

Lahren is very popular on social media, with over 486,000 Twitter followers^[8] and over 3.8 million Facebook likes.^[9]

Old Tweets

On January 9th, 2017, Twitter users began retweeting old Tomi Lahren tweets from when she was a college student.^[10] Some of the more popular tweets, some of which Tomi Lahren has since deleted, featured her talking about partying using the hashtag "#popthatp" (short for "pop that pussy"), while in others she complained about summer school and working for her mom.

Related Memes

Wrong Names

On January 3rd, 2017, rapper Wale released a song called "Smile" in which he mentioned Tomi Lahren, mistakenly calling her "Tammy Lahren."

That day, Tomi tweeted "So if you're gonna put someone in a song…diss 'em.. perhaps get their fricken name right next time @Wale".^[11] The next day, Wale responded "Ok Tammy"^[12] in a tweet that gained over 172,000 retweets and over 301,000 likes. It also spawned a brief Twitter trend in which people called Tomi Lahren other names that began with T. The moment was covered by SelectAll.^[13]

One of the most popular tweets regarding the incident was tweeted by @bboothie,^[14] showing the character Tammy from Bob's Burgers, a middle school reporter from an episode in which the character Tina acts as an investigative journalist, and Tomi Lahren, captioned "i now see how wale got confused." The tweet, shown below, gained over 32,000 retweets and 67,000 likes.

Tomi Lahren Logic

As Lahren grew more popular, Twitter users began using images of her face during one of her "Final Thoughts" segments to make outlandish political statements in parody of Lahren's style. Around this time, an edited image of Lahren to make her mouth look especially large also began appearing with these types of jokes. The Daily Dot^[14] covered the spread of these jokes on January 10th, 2017.

"Obama Created Festivus" Hoax

On December 23rd, 2017 an image began circulating on Twitter which made it appear as though Lahren was claiming Barack Obama created "Festivus," a fake holiday famously introduced on Seinfeld, in an effort to distract people from Christmas (shown below).

The following day, she posted a series of tweets scolding other Twitter users for sharing the image (examples shown below).

Later that day, Seinfeld2000 took credit for creating the photoshop by showing a screenshot of the image in photoshop (shown below). The image and Lahren's reaction were covered by Uproxx^[19] and The Daily Dot.^[20]

Angry Fedora

On August 22nd, 2018, Twitter^[29] user @pattymo posted a video of Tomi Lahren giving her "final thoughts." However, ignoring her comments, @pattymo tweeted, "Didn’t know it was possible to be this mad in one of those hats." The post (shown below) received more than 2,500 retweets and 28,000 likes in two days.

Shortly after, @pattymo and others began captioning a screencapture from the video of Lahren with her hands raised. That day, @pattymo tweeted the screen shot, "When the rosé isn't chilled." The post (shown below, left) received more than 1,200 retweets and 10,000 likes in two days.

Throughout the day, people continued to caption the photo with various mundane problems.

The following day, the website someecards^[31] published a list of the most popular tweets.

"Our Place" Photoshops

On October 25th, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter^[32] tweeted about the Fox News streaming service with a photograph of Tomi Lahren in between the words "Our Place" (shown below). They captioned the tweet, "Fox News unveils launch date and price for new streaming service."

That day, reporter Parker Molloy posted a verison of the photograph with the words removed.^[33] She then posted a photoshopped version of the image. She captioned the latter,^[34] "tfw the table next to you got their food first even though your table ordered before them." The post received more than 200 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Over the next 24 hours, people began posting photoshops of the image, placing Lahren in various situations and expressing the criticism that Lahren and Fox News share a racist bias.

That day, Uproxx^[35] published a report on the photoshops.

Lizzo Twitter Feud

On December 18th, 2019, Lizzo ^[36] retweeted her "IM🍑MENT" tweet saying "This aged well…" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 51,800 likes and 4,500 retweets in a day. That same day Lahren^[37], responded by saying, "Well @realDonaldTrump is still your president. Truth hurts. #KAG2020" (shown below, right). Her response accumulated over 13,100 likes in a day.

The next day, Lizzo^[38] tweeted, "The only thing that hurts is this country is divided by hatred fueled from people like you.. why don’t u do better and give ya boy some advice on telling the truth, he’s gonna need it" (shown below, left) which garnered over 58,800 likes and 5,000 retweets in a day. Finally, @TomiLahren^[39] tweeted, "Hatred? This whole witch hunt was fueled by hatred from the Left, from those who can’t stand the fact the country is soaring under this president. You don’t have to like or support @realDonaldTrump but win by voting in 2020, not attempting to nullify the 2016 election" (shown below, right). The tweet received over 5,900 likes in a day.

Personal Life

As of January 10th, 2017, Lahren is 24 years old. She grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, and attended UNLV, which she graduated from in 2014.

Search Interest

External References