# Tomi Lahren

Tomi Lahren is an American conservative political commentator who shot to viral fame in 2016 through fiery 'Final Thoughts' monologues on The Blaze, where she went after targets like Beyoncé and Colin Kaepernick. Her clashes with Trevor Noah and her eventual firing after declaring herself pro-choice turned her into one of the most memeable political pundits of the Trump era.

## Origin
Lahren got her first show, On Point With Tomi Lahren, on the San Diego based One America News Network in August 2014[7]. The first clip of hers to really move outside conservative circles was a July 2015 monologue reacting to the Chattanooga shooting of four U.S. Marines, in which the then 22 year old anchor accused President Obama of a 'half-way, half-baked, tip-toe, be-friendly-to-Jihadis mentality' and said it was time 'to put the fear of God in their desert'[1]. USA Today reported the YouTube upload passed 2.5 million views within days[1].

She left OANN in August 2015 and launched Tomi on The Blaze that November, where she rolled out the 'Final Thoughts' segment that defined her peak era[7]. Her February 2016 takedown of Beyonce's Black Panther themed Super Bowl halftime show pulled in millions of views and was answered on wax by Jay Z, who sampled her broadcast on Pusha T's 'Drug Dealers Anonymous' that June[2]. Her August 2016 'Final Thoughts' on Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest, posted to Facebook on August 31, was the segment that pushed her into full national awareness[8].

- **Platform:** One America News Network (TV origin) / Facebook (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Tomi Lahren
- **Date:** 2015

## Overview
Tomi Lahren built her online footprint around short, aggressive camera monologues delivered straight to the lens, usually attacking a celebrity, athlete or Democratic figure for perceived disrespect toward America, police or the military[2]. The 'Final Thoughts' segments she produced for The Blaze starting in late 2015 were designed to be chopped into shareable Facebook clips, and the format worked well enough that The Guardian labeled her 'the new Ann Coulter' and nicknamed her 'white power Barbie' in a September 2016 profile[2].

The memeability came from the delivery as much as the content. Lahren's hits tended to be around three minutes, shot in a single take, and pitched at a volume somewhere between lecture and shout, which made them easy to parody and easy to clip. Writers covering her, including Salon, described her rhetorical mode as 'passionate obstinacy' that regurgitated the same lines about Hillary Clinton being a criminal and Black Lives Matter being militant[3]. That repetition is what turned her into a recognizable character online rather than just another cable pundit[4].

She also became a meme in the dictionary sense. Urban Dictionary entries from 2017 define 'Tomi Lahren' as, among other things, 'the disgusting, revolting (blond) clump of hair stuck inside your grimy shower drain,' which gives a sense of how the left-leaning internet treated her name once it was a recognizable brand[6].

## How It Spread
Lahren's growth was driven by Facebook video rather than Twitter. By September 2016 The Guardian noted her Final Thoughts clips were regularly pulling millions of views on an average day, with the Kaepernick video being the breakout hit[2]. Rapper Wale name-checked her, under the mangled name 'Tammy Lahren,' on his January 2017 track 'Smile,' and the back and forth that followed on Twitter spawned a chain of users deliberately calling her by wrong T names like Tonya, Tina, Tiffany and Tracy[4].

The moment that cemented her as a mainstream figure was her November 30, 2016 sit down with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, a 26 minute interview that was clipped, remixed and dissected across both liberal and conservative media[8]. Salon argued Noah had been too deferential, calling the exchange 'no more enlightening than a Bill Maher roundtable'[3], while The Huffington Post said he had handed her 'the widest audience yet' for her views[8]. The clip remains one of the most watched Daily Show segments of that era (full video embedded below).

The implosion came in March 2017. On the March 17 episode of The View, Lahren declared she was pro-choice, which clashed with earlier 'Final Thoughts' segments where she had called pro-choicers 'straight-up baby killers' and attacked Lena Dunham for 'wishing she could have murdered a fetus'[8]. Blaze owner Glenn Beck said on his March 20 radio show, 'I don't hire people who are sycophants or don't have my opinion,' and suspended her for a week[8]. On March 26, Page Six reported she had been permanently banned from the network, with a Beck insider saying he 'couldn't sit by and watch as Tomi Lahren said there's no way for conservatives to justify anything other than being pro-choice'[5]. The firing itself became meme fodder, with 'Tomi got fired' jokes trending alongside screenshots of her old pro-life segments.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Tomi Lahren?
Tomi Lahren is a U.S. conservative television and online commentator who became a widely memed political figure through her 'Final Thoughts' video segments on The Blaze in 2016 and 2017[2].

### Where did Tomi Lahren come from?
She first hosted On Point With Tomi Lahren on One America News Network starting in August 2014, then moved to The Blaze in November 2015[7].

### What does Tomi Lahren mean?
Online, her name became shorthand for a certain style of combative, camera-to-the-lens conservative rant, and even picked up slang definitions on Urban Dictionary ridiculing her hair and politics[6].

### How do you use Tomi Lahren?
Clips of her 'Final Thoughts' are often shared as examples of over the top political punditry, or paired with jokes about her 2017 pro-choice reversal and firing[5].

### Is Tomi Lahren still popular?
Her peak virality was 2016 to 2017 on Facebook and cable news; after her firing from The Blaze in March 2017 her meme footprint declined but the clips are still referenced as classic Trump era political content[5].

### Why did Trevor Noah interview her?
Noah invited her on The Daily Show on November 30, 2016 for a 26 minute conversation after her Final Thoughts segments blew up on Facebook during the 2016 election[8].

### Why did Jay Z sample her?
After her February 2016 Final Thoughts attacking Beyonce's Super Bowl performance went viral, Jay Z used a clip of her broadcast on Pusha T's track 'Drug Dealers Anonymous' in June 2016[2].

### Why was Tomi Lahren fired from The Blaze?
She declared herself pro-choice on The View on March 17, 2017, Glenn Beck suspended her days later, and Page Six reported on March 26, 2017 that she had been permanently banned from the network[5].

### What is 'White Power Barbie'?
It is a nickname The Guardian used in a September 2016 profile that argued Lahren was being positioned as the next Ann Coulter of conservative media[2].

### Who is 'Tammy Lahren'?
'Tammy' is the wrong name rapper Wale used for Lahren on his January 2017 track 'Smile,' and the mix up turned into a running Twitter joke where users called her Tonya, Tina, Tiffany and other T names[4].

## References
1. [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/21/chattanooga-tomi-lahren-one-america-news-network-obama-middle-east/30497797/](<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/21/chattanooga-tomi-lahren-one-america-news-network-obama-middle-east/30497797/>)
2. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/23/tomi-lahren-conservative-white-power-barbie](<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/23/tomi-lahren-conservative-white-power-barbie>)
3. [https://www.salon.com/2016/12/04/trevor-noah-plays-gracious-host-to-tomi-lahren-reason-solidifies-distant-second-to-feelings-in-public-debate/](<https://www.salon.com/2016/12/04/trevor-noah-plays-gracious-host-to-tomi-lahren-reason-solidifies-distant-second-to-feelings-in-public-debate/>)
4. [https://nymag.com/selectall/2017/01/tomi-lahren-gets-owned-on-twitter-by-rapper-wale.html](<https://nymag.com/selectall/2017/01/tomi-lahren-gets-owned-on-twitter-by-rapper-wale.html>)
5. [https://pagesix.com/2017/03/26/shake-up-causes-drama-at-glenn-becks-theblaze/](<https://pagesix.com/2017/03/26/shake-up-causes-drama-at-glenn-becks-theblaze/>)
6. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tomi%20Lahren](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tomi%20Lahren>)
7. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomi_Lahren](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomi_Lahren>)
8. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tomi-lahren](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tomi-lahren>)
9. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq0_nyWVXCI](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq0_nyWVXCI>)
10. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2xv4fba65U](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2xv4fba65U>)
11. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CprKHzTXNM](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CprKHzTXNM>)
12. [https://www.theroot.com/tomi-lahren-has-drinks-thrown-at-her-during-hip-hop-bru-1826253182](<https://www.theroot.com/tomi-lahren-has-drinks-thrown-at-her-during-hip-hop-bru-1826253182>)

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