MAGA opponents of Elon Musk claim he stripped them of their X-marks

On By Littum



CNN
—

The recent days of debate in the MAGA world about visas for highly skilled workers show no signs of abating. Some prominent online personalities are now accusing Elon Musk of using his social media platform, X, to retaliate against those who disagree with his support for the H-1B visa program.

Musk, tapped to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, has clashed with Trump supporters over H-1B visas. While Trump has taken aim at the visas, Musk – the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX – has defended the program, arguing that tech companies need foreign labor to compete.

“If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they are,” Musk wrote on X, saying in another post on Thursday that “bringing in the top ~0.1% of engineering talent via legal immigration” is “essential for America to continue to win.”

But loyal Trump supporters like the far-right activist Laura Loomerconservative expert Ann Coulter and former rep. Matt Gaetz has criticized Musk and his incoming Department of Government Efficiency chairman, Vivek Ramaswamy, over their pro-H-1B visa stance.

Musk, in turn, stripped Loomer and other members of the right-wing conservative PAC of their verification marks, members of the PAC said.

Loomer, a far-right provocateur and vocal Trump supporter, claimed Thursday that Musk had removed her verified status on X and shut down her ability to gather paying subscribers because of her opposition to the H-1B program.

Musk, she wrote, “is a free speech fraud.”

CNN has reached out to Loomer and X for comment.

Loomer has more than 1.4 million followers on X. It is not known how much money Loomer made through the paid subscriber service on the platform.

Before she lost her verified badge, Musk wrote that “Loomer trolls for attention.”

Preston Parra, the chairman of the conservative PAC, told CNN that approximately 53 accounts associated with his organization lost their verified badges, including Loomer.

“If anyone thinks for one minute that the REAL spine and MAGA of the right wing is going to stand idly by while these big tech-billionaire Silicon Valley dweebs who weren’t bullied enough in high school steal our country, they’re wrong.” Parra said in a statement.

Conservative PAC also wrote on X: “We spoke out against HB1 visas and it looks like @elonmusk intentionally shut us down?”