MAGA opponents of Elon Musk claim he stripped them of their X badges
By Donie O’Sullivan, CNN
(CNN) — The debate roiling the MAGA world in recent days over visas for highly skilled workers shows 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 of the H-1B visa program.
Musk, who was 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 and argued that tech companies need foreign workers to compete.
“If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be,” Musk wrote on X, saying in another post on Thursday that “bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent” is “essential for America to keep winning.”
But loyal Trump backers like far-right activist Laura Loomer, conservative pundit Ann Coulter and former Rep. Matt Gaetz have criticized Musk and his incoming Department of Government Efficiency co-chair 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 badges, members of the PAC said.
Loomer, a far-right provocateur and a vocal Trump supporter on Thursday claimed 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 posted, “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 was making through the paid subscriber service on the platform.
Before she lost her verified badge, Musk posted that “Loomer is trolling for attention.”
Preston Parra, the chairman of Conservative PAC, told CNN that approximately 53 accounts affiliated with his organization lost their verified badges, including Loomer.
“If anyone thinks for one minute the REAL backbone of the right wing and MAGA is gonna stand idly by while these big tech gillionaire Silicon Valley dweebs who didn’t get bullied enough in high school, steal our country, they’re mistaken,” Parra said in a statement.
Conservative PAC also posted on X: “We spoke out against HB1 visas and it appears that @elonmusk intentionally shut us down?”
The-CNN-Wire
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