MAGA Civil Warriors: Free Speech Guy Elon Is Silencing Us

Members of MAGA nation are saying that Elon Musk, an avowed “free speech absolutist,” is silencing them by stripping away their verification badges on X, the social media platform that he owns.

The South African-born multibillionaire has emerged as the central target in a MAGA civil war that erupted on Thursday after his Department of Government Efficiency co-head, Vivek Ramaswamy, made a controversial X post claiming, “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”

The schism has centered on Musk and Ramaswamy’s support for importing talented workers from outside the U.S., using H1B visas.

When Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, renaming it X, one of his stated goals was to make the platform a free speech haven. During the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, Musk emerged as a close ally of Donald Trump.

Now, dozens of pro-Trump accounts say they are losing their verification check marks after disagreeing with Musk and Ramaswamy over H1B visas. The biggest accounts hit by the ban include those of New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax, InfoWars host Owen Shroyer, and the ConservativePAC, according to Mediaite.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, the loudest voice in the room is Laura Loomer, the notorious Trump diehard and conspiracy theorist.

While some major MAGA figures on X have suggested that the disappearance of check marks might not be retaliation from Musk, Loomer—who says she lost her mark, access to X Premium, and her ability to have subscribers—has doubled down.

Since the infighting began, Loomer’s account on X has fired off a stream of posts criticizing the world’s richest man.

Late on Thursday, she wrote on X that “as one of Trump’s biggest supporters, I’m having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy.”

“How can you call yourself a ‘free speech absolutist’ and then punish someone by restricting their speech?,” she wrote in a post on Friday. “We need to have an honest conversation about Big Tech influence over MAGA.”

Loomer is not the only MAGA faithful to turn on the First Buddy after losing their verification.

X user @ThePrestonParra, who describes himself as a “twink for Trump,” posted that “50 of my friends and I had our accounts de-badged for speaking out on foreigners being imported in to take American jobs.”

“I think the man who de-badged me called White people retarded,” the post added, seeming to reference that Musk stoked further controversy earlier today by liking a post that called Americans too “retarded” to fill the country’s tech workforce.

Liz Willis, a MAGA media personality with more than 100,000 followers on X, posted a photo that showed her badge was under review. In the caption, she asked, “What did I do wrong @elonmusk @X?”

After losing her check mark, Cassandra MacDonald, a writer for a far-right website, posted that “Elon Musk is lashing out hard” and suggested he was “overly emotional.”

Against the torrent of posts condemning Musk, some MAGA figures are advocating unity—or at least delaying judgment.

“No one in MAGA that I know has turned on Elon or Vivek,” claimed Kylie Jane Kremer, a former producer for Sean Hannity. “We are seeking clarification and need to have a serious, open dialogue on H1B visas. Don’t let the left divide us.”

“The verification issue also needs to be immediately addressed by X by Elon because although it is a separate issue, they seem to be connected,” she added. “It’s very concerning.”

Despite his near-constant posting on X, Musk has yet to publicly address the allegations that he is retaliating against his critics by removing their verification badges.

Representatives for X did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment on the situation.

Late Thursday night, pro-Trump media figure Shawn Farash proposed a theory for the disappeared badges other than Musk’s retaliation—namely, that the affected accounts were affiliated with the profile for ConservativePAC, which he said lost its status as a verified organization on the platform.

As a result, accounts with affiliate badges of ConservativePAC would have undergone a change, automatically triggering a review of their verified status, Farash suggested.

“It wasn’t ‘retaliation,’” he added. ”Bookmark this. I bet those checkmarks return shortly.”

In the meantime, though, the MAGA civil war rages on.