‘Stage 5 clinger’: Is Elon Musk retaliating against MAGA who criticize his immigration stance?
Elon Musk took his feud with the farthest right of the MAGA movement to a new level this week, allegedly stripping the blue check verification from Laura Loomer as he's faced intense criticism on immigration policy.
Yesterday, the right exploded in infighting after Elon Musk endorsed H-1B visas, a work program to allow U.S companies to hire highly skilled foreigners.
Musk, whose myriad companies have benefited from the program, faced accusations from the far right that he was choosing immigrants over Americans. And the most vehement criticism came from Loomer.
"How is it America First to let Indians replace America’s top talent," she wrote earlier in the week, criticizing the incoming Trump administration's appointment of Sriram Krishnan as a senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence, flagging an old tweet of his about removing caps on green cards.
Loomer, who has had a tumultuous relationship with the Trump Team during the campaign, later wrote that Musk retaliated against her by removing all her subscribers to X Premium, his replacement program for Twitter Blue.
"@elonmusk has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants ... Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me for supporting original Trump immigration policies ... I’m having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy."
Loomer noted Trump's original promise to end the H-1B visa program, saying she'd long supported his hardline immigration policy, which she believes Musk and others in big tech are usurping to their own benefit.
Over the next few hours, Loomer repeatedly posted about Musk taking action against her account.
"@elonmusk took away my premium account tonight, limited my character limit, & canceled my subscriptions because I spoke out about mass migration."
Loomer called Musk a "total drag" on the transition and a "stage 5 clinger."
Even some of Loomer's biggest detractors on the right spoke out against the ban.
"You can disagree with Laura Loomer. I do often," wrote one. "But to remove her 2500+ subscribers is insane and personal. These are people that were choosing to individually."
"No way they just took away @LauraLoomer’s blue checkmark!! THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU CALL FREE SPEECH!! I stand with Laura!" added another.
In response to the wave of posts, Musk insinuated that a spam issue was to blame.
"Any accounts found to be engaged in coordinated attacks to spam target accounts with mute/blocks will themselves be categorized—correctly—as spam. Live by the spam, die by the spam," he wrote without directly addressing the issue.
Loomer took his comments to confirm Musk engaged in retaliation against her.
"So much for free speech," she wrote.
Loomer wasn't the only one who said their criticism on immigration resulted in their blue check being removed.
"BREAKING: @GavinWax, who has also spoken out against Big Tech’s H1B policies, also just lost his blue check without changing anything on his account," noted another account.
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