But in a Twitter Spaces conversation recorded last week, he rebutted allegations from Trump supporters that either he or the Bee were pulling for any presidential candidate. DeSantis also invited Dillon to speak at his February press conference rolling out a “ Digital Bill of Rights” after the exchange with Loomer, where the Bee executive said he was “thankful to have leadership here in Florida” that was “willing to take action to ensure we all have the right to speak and, yes, to even make jokes in the public square.”ĭillon declined to comment when asked by Rolling Stone. The Bee owner contributed roughly $40,000 to the Florida-based pro-DeSantis Empower Parents PAC shortly before the governor’s reelection in November 2022.

Some Trump supporters had already been suspicious of the relationship between Dillon and DeSantis. “You don’t spend that much money on The Babylon Bee if you’re running for Governor, in fact, you don’t spend money on The Babylon Bee if you’re running for anything!” he wrote. Shortly after, Trump took to his Truth Social account to blast both DeSantis and The Babylon Bee. A source familiar with the situation tells Rolling Stone that Loomer flagged the payments to Trump during a private dinner. They have never suggested that we write anything about Trump.”īehind the scenes, the revelation prompted fury from Trump. “We help him find funny angles on Democrats. “You could consider us speech writing consultants,” Dillon texted Loomer in one message. The post came a couple of days after USA Today named Levine one of its Women of the Year.But in February, the relationship between Trumpworld and the Bee soured when anti-Muslim activist and far-right Trump backer Laura Loomer noticed a $21,500 payment from the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC to the Bee made during the governor’s race and tweeted that Seth Dillon - owner of The Babylon Bee - had claimed to her that the money was for “ joke/speechwriting.” In text messages reviewed by Rolling Stone, Dillon claimed to Loomer that the payments were about helping DeSantis fight Democrats, not Trump. On March 15, the Babylon Bee posted an article trolling Levine by deadnaming her and making fun of her for wearing dresses in a faux-congratulatory tone. Its terms of service note that “you may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.” Twitter has considered deadnaming trans people to fall under its “hateful conduct” policy since 2018. Twitter cited its rules against “hateful conduct” for the ban. “I just received this notice that we’ve been locked out of our account for ‘hateful conduct,’” Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon posted on Twitter.

Rachel Levine their “Man of the Year” for 2022. Over the weekend, Twitter locked the account of conservative satire site the Babylon Bee after it named U.S.

Twitter cancels babylon bee