“Very sad to see, but not surprising given the direction of Salem,” he wrote. “And finally, after all these years, they turned off my account.”

Several sources told CNNMoney that they believed President trump’s conservative critics were writers who were targeted for removal.

“Not partisan enough” was a phrase one writer used in a red state group chat.

But if it was about politics, it was about money.

Related: trump’s call for ‘Fox and friends’ explains why we’re not hearing much from him

RedState writers work under contract and are paid based on the amount of traffic to their posts.

“Those who were under contract with a higher per-click rate were basically all cast, only retaining those who were Pro-trump even if their traffic was comparable,” another of the sources said on condition of anonymity.

“Of those who do less on their contracts, they mostly threw up those who openly criticized the President,” the source said. “It seems to have been a cost-saving measure, but the deciding factor between any two people seems to have been who loved the President and who didn’t.”

Salem had no immediate comment. But an internal memo obtained by CNNMoney confirmed the cleanup.

“We had to make some tough changes at RedState today,” Townhall General Manager Jonathan Garthwaite wrote in a memo. “While these changes are painful, they were necessary once we came to the conclusion that we could no longer maintain the entire roster of writers and editors.”

RedState, a 13-year-old blog that was founded by Eric Omixon, is one of several sites in the Townhall Media portfolio. Townhall, in turn, is owned by Salem Media Group, a conservative media company that also operates radio stations and publishes books.

Salem has previously been careful for its attitude of radio hosts who are not toeing the pro-trump line during the presidential campaign.

A source with ties to RedState said bloggers were “miracles if this happens in RedState, “meaning” anyone who wasn’t a big fan of trump would be dropped.”

RedState reflects divisions within the GOP and conservative movement, with a spectrum of writers with varying reactions to trump’s political choices and personality conflicts.

Garthwaite did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

His initial letter to the writers said, “there is no getting around the fact that this is terrible news, but I appreciate your contribution to RedState and I hope you will stick with it through this difficult period and keep RedState going.»

However, some participants then received a separate email saying they were out. Their accounts were blocked, that is, the right to publish was cancelled.

Caleb Howe, one of the site’s lead editors, was among those fired.

He cryptically tweeted Friday: “there Is a right way to do something and f- – – ed up the way.”

His tweet is directed at an unidentified person, saying, ” You can call me back or you can watch this unfold right here, man.”

Howe did not respond to requests for comment from CNNMoney.