Credit : Zohran Mamdani's X
NEW YORK, November 6, 2026 — Users on X are debating why New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s personal account no longer shows a blue verification checkmark, after screenshots and replies spread claiming the badge had disappeared from @ZohranKMamdani.
An X platform lookup on Friday evening Malaysia time returned verified: false and verified_type: none for @ZohranKMamdani, which lists about 1.33 million followers and describes the account holder as Mayor of New York City. By contrast, the official mayoral handle @NYCMayor still returned verified: true with verified_type: blue and about 2.8 million followers.
Neither Elon Musk, X Corp nor Mamdani’s team had issued a clear public explanation for the personal account’s badge status by the time of writing. Life News Agency found no mainstream wire story confirming that Musk personally ordered the removal. Blue checkmarks on X are tied to an active X Premium subscription and eligibility rules; badges can also drop temporarily after profile changes or for policy reasons, according to X’s published verification guidance summarised by tech outlets.
The chatter intensified after Mamdani posted a midterm video on November 4 with the caption “It’s morning again in America.” Fox News and TigerJek reported that the video criticised Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk; TigerJek quoted lines naming both men and closing with “it’s morning again in America.” Replies under that post began asking where the blue tick had gone.
@swanaamdhaanya wrote on November 5: “bro just talked about elon musk, and now his blue tick has been removed. is this a coincidence?” (link). @flamme_sanabi asked the same day whether Mamdani had lost his blue check, saying they “swear he had one like 12 hours ago” (link).
On November 6, @Shilllin posted a screenshot of Mamdani’s profile header without a checkmark beside the name, writing: “Elon unverified Mamdani removing his checkmark” (link). @smoothmelanin asked: “.@ZohranKMamdani why did Elon remove your blue checkmark??” (link). @SaintPettys said Mamdani’s “blue check is apparently gone” after days of political sparring (link).
A higher-engagement reply from @thecblive alleged that Musk had taken Mamdani’s checkmark so the mayor would not be paid for strong engagement on the platform (link). Other users echoed the retaliation theory; some asked Grok for an explanation, while others noted that Premium badges are paid features and questioned whether a lapse or rule trigger was more likely than a personal intervention.
An X “news” summary circulating on the platform framed the episode as Mamdani noticing a missing badge on his personal account while @NYCMayor kept its check, and said many users called it petty retaliation. That summary carries a disclaimer that it aggregates posts and may evolve, and it is not an official statement from X or City Hall.
Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, took office in January 2026. His personal X account remains active and widely followed. Until X, Musk or the mayor’s office confirms what happened to the badge, the disappearance is established by the account’s current unverified status and by widespread user posts — not by a verified official account of why it was removed.
Source: X account checks for @ZohranKMamdani and @NYCMayor; posts by @Shilllin, @smoothmelanin, @thecblive, @swanaamdhaanya, @flamme_sanabi and @SaintPettys; midterm video @ZohranKMamdani; background from Fox News and TigerJek coverage of the November 4 video.
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