Conservative outlet RedState fired most of its staff Friday while its owner, Salem Media, froze the site, citing an inability to "no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors."



"The site name will linger, but RedState is all but dead now. I have invited the fired writers here," Erick Erickson, a RedState founder who left the site in 2015, wrote in a blog post.

Fired staffers said the cuts focused on writers who have been critical of President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE. RedState had often distinguished itself since 2016 as a home for Trump critics within the GOP.



RedState staffers were reportedly locked out of their accounts on a temporary or permanent basis, depending on job status, while the firings were being carried out.



Patrick Frey, a RedState blogger who goes by the name of "Patterico" online, wrote on Twitter that "those let go are all Trump critics" while "his supporters remain."

The rumors are true. There has been a mass firing at RedState, and those let go (including me) are all Trump critics. His supporters remain. — Patterico (@Patterico) April 27, 2018

Erickson also echoed Frey's sentiment in his Friday blog post, stating the dividing line was drawn between supporters of the president while "those insufficiently loyal to the President were fired."



"My understanding from the writers is that there were two contracts, one more expensive than the other. Most of those on the expensive contracts were tossed, though some very good ones will stay," wrote Erickson, himself a critic of the president.



"Of those under the cheaper contracts, it seems the dividing line was loyalty to the President. In fact, among those under the expensive contracts, I'm aware of some writers having near equal traffic generation, and those insufficiently loyal to the President were fired," he added.



A memo to staff obtained by CNN by a general manager of Salem-owned Townhall.com confirmed the "tough changes" made at RedState.



"We had to make some tough changes to RedState today," wrote Townhall general manager Jonathan Garthwaite in an internal memo. "While these changes are painful, they were necessary once we reached the conclusion that we could no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors."



The Hill has reached out to Salem Media for comment.