Christopher Landau was confirmed as President Donald Trump’s deputy secretary of state earlier this year, with a relatively strong amount of Democratic support and a reputation as a serious diplomat with bonafides.
Now, Landau is creating memes on his official government X account about revoking the visas of a range of everyday people — largely for their social media posts about Charlie Kirk, and with the help of far-right provocateurs like Laura Loomer and an X influencer named “Bad Hombre.” This week, Landau made good on his promise to revoke foreign visas for people who expressed views about Kirk that he found offensive, with the State Department announcing on Tuesday that it had stripped six people of their legal status.
A day after the Turning Point USA leader was killed in September, Landau announced on X that he would be seeking to remove visas from foreigners who “glorify violence and hatred.”
“I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action. Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the @StateDept can protect the American people,” he posted.
X users began replying with social media posts they found offensive, and Landau replied to over a dozen of them, mostly with a signature meme he appears to have created: a take on Batman’s Bat-Signal, but with the U.S. State Department seal projected above the words “El Quitavisas,” or “The Visa Taker.”
One X user asked if they should alert Landau directly with relevant tips. Landau responded, “Yes, I will direct consular officials to monitor the comments to this post.”
Most of the tips were screenshots of social media posts from people around the world. Some were from prominent scholars or activists in their home country, but most were not famous. The allegedly offensive statements ranged from outward celebrations of Kirk’s death to noting Kirk’s own views on gun violence. Landau replied with the El Quitavisas meme to one post that took issue with a Brazilian news outlet simply calling Kirk an “extremist.”
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Globo Communications Group here in Brazil published yesterday that Charlie Kirk is an “extremist.” This Brazilian broadcaster foments hatred against conservatives. pic.twitter.com/n7USNsP7YM
— Paulo de Tarso (@paulodetarsog) September 11, 2025
In some cases, Landau replied to threads started by other X users who identified social media posts about Kirk. On September 13, a large MAGA account called “Bad Hombre” posted a screenshot of a Facebook post from Serena Luciano, who wrote: “charlie kirk can rest in fucking piss … I do not give a fuck about the death of a person who devoted his entire life spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric. it’s hot as fuck where this man is and it’s deserved.” Bad Hombre added a photograph of Luciano and a screenshot of part of her LinkedIn page showing her employer. Bad Hombre wrote that Luciano was “here on a student visa from Argentina.”
Landau replied to Bad Hombre with the Quitavisas meme. (Republican Florida Congressman Randy Fine also chimed in on the thread, writing “deport.”) On Tuesday, the State Department announced that one of the six visa revocations was for “an Argentine national” and included a screenshot of Luciano’s Facebook post.
The operator of the Bad Hombre account took credit for the removal of Luciano’s student visa this week. “I would very proudly like to say that I am 100% responsible for this deportation. BYE BYE!” they posted on Tuesday, with Landau replying “thank you!” once again with his meme.
“Nothing escapes the attention of the dreaded Quitavisas. Greetings,” Landau replied to another post about Luciano’s visa removal, posting the El Quitavisas meme once again.
This week, Landau expanded his use of superhero memes, using his personal X account to post an AI depiction of himself as a muscled Superman shooting disintegrating lasers at a visa.
— Christopher Landau (@ChrisLandauUSA) October 12, 2025
In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, some conservatives spent weeks targeting people for their statements about the right-wing activist. Major influencer accounts like Libs of TikTok along with anonymous doxing websites posted personal information and social media screenshots of teachers, nurses, activists, and civil servants, often in an attempt to get them fired.
Some of the six visas Landau’s department revoked this week were for foreign nationals residing in other countries. Luciano notably is living and working in the U.S. on a student visa. Luciano did not reply to emails and her current whereabouts are unknown.
Landau inviting social media users to help the State Department punish people who were critical of Kirk isn’t the first time he collaborated with controversial influencers to discuss revoking visas.
In June, Landau replied to far-right activist and informal Trump adviser Laura Loomer’s post about Bob Vylan, a UK punk-rap duo that led chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF” (the Israel Defense Forces) during their Glastonbury festival concert in June.
“@marcorubio Please ban the black supremacist Islamist Bob Vylan from being able to travel to the US. Signed, Everyone who wants their country back from uppity foreigners who refuse to assimilate,” Loomer wrote on June 29 at 2 a.m., tagging Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Landau replied to Loomer at 11:13 a.m.: “Done! Visas revoked. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors in our country.”
Landau was Trump’s ambassador to Mexico from 2019 to 2021, and was born in Spain to a father who later became ambassador to Paraguay, Chile, and Venezuela. Landau responds to people in Spanish and Portuguese often on X. This week’s visa revocations also included Brazilian and Paraguayan nationals. While serving as ambassador to Mexico, Landau began cultivating a heavy presence on X, interacting with users, posting memes, and “pushing the boundaries,” as he described his social media use in 2020.
When reached for comment about the visa revocations, a spokesperson for the State Department told Rolling Stone: “The Department has well established processes for denying and rescinding visas based on derogatory information. There is no get out of jail free card just because an individual chose to post that information online. As Secretary Rubio made clear, guests in our country who celebrated the political assassination of Charlie Kirk will have their visas revoked.”
It remains to be seen if Landau’s superhero or supervillain alter ego is just getting started, and if the six announced this week are only the first of more batches of revoked visas to come.
Landau said in September that foreign visitors from countries that do not require visas could also be barred from entering the U.S. — after a Brazilian comedian whose X bio reads “Reviewer of Well-Groomed Chubby Girls” alerted him that a possible target for deportation, anti-Trump Brazilian influencer Felipe Neto, was at Universal Studios in Florida. Landau laid out the scope of his visa revocation powers in response to a now-deleted post in the thread from an anonymous account with 56 followers, a listed location of Moscow, and a header image of a toddler with a noose around its neck.
“Even if people have a passport from a country that does not require a visa to enter the US, we can still place them on an entry ban list,” Landau wrote. “Europeans are also subject to El Quitavisas.”
From Rolling Stone US
