A high-profile MAGA influencer on X with hundreds of thousands of followers has been exposed as being secretly run by a White House staffer.
According to Wired, "To its audience, Johnny MAGA looked like an independent voice, another outraged supporter in the MAGA media ecosystem. The account regularly boosts Trump’s Truth Social posts and goes to bat for the administration, attacking Democrats like California governor Gavin Newsom."
The account also pushed images of flag-burning demonstrators in Minneapolis after the killing of Renee Good, saying, “They’re burning the American flag right now in Minneapolis, and they really expect you to believe that ICE shot an innocent civilian.”
The account was created in January 2021 and has often been at the front of pushing far-right, pro-Trump content. It was also active throughout the 2024 election, going after former Vice President Kamala Harris often in very personal ways.
However, underneath the surface, Johnny MAGA was anything but organic.
"Johnny MAGA appears to actually be a White House staffer named Garrett Wade who works for the Trump administration as a rapid response manager, helping to run the very same White House account his anonymous MAGA account amplifies," said the report. "A phone number associated with Wade is linked to Johnny MAGA, according to a WIRED review of publicly available records, and the connection was confirmed by a source close to the White House."
Wade did not reply to Wired's request for comment.
The use of fake accounts to look as though a politician or organization has more outside support than it has, also known as "sock puppets," goes back years. In 2013, Fox News was revealed to use sock puppet accounts to counter online criticism. More recently, an account called @BasedMikeLee, which initially appeared to be an enthusiastic supporter of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), was revealed to in fact be the senator's personal account.