Does Trump have real support or just a White House full of trolls? | Opinion - USA Today

Another day, another influencer running through the White House halls.

On Feb. 25, WIRED reported that a popular X account known as Johnny MAGA appears to be traceable to a White House staffer named Garrett Wade. The revelations about the account show the growing blurriness of the line between conservative influencer and mouthpiece for President Donald Trump.

“The most obvious tell that Trump’s Truth Social post wasn’t intentional is that he would’ve posted the entire thing if he had seen it,” the account posted, along with a clip of the video. “It’s a masterpiece.”

I’m not surprised by the possibility that someone in the Trump administration runs a burner account dedicated to glazing the president. Not trusting anyone on the internet is kind of the first rule of using the internet. Yet this reckoning is revealing that the Trump administration might not be as popular as social media slop farmers would have you believe.

MAGA is a house of social media-trolling cards

Content creators in Trump’s atmosphere are nothing new. In fact, they're quite common.

Casey Means, the president’s new surgeon general pick, is a wellness influencer. FBI Director Kash Patel is a podcaster, as is former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

Influencers outside the administration are also making an impact on policy. Far-right activist Laura Loomer alleged in 2025 that she was the reason two National Security Agency officials were fired. A right-wing YouTuber helped bring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge to Minneapolis. MAGA content creators impacted the president’s view of protests in Portland, Oregon.

Still, none of the people who have any direct influence are running anonymous meme accounts dedicated to amplifying MAGA talking points and supporting the president – at least, not that we know of.

Wade’s possible alter ego, however, was previously treated by national news outlets as an indicator of how the online right is feeling. The account, which boasts nearly 300,000 followers, was a supposed window into what the base was thinking.

The incident is reminiscent of November’s reckoning about where many of these influential MAGA X accounts are located. As it turns out, some of Trump’s most fervent supporters don’t even live in the United States.

Polling suggests Trump is far less popular than algorithm says

If some of Trump’s most vocal online foot soldiers are not who they appear to be, what is the truth? Polling tells a different story.

A CNN poll from right before the State of the Union address Feb. 24 reveals that 68% of Americans say Trump “hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.” A recent Economist/YouGov survey shows that 66% of independents disapprove of Trump.

The only people who are remotely happy right now are Republicans. Another poll ‒ this one from NPR, PBS News and Marist University ‒ showed that 77% of Republicans believe the state of the union is solid.

Depending on your personal social media echo chamber, you might be getting very different views of how people feel toward the president. If you’re in circles like mine, you probably conclude that everyone is dissatisfied with Trump. If your social circle leans right, you may think that the majority of Americans support him.

Accounts like Johnny MAGA only add to the confusion – they make it seem as though the president has grassroots support when the real picture is much different. Obscuring the truth online is common, but it doesn’t mean it’s right, nor that it should be common practice in Washington.