Who Is Garrett Wade? Trump Staffer Linked to 'Johnny MAGA' Account - Newsweek

A Trump administration staffer by the name of Garett Wade has been linked to the popular X account, Johnny MAGA.

In a report from *WIRED, *the outlet reported that Wade, who works for the Trump administration as a rapid response manager, is running the Johnny MAGA account, citing a review of public records and confirmation from an unnamed White House official.

*Newsweek *has contacted the White House outside of regular working hours via email for comment.

Why It Matters

The Trump administration has employed an unorthodox approach with conservative influencers to date, giving them the opportunity to apply for press credentials as the administration called for “new media voices,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has held separate “influencer briefings” in the White House briefing room.

Conservative media voices are visible in the administration itself too. Dan Bongino, the now former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was hosting a podcast prior to his job at the bureau. The Department of Defense is led by former Fox and Friends host, Pete Hegseth, and reportedly has at least two former creators on its digital media team.

*WIRED’s *report comes after an update to X revealed that a significant number of MAGA accounts are based outside of the U.S.

These incidents have raised concerns about who is shaping online narratives and raised questions about transparency and ethics. A person with a role inside the White House, using an anonymous influencer platform to advance official government messaging, could complicate and further muddy the waters.

What To Know

According to *WIRED’s *report, Wade is a 27-year-old community college graduate, managing the Trump administration’s rapid response social media accounts. *WIRED *reported that he is earning $74,500 in his role in the Trump administration, and that he runs the Johnny MAGA account on the side.

*WIRED *reported that the phone number associated with the Johnny MAGA account belongs to Wade. The account additionally used to have a different handle, which included his year of birth.

The Johnny MAGA account has over 280,000 followers and has shared consistent pro-Trump content since 2022.

The operator of the account has not disclosed a relationship with The White House.

Neither Wade nor Johnny MAGA has publicly confirmed the connection. However, Johnny MAGA did respond to a post about the report: “Lmao.”

Wade is married to White House press assistant Allison Schuster. Schuster recently set her Instagram account to private, but prior to this, she had shared images of herself and Wade at Trump-aligned events, including an election night party where both wore “Make America Great Again” hats, as per Wired.

Her name on Instagram is Allison Schuster Wade. Though her Instagram is private, her X account is public. On X, she has reshared posts from the Johnny MAGA account, including a pro-ICE Christmas message, where he replied to the official account for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Merry Christmas! A lot of Americans who would’ve otherwise been harmed are spending this day safely with their families because of the work you guys have done.”

The account has a decidedly more sentimental tone than other voices in the MAGA contingent. Posts regularly feature heart emojis when speaking about the president, with the user praising both Trump’s politics, his family, and personal style.

One February 15 post reads, “President Trump and First Lady Melania seen celebrating Valentine’s Day together with dinner and entertainment at Mar-a-Lago. This makes me so happy,” while another from February 25 reads, “Barron Trump, so proud of his dad, seen studying the audience reaction at the State of the Union.”

The Johnny MAGA account also spoke about Trump’s racist Truth Social post, where Barack and Michelle Obama were depicted as apes, calling it a “masterpiece.”

“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. It’s a masterpiece,” he wrote.

There has been some speculation on social media that the Johnny MAGA account was posing as a person of color. This appears to be due to the skin color of the avatar in the account's profile picture, and there is no clear evidence of deception in this regard.

A significant wave of criticism has been directed at Wade and the Johnny MAGA account since *WIRED’s *report was published. There has also been support for Wade and criticism directed at *WIRED *over the report.

What People Are Saying

Social media user @CantEverDie, in a post on X viewed over 119,000 times: “genuinely so funny and depressing that everything from the right is fake and bots. stuff like this reinforces that the rights strategy hinges upon paid lying and misinformation networks.”

@HQNewsNow, in a post on X viewed 1 million times: “A new report reveals the racist right-wing Twitter account “johnnymaga” is operated by a taxpayer-funded White House staffer named Garrett Wade. Wade called Trump’s video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes a “masterpiece.””

*Adam Kinzinger, a political commentator and politician, in a post on X: *“Everything they do is fraudulent.”

*The account on X @Howlingmutant0, which has over 190,000 followers: *“It’s 2026 doxxing people really doesn’t work anymore, it just makes the people doing it look like scumbags.”

Alexander Bruesewitz, an advisor to President Donald Trump, in a post on X viewed over 39,000 times: “Why is it shocking that one of the best MAGA accounts on the internet is run by one of the best MAGA social media minds? Garrett is a great guy, and he is a tremendous asset to Team Trump!”

What Happens Next

The Trump administration and Wade have not publicly responded.

The incident underscores concern about the ethics behind anonymous political commentators, and political commentators more broadly, and the links they may have that could complicate their content.