Here's Johnny
And the MAGA who kept his secret
Welcome back, KTB readers.
Two weeks ago, WIRED identified “Johnny MAGA,” the pseudonymous Twitter/X troll who runs a heavily followed, always obnoxious, pro-Trump account that is often cited by journalists and retweeted by various White House staffers.
Johnny MAGA is a 20-something named Garrett Wade. And Garrett Wade is not just some random Trump fanboy tweeting his bile independently; Garrett is one of those White House staffers. He does White House social media, and his title is “Rapid Response Manager.”
Yup, “Johnny MAGA” is really a sock puppet account for the White House.
The Daily Beast has some more details on Garrett. And KTB does too - turns out that KTB had already called out both Garrett’s wife and one of his Rapid Response bros before Garrett’s sock puppet scheme was exposed!
Garrett’s wife is Allison Shuster, who KTB called out in September. Allison is a White House press assistant who has written articles praising Kanye’s presidential bid and ranting about COVID vaccines, non-existent election fraud, trans people, people who dislike Christopher Columbus, and other alt-right boogeymen.
Allison has also retweeted and tagged Johnny MAGA from her own Twitter/X, but she never mentioned their nuptials. Guess she just innocently forgot.
Dylan Johnson also never mentioned his relationship with Johnny MAGA. Yet here they are, Dylan second from left, Garrett/Johnny on the far right.
KTB called out Dylan in January. Trump had just appointed him an Assistant Secretary at the State Department. Before that, Dylan had worked alongside Garret in Rapid Response, creating obnoxious digital media and social media posts, first for Trump’s 2024 campaign and then for the Trump White House.
Dylan also retweeted Johnny MAGA.
Both he and Allison deceived Johnny MAGA readers - “Johnny’s” MAGA fans, his anti-MAGA critics, and disinterested journalists. By keeping Garrett’s scam a secret, they helped White House sock puppetry pass for genuine, grassroots discourse.
Twitter dum and twitter dee
Same for the other two bros in the picture. They also hid Garrett’s fraud. The one on the left wearing the MAGA hat is Greg Price.
Greg went to Sacred Heart University where he played lacrosse, was president of the College Republicans, and authored articles for Lone Conservative, an online zine written by right-wing college kids. In one article, he wrote:
“The policy of maximum pressure from the Trump administration is the only way to prevent the situation from deteriorating into a destructive conflict.”
That was Greg’s astute thinking about Iran.
Oops.
After graduating in 2019, Greg worked for the right-wing Media Research Center; then for the Daily Caller; then for a political media firm specializing in extreme right candidates; and then as the Director of Communications for the State Freedom Caucus Network, a group tied to the House Freedom Caucus.
Greg also won a Publius Fellowship from the Claremont Institute, an honor given annually to up-and-coming bigots, extremists, and conspiracy theorists.
Such as Greg. His Twitter/X is full of obnoxious Claremont-style bile including this tweet (and others) supporting the racist great replacement conspiracy theory:
And this tweet storm (and other tweets) defending the January 6 rioters:
And tweets attacking trans people, DEI, Dr. Fauci, George Soros, lots of Democrats, “mentally ill pronoun people,” “troons,” “cucks,” “libtards,” etc.
And retweets of Johnny MAGA.
Johnny who, as Garrett Wade, worked under Greg when, in 2024, Greg became the Trump campaign’s Deputy War Room Director. Greg gushingly described Garrett and himself and the other two bros in the pic up top as “shitposters fueled by a lot of black coffee and Zyn.” After Trump won, all of them joined the White House’s Rapid Response team and continued their noxious shitposting.
Greg left the White House in July, but his Twitter/X is still going. As of this week, he is at over FIFTY-NINE THOUSAND rude, weird, angry, alt-right tweets.
And that is why you never feed Zyn to a MAGA.
Jake Schneider, the fourth bro in the pic, isn’t quite as prolific as Greg: he has a mere forty-three thousand tweets - including, of course, retweets of Johnny MAGA. Jake is a White House special assistant and the Rapid Response team’s director.
Before the White House, and before being a Trump-Vance shitposter, Jake ran the Twitter/X “RNC Research” account - a job that was really just more MAGA shitposting. In that roll, Jake sent thousands of mean tweets and also created many of the most viral fake vids of Joe Biden. Jake did so anonymously, under the RNC Research handle, until the Daily Beast exposed his real identity.
Jake got the RNC Research gig after working briefly as a Hill staffer and then for the 2020 Trump campaign. Before that, he had been a staffer for the Minnesota State Senate and, in college, an intern for Tea Partier Michele Bachmann.
Jake’s tweets are similar to Greg’s: MAGA grievance and anger, mixed with misinfo and rants about MAGA bugbears. Like one MAGA soul shared by two bodies.
Or by four.
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“Yet here they are, Dylan second from left, Garrett/Johnny on the far right.”
The unintentional bullseye of the final phrase … chef’s kiss 👌
I am sure most gloss right over this but it is very important to understand how this works. It's psychological warfare. What's gets seeped into the universe matters. Our rapid response could use some work. MAGAs are ruthless and we need the same spirit with the truth. Right audience right cadence. No more when they go low...we need teams prepared to fight the fight we are in. For this group of MAGA's...when they go low we need the team that has the ability to go ballistic.