A 27-year-old White House staffer tasked with defending President Donald Trump online is now under fire for secretly running a massive MAGA meme account that cheered on a racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama. 

Wired reports that Garrett Wade, a rapid response manager on Trump’s communications team, appears to be the person behind “Johnny MAGA,” a popular X account that has helped shape the administration’s online narrative while posing as just another die-hard fan.

Public records link Wade’s phone number to the Johnny MAGA account, a connection also backed up by a source inside the White House. The account, which was created in September 2021, originally used a different handle that, according to Wired, is a reference to Wade’s birth year.

On paper, Wade earns around $74,500 a year to help run Trump’s rapid-response messaging — allegedly operating an account with nearly 300,000 followers that spends its time boosting Trump, attacking critics, and pushing hard-right culture-war content.

That included backing Trump after his Truth Social account shared an AI-generated video that depicted the Obamas as apes, earlier this month. While the White House later blamed a “rogue staffer” for posting the clip, the Johnny MAGA account didn’t flinch, calling the video a “masterpiece” and insisting Trump wouldn’t have shared it if he’d really seen the whole thing.

The account has never disclosed any link to the administration, even as its posts are cited by conservative outlets as proof of grassroots support. Online, several users have also questioned whether Johnny MAGA is also pretending to be a Black person, pointing to the avatar’s darker skin tone.

Neither Wade nor the White House has commented, but the revelations are raising bigger questions about what happens when taxpayer-funded staffers moonlight as anonymous propagandists—and where official messaging ends and MAGA fandom begins.