What we know about reports Nancy Mace ordered staffers to create burner accounts to promote her online.
In late May 2025, a rumor spread online that U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, ordered her staffers to create burner accounts on social media to promote her. (A burner account is a social media account created "for the purpose of remaining anonymous.")
Claims spread on X, Facebook, Bluesky and Reddit. While some posts presented the claim as an allegation, others presented it as fact.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1183112690586970&set=a.201905705374345
The rumor appeared to originate with reporting from Wired, a reputable tech magazine, which ran a story on May 28 titled, "Nancy Mace's Former Staff Claim She Had Them Create Burner Accounts to Promote Her."
The keyword here is claim: The Wired story does not present the statement that Mace ordered her staffers to create burner accounts as 100% factual, instead treating it as an allegation made by anonymous former staff members. Similarly, Snopes cannot put a fact-check rating on this story because there is not enough verifiable public evidence definitively proving or disproving the claim.
With that said, here is what we do know about the allegations.
Wired's story, written by senior politics writer Jake Lahut, relies on anonymous sources identified as former Mace staffers. These sources requested anonymity "because they fear reprisal from their former boss," per Lahut's article. Snopes could not, as of this writing, independently verify the legitimacy of Lahut's sources; Lahut said via a polite email that he could not make any promises about helping Snopes with its verification process in the immediate future due to his own workload.
Here are the claims as presented in the Wired story:
A principal—and unusual—use to which Mace put her skills, according to former staffers, was setting up burner accounts on a variety of social media platforms to monitor what people were saying about her and bolster her image. They also claim she requested that staffers make their own burner accounts to defend her online.
"We had to make multiple accounts, burner accounts, and go and reply to comments, saying things that weren't true—even Reddit forums," a former staffer says. "We were congressional staff, and there were actual things we could be doing to help the constituents."
Mace's communications director, Sydney Long, disputed the allegations. "Nancy Mace's Communications Director here, can confidently say I've never been asked to make a burner account," Long wrote in a May 28 X post. "This isn't the hit y'all think it is." In an email to Snopes, Long wrote, "I would give you an additional comment but we're too busy creating burner accounts, according to former staff. (sarcasm)."
"As Congresswoman Mace's Communications Director, I can say with complete confidence: I've never been asked to create a burner account, and the suggestion is laughable," Long's email continued.
Long did not provide Mace's reaction to the story, but Mace appeared to acknowledge the Wired story in a May 29 X post, in which she said: "Comment your burner account below."
One popular post on Facebook claimed that Mace's former staff "said under oath" they had to create burner accounts to promote Mace. That's a misunderstanding of Wired's reporting, which instead described an April 28 deposition of a former consultant for Mace, Wesley Donehue, who reportedly said under oath that Mace sets up her own burner accounts and bots on social media. The deposition makes no mention of Mace ordering staff to set up burner accounts or bots.
As for the legitimacy of the deposition in question: While it does not seem to appear in Charleston's court case search system, a document available in the system mentions the deposition on Page 7, suggesting it is legitimate. Lawyers named in the deposition did not immediately return a request to verify its authenticity.
Here is the relevant portion of Donehue's statement on Page 10 — or Page 40, if you're using the page numbers of the original document instead of the PDF — first published by conservative South Carolina news outlet FITSNews on May 21 (emphasis ours):
Nancy Mace is quite the -- when I use the word "nerd" or "geek," it's always favorable, but a computer nerd or a computer geek. She programs her own bots, she sets up Twitter burner accounts. This is kind of a thing she does. She sits all night on the couch and programs bots, because she's very, very computer savvy. She controls her own voter database, she programs a lot of her own website, she programs Facebook bots and Instagram bots and Twitter bots. It's what she does for fun.
Lawyers representing Mace's former fiance, Patrick Bryant, deposed Donehue after South Carolina law enforcement reportedly interviewed him in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations made by Mace against Bryant. (Bryant has repeatedly denied these allegations.) While Donehue publicly disparaged Mace and said that he fired her as a client, FITSNews reported that Donehue initially refused to give a statement.
Snopes previously examined Mace's claim she was physically accosted by a man who shook her hand and a rumor that she vandalized her own home.
Bryant, Patrick. "Patrick Bryant - I Categorically Deny the False and Outrageous..." Facebook.com, 20 May 2025, www.facebook.com/bpatrickbryant/posts/pfbid0ZThS7mzzCb4YTHMYZVuHNGWs29veao6Nhjq3wdhwNXZRxX7FHPM2jG4r89e1KDJ7l?rdid=cTLe79rk8H0iOzfB#. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Byrd, Caitlin. "Here's What We Know about the 4 Men Accused of Sexual Assault in Rep. Nancy Mace Speech." Post and Courier, 12 Feb. 2025, www.postandcourier.com/news/congress-nancy-mace-fiance-patrick-bryant-sexual-misconduct-allegations/article_9745e948-e7c7-11ef-a84e-ab4616d9e559.html. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Donehue, Wesley. "I Was Very Involved in This Entire Nancy Mace Story and Ultimately It's Why I Left Her Campaign. I've Typed up 40 Different Tweets That I Wanted to Send ..." X (Formerly Twitter), 10 Feb. 2025, x.com/jwesleydonehue/status/1889131801207062825. Accessed 29 May 2025.
---. "You Can Stop Texting Me. I Fired Nancy Mace as Client a Few Months Back Because I'm a Political Consultant and Not a Babysitter..." Archive.ph, X (formerly Twitter), 20 Dec. 2024, archive.ph/Jbhwp. Accessed 29 May 2025.
FITSNews. "Bombshell Deposition: Nancy Mace's Former Strategist Unloads." FITSNews - Politics, Sports and Pop Culture, FITSNews, 21 May 2025, www.fitsnews.com/2025/05/21/bombshell-deposition-nancy-maces-former-strategist-unloads/. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Friedman, Amanda. "Mace, Alleging Assault, Shares Nude Photo of Herself during House Hearing She Says Was Taken without Her Consent." POLITICO, Politico, 20 May 2025, www.politico.com/news/2025/05/20/nancy-mace-assault-allegation-00361021. Accessed 29 May 2025.
"Jake Lahut." WIRED, www.wired.com/author/jake-lahut/. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Kinnard, Meg. "Rep. Nancy Mace Accuses Ex-Fiancé, Associates of Misconduct in House Speech." AP News, 11 Feb. 2025, apnews.com/article/nancy-mace-south-carolina-7d831f415ae00d703e30fa6c701f18de. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Lahut, Jake. "Nancy Mace's Former Staff Claim She Had Them Create Burner Accounts to Promote Her." WIRED, 28 May 2025, www.wired.com/story/nancy-mace-former-staff-burner-accounts/. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Long, Sydney. "Nancy Mace's Communications Director Here, Can Confidently Say I've Never Been Asked to Make a Burner Account. This Isn't the Hit Y'all Think It Is." X (Formerly Twitter), 28 May 2025, x.com/SydneyLongSC/status/1927795780271669514. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Mace, Nancy. "Comment Your Burner Account Below⬇️." X (Formerly Twitter), 29 May 2025, x.com/NancyMace/status/1928131742612812151. Accessed 29 May 2025.
"Merriam-Webster Dictionary | Burner Account." Merriam-Webster.com, 16 May 2025, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burner%20account. Accessed 29 May 2025.
Mullaney, Marybeth. Jane Doe v. Patrick Bryant, John Osborne, Eric Bowman and Pommer Group LLC. | PLAINTIFF'S MOTION to PROCEED under a PSEUDONYM pursuant to RULE 10 of the SOUTH CAROLINA RULES of CIVIL PROCEDURE. 29 May 2025, www.courtplus.org/DocHandler.ashx?id=020000000E6040325366BA57F848013E556FA0A9FDA0FE48316A3594857EB94A1AD22CC7C932678924AF776D7DFE0ABF48AAC1AB242E4C976E1292B602873B9A6E18183A&casenum=2025CP1003124. Accessed 29 May 2025.
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The Hill
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (L) and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speak during the fifth Republican presidential primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10, 2024. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (L) and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speak during the fifth Republican presidential primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10, 2024. AFP via Getty Images/Jim WATSON Trump formally announced his bid for a second term in November 2022, and his attacks on his former protege were relentless: "Meatball Ron," "DeSanctimonious," "Shutdown Ron." As Trump's polling numbers rose, DeSantis' sank in turn. Donors began to back away, even with the governor enjoying support from Musk, the world's richest man. Endorsements dried up. In the lead up to the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis had practically taken up residence in the state. It didn't matter. He placed a distant second and dropped out before New Hampshire. 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"The DeSantis-Trump feud appears to have mellowed," added Binder. "But there are absolutely people in both camps who haven't forgotten—and won't forget." US Vice President J.D. Vance (L) swears in Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State, in the Vice President's ceremonial office at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2025. The US Senate... US Vice President J.D. Vance (L) swears in Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State, in the Vice President's ceremonial office at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2025. The US Senate unanimously approved Rubio as Secretary of State on January 20, putting the fellow senator on the front line of President Donald Trump's often confrontational diplomacy. MoreWhat DeSantis can't outrun, though, is the perception problem. Even among Republicans who like his policies, he's never been beloved. "His biggest issue is likability," Binder said. "He lacks the charisma that successful presidential candidates tend to have." 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Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference about a recent immigration enforcement operation, at the South Florida office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Enforcement and Removal Operations, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in... Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference about a recent immigration enforcement operation, at the South Florida office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Enforcement and Removal Operations, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Miramar, Fla. More AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell Dallek sees similar possibilities: "DeSantis is young, a two-term governor of one of the nation's largest states, and his policies have had a significant influence on the Trump administration." The road back to national relevance depends on variables beyond his control. One is time: at 46, DeSantis can afford to wait. Another is circumstance. If Trump's second administration stumbles further in the polls, he could present the right flank of the party with a conservative alternative, free from the MAGA label that either Vance or Rubio would carry. "We don't even know what will happen in 2026 yet. The full economic impact of Trump's tariff policies may not have hit. If Republicans get walloped in 2026, or the economy takes a nosedive, being closely tied to Trump might become a liability," said Binder, the George Washington professor. That message, while unsuccessful during his aborted 2024 campaign, may resonate more in 2028 — especially if voters tire of the chaos that follows Trump. The next two years could well determine whether DeSantis gets another shot.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
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Trump abandons his most impressive presidential legacy: conservative judges | Opinion President Donald Trump has made a point to attack the very conservative judges who helped boost his first term in office. Show Caption Hide Caption Court blocks Trump's tariffs, saying they exceed legal authority A trade court blocked President Donald Trump's tariffs, saying they exceed his legal authority. It's official. President Donald Trump has turned on the conservative legal movement because its activists refuse to put his bidding over the Constitution. Frustration has been building for some time, but late on May 29, Trump posted a lengthy rant about the judiciary to his Truth Social page, criticizing many of the conservative judges he had embraced during his first term. 'I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges,' Trump said on Truth Social. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations.' With that, Trump shifted from being a Republican president with a strong legacy of appointing conservative judges to a Republican president with a growing legacy of attacking conservative judges. That's a bad sign for any of his upcoming judicial nominations. Trump turns on conservative legal movement he helped build Trump and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, helped deliver Republicans a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. A significant part of that effort was The Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that advocates for an interpretation of the Constitution that adheres to its original meaning. During his first term, Trump's judicial picks were tightly curated by adviser Leonard Leo, then the executive vice president of The Federalist Society. Most notably, all three of Trump's Supreme Court picks ‒ Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett ‒ all had ties to the organization. Opinion: Vance is doing his best to help Trump tear down the Supreme Court These three justices had a hand in overturning Roe v. Wade, striking down unconstitutional firearm restrictions, striking down racist affirmative action practices, curbing the power of administrative state bureaucrats and blocking much of the illegal Biden agenda. Even beyond the Supreme Court, Trump nominated 226 federal judges during his first term, many of those nominations guided by Federalist Society advisers. When did Trump start to turn on conservative judges? While the beginning of this spiral happened when the Supreme Court refused to entertain his 2020 stolen election claims, things have accelerated in his second term. Now, originalist judges have halted Trump's unconstitutional trade policy and have ruled against parts of Trump's mass deportation attempts. Even so, Trump until now was reluctant to outright condemn The Federalist Society. After all, one of the high points of his conservative agenda was his redecorating of the American courts with top-tier judges. The track record of Federalist Society judges is nothing short of a resounding victory for conservatives and the single best accomplishment of Trump's first term in office. Opinion: Elon Musk is frustrated with Republicans wasting DOGE's effort to cut. So am I. None of that matters now. Trump despises those judges because their loyalty is to the Constitution, not to him. He cannot fathom the discipline or honor required to be committed to preserving America's founding documents, rather than his own self-interest. The partnership between the conservative legal movement and Trump was always a temporary one, and Republicans in Congress had to have known that. While Republicans used Trump to reach their goals within the conservative legal movement, they made the mistake of allowing him to undermine the very accomplishments they made in his first term. Trump's future judicial nominations have judges worried Data from Notre Dame Law professor Derek Muller shows that federal judges are retiring at a record-slow pace at the beginning of Trump's second term. Just 11 vacancies have opened up since January, likely because judges are thinking twice about retiring in the face of who may replace them. Trump's first slate of judicial nominees is taking longer than it did in his first term, with confirmation hearings to take place on June 4, according to Axios. There are also fewer vacancies compared with Trump's first term, when he was handed more than 100 on Day 1 as a result of a stubborn Republican Senate majority in President Barack Obama's second term. Trump appears to be prioritizing his supporters in his early slate of judicial picks. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who has previously represented Trump personally, has been nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Courtof Appeals and sparked some concern even among conservatives. Trump's early judicial picks will determine how comfortable more aging federal judges are with retiring under his second administration. Those committed to the Constitution are understandably worried about who may replace them, and his recent rhetoric does not help me feel better. As Trump's brand of the Republican Party drifts from most of the conservative values it once claimed to support, so too does his support for conservative legal philosophy. Now, anything that stands in the way of Trump is bad, even if it is conservative in ideology. Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.
