A new update to X that shows the country or region where a user is based has revealed some popular accounts—many of which post wildly partisan support for President Donald Trump—aren’t even United States-based, though some claim to be American.
By Conor Murray,Forbes Staff.
Key Facts
X rolled out a new update over the weekend that displays a user’s location by clicking on the join date on their profile, and users can elect to have their location displayed either as a country or as a region.
Right-wing poster Ian Miles Cheong, who has previously admitted to his 1.2 million followers that he is not U.S.-based, is based in the United Arab Emirates, according to his X profile, and he has since slammed the update as a privacy violation.
Pro-Trump account with 1 million followers @
ivankaNews_—which is not affiliated with Ivanka Trump—appears to be based out of Nigeria, even though the user comments almost exclusively on American politics and has claimed to have voted for Trump in previous posts (and the user admitted in a post Sunday “some of us living outside the USA genuinely support President Trump’s movement”).
An account called “MAGA NATION” with nearly 400,000 followers appears to be Eastern European, according to its X profile, though the account is dedicated to pro-Trump content and claimed to have voted for Republicans.
An account called “America First,” (67,000 followers) who said “I am a former liberal who voted Trump” in a post in May, is apparently based in Bangladesh, according to its X profile.
Screenshots circulating X claim Republicans Against Trump, an anti-Trump account with nearly 1 million followers, is Austria-based, though the account’s location now says United States with a disclaimer that it may be using a VPN to alter its location.
Some accounts that appear to have been outed as non-U.S. based no longer exist: NBC News reported an account called “Trump Is My President” was listed as Macedonia-based and is now deactivated, while an account called “ULTRAMAGA 🇺🇸 TRUMP🇺🇸2028,” which claimed to U.S.-based, was listed as African and is now suspended for unknown reasons.