Two hours before billionaire businessman Elon Musk stood beside President Donald Trump in an Oval Office press conference, he reshared an anonymous account’s X post that warned a federal judge had engaged in “lawfare” against the Trump administration.

It wasn’t the first time that day Musk, a donor who Trump named special adviser, had reshared to his 218 million followers posts made by the profile with the “@amuse” handle. He’d also reposted the account’s statement that a federal judge who blocked part of one of Trump’s executive orders was “working with Democrat(s)” to thwart Trump’s agenda. Since then, Musk has replied to Amuse’s posts more than 25 times.

In recent months, Musk amplified the account’s false statements that the “open border” was a “purposeful plan” to move Democratic voters into red states; that Michigan had “more registered voters than eligible citizens,” increasing the risk of fraud; and that a “60 Minutes” clip showed former Vice President Kamala Harris lying while cameras rolled. In August, Trump shared artificial intelligence-generated images on Truth Social that appeared to show singer-songwriter Taylor Swift endorsing his campaign. A screenshot of an Amuse post, labeled as satire, was among the images in Trump’s post.

With a Star Wars stormtrooper as its profile picture, the Amuse account promises “Conservative Headlines & Articles.” Its 603,000-plus followers include some of the leading voices in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, including White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

But the X profile declines to identify its owner, instead inviting curious people to direct message him if they want to know his “secret identity.” Otherwise, he says, he is a target for “radical activists.”

The Amuse account is prominent in the online dialogue among some of the country’s most powerful decision-makers. Our effort to learn more about the account led us to a 53-year-old Dallas-based business consultant who describes his identity on X as “not particularly exciting.”

As of mid-February, each of these prominent figures followed Amuse on X, according to the platform’s public information. (Screenshots/X)

‘Excuse me, sir, are you a reliable source for news?’

Amuse’s X account offers a few details in its bio: “I’m a single father in my 50s raising a teenage daughter, with a son pursuing his PhD,” it read. The account owner described himself as “a serial entrepreneur who has experienced both great successes and failures” and who has raised “millions in venture capital.” And he enjoys cooking and sharing his political ideas, the bio said.

(Screenshot/X)

PolitiFact tried to message him through X, email, Signal message, the Amuse on X Substack and text. We didn’t get a response.

The Amuse on X Substack was previously known as “Politique Republic,” according to logos on older posts’ artwork and the oldest Amuse YouTube video description. “Politique Republic” was associated with a purported Japanese “parody artist” named Toyotomi Yukimura. A nonfungible token, or NFT, that Yukimura designed as a “provisional patent” was held by Alexander Muse.

Muse listed the NFT under “patents” on his LinkedIn — where he also described “Politique Republic” as his book publisher. The “About” page of a Medium blog Muse hasn’t updated since 2020 directs people to “connect with Alexander Muse” on X and links to the Amuse account.

Muse’s LinkedIn account says that he has experience “raising hundreds of millions” in venture capital. Despite his business background and political commentary, we found nothing signaling Muse is a big political donor.

“Excuse me, sir, are you a reliable source for news?” one X user asked Amuse in January.

“I’m a conservative pundit,” the Amuse account responded. “Report the news but certainly from a conservative perspective.” In October 2024, the account said, “I am doing my part to ensure Trump and Vance are elected in November.”

The account publishes Amuse-branded graphics that mimic the look of news stories but include disclaimers in tiny text — “accuracy confidence: normal,” for instance. Other times, “accuracy confidence: low.”

The Amuse account rails against “woke” ideology, Democrats, censorship, the idea of an “open” U.S. border and an “invasion” of migrants. It says “global governance” is a threat to U.S. sovereignty, and has shared false statements about organizations such as the United Nations. The account supports Trump and Musk, who reinstated it after he bought Twitter.

When the Amuse account shares misleading statements and falsehoods, Musk and other X influencers help them quickly reach millions.

Experts who study political discourse on social media said Musk and some other prominent conservatives readily and publicly engage with anonymous accounts and even smaller-profile internet users in a manner previously uncommon in the highest reaches of government.

Trump popularized the practice of amplifying anonymous online posters during his first campaign and presidential term, said Josephine Lukito, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media.

“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship because powerful actors are able to highlight ‘grassroots’ support, and those anonymous users gain some perceived legitimacy because they were amplified by a public figure,” she said.

Zeve Sanderson, executive director of New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics, said he sees the practice as an extension of Republicans’ anti-elite worldview.

“There’s this very loose sense of democratic responsiveness,” he said. The online engagement with random users signals that the government is listening and that these social media users hold knowledge or expertise worthy of government response.

Alexander Muse’s background spans business, cooking, blogging and political commentary

In the 1990s, Muse attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he says on his LinkedIn page he studied history and competed in debate before leaving to join the U.S. Marine Corps. PolitiFact was unable to independently verify his military service.

In 2013, 2015 and 2016, his business ventures were featured in The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Business Journal and D Magazine. Those reports included mentions of numerous business endeavors, including the mobile shopping and price comparison phone application ShopSavvy, the technology infrastructure outsourcing company Architel, and Sumo Ventures, a venture capital firm where Muse currently works as a management consultant, according to his LinkedIn.

Muse’s LinkedIn profile shows he has written a cookbook on the sous vide method and a book about business.

Muse has occasionally blended his interests: Once, he used ChatGPT to write a “parody cookbook” of insect recipes he described as “inspired by the World Economic Forum” — in line with some Republican opposition to the idea of consuming insects as a more environmentally friendly food source. He was permanently banned from Amazon’s self-publishing platform because the WEF reported it as trademark infringement, according to posts on Amuse’s Substack and X account.

Muse has been building an online presence for years both using his real name and, later, using “Amuse” and other pseudonyms.

In its X bio, Amuse’s owner said he shifted toward anonymity in 2020 after “my tweets attracted the attention of (Black Lives Matter) and Antifa activists, culminating in a Molotov cocktail being thrown at my front door.” The incident prompted him to relocate and anonymize his account, the bio said. We found no news reports about a Molotov cocktail being thrown at a Texas residence from May 2020 to August 2020; a Dallas police spokesperson said the department couldn’t provide information about incidents involving Molotov cocktails without more details.

The conservative media analysis group Media Research Center reported that “Muse, tweeting as @amuse,” was “permanently suspended” from Twitter in March 2021 for sharing a National Pulse article about a judge ordering a local Mississippi alderman primary election do-over because some fraudulent mail-in ballots were counted.

Sometime after Musk reinstated the account in November 2022, it shared political commentary under the handle “Politique Republic” on X and Substack. At some point between June 2023 and January 2024, the account returned to using @amuse on X. The online persona is a potential revenue stream.

The Amuse account’s X Premium subscription offers followers $4 monthly subscriptions to get “bonus content.” Premium also means that X’s algorithm prioritizes the Amuse account’s replies and grants its owner access to X’s revenue sharing program, which allows viral content creators to earn money. A yearlong subscription to the “Amuse on X” Substack costs $50. It’s unclear how lucrative the X revenue sharing program is for creators of Muse’s size. And although he has 72,000 Substack subscribers, we don’t know how many are paid subscribers.

Financial elements aside, some people use social media primarily to go viral. Users can say something engaging and hope the algorithm boosts their post, or they can find a way to get Musk’s attention and promote their ideas to more than 200 million accounts.

“User behavior was always responsive to the incentives of a platform, and you have this new incentive if you want to go viral, which is just say something Musk likes,” Sanderson said.

Elon Musk has promoted Amuse’s false and misleading statements by reposting them. (Screenshots/X)

What role do anonymous accounts play in political discourse?

Anonymous internet accounts aren’t new. Musk reposts or responds to a number of accounts whose owners are not disclosed, including Amuse, DogeDesigner, Autism Capital, Insurrection Barbie, The Rabbit Hole and Catturd.

Research suggests that most anonymous accounts are used for “protective or innocuous” reasons, but they can sometimes be run by people who use anonymity to freely say objectionable things that break social norms without consequence, said Sarah Jackson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Researchers say they’re becoming more intertwined with political content.

Darren Linvill, a Clemson University communication professor who studies social media disinformation’s impact on civil discourse, said anonymity is a “fundamental part of the internet.”

He said about 75% of politically active users on X are anonymous — and that’s “up slightly from four years ago when it was about 65%.”

The prominence of anonymous accounts such as Amuse or “Catturd” (@catturd2) — an X account with 3.6 million followers that’s run by a man in Florida that’s been reshared by Trump and Musk — is concerning, Linvill said.

“Nothing that goes by the name catturd2 should have any influence over political discourse,” he said.

Prominent political figures today regularly interact with smaller and more anonymous social media accounts in ways once considered unusual, experts said.

“Two of the most powerful people in the world — Donald Trump and Elon Musk — are both prodigious social media users who are willing to pass along content from, it seems, essentially anyone, so long as they like the content,” said Gordon Pennycook, a Cornell University psychology professor. “Most world leaders — and, in fact, more regular users — are far more discerning in what they pass along on social media.”

For example, an anonymous account might post about fraud or wasteful government spending — something that aligns with a current Republican priority — and a conservative elite such as Musk might respond, “interesting” or “I’ll look into it.” In this way, engagement with the online account helps signal that there’s popular support for the administration’s agenda.

Often elites are “cherry-picking posts from smaller accounts that generally align with their worldview or political project,” Sanderson said.

Musk — who is spearheading the Trump administration’s budget-slashing efforts including sweeping Education Department cuts — amplified an Amuse account post March 17 that criticized American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s work and salary.

“Education ‘executives’ like Randi Weingarten make hundreds of thousands more than teachers — 8X in fact — taking home almost $600K a year and they don’t teach a single child nor do they teach the teachers,” the 8:10 a.m. post read. “They’re leaches (sic) on the system.”

Eighteen minutes later, the world’s richest person reshared it, writing, “Yeah.”

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.