Some of the X accounts pledging to oppose Vice President JD Vance and back Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the 2028 Republican primary appear to be run from outside the United States by people who are not American voters, according to a report published Friday.
The finding appeared in a Washington Post report on a wave of online attacks against Vance that his allies describe as a coordinated “op.” Detractors have adopted a “Never Vance” slogan and flooded social media over the past week, the outlet said, with much of the traffic tied to accounts of murky origin.
The report described the accounts in plain terms.
Some of the users who pledged to oppose Vance and support Rubio “had profiles that strongly suggested they aren’t American voters and are based in other countries,” the Post reported.
Conservative commentator Byron York amplified that line on X, flagging the passage for a right-leaning audience.
After X rolled out a feature displaying an account’s location, users found that many popular profiles posting pro-Trump content appeared to be operated from South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, the Associated Press reported. Location data can be masked, and researchers cautioned that some American-run accounts were falsely branded as foreign.
Jon Schweppe, a senior adviser at the American Principles Project, posted a chart showing Vance’s favorability among Republicans holding steady and said the response to it came almost entirely from accounts that did not follow him.
“It’s absolutely organized,” Schweppe wrote.
Rubio, for his part, has waved off the effort. The secretary of state insisted he will support Vance if the vice president runs, a pledge he made earlier this year as Vance held his lead in early 2028 polling.
The attacks come as Vance continues to face fallout from his July 15 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, where he described himself as a “reasonable moderate” and said he was being targeted by a foreign-funded influence campaign. Vance pointed to a Time report on a pro-Israel operation run by a former Trump campaign official and said paid influencers were coming after him “in dishonest ways.”
“You know, my response to that is, ‘Well, go to hell,’” Vance told Rogan.
A spokesperson for the vice president said Vance is focused on “fighting for the president’s agenda and delivering wins for the American people” and is not concerned with social media.
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