Not everything you read online is true. You’d think that’s an obvious statement that goes without saying, but in these times of extreme factionalism — driven in no small part by Donald Trump’s mandates and his legion of loyalists in MAGA — you genuinely never know who is ragebaiting, who is grifting, and who is just very committed to the bit.
A TikTok influencer recently proved just how gullible people can be after allegedly finding a way to pull at the heartstrings of MAGA supporters and get them to send him money because he claimed he’d been shunned by his family over his politics.
The content creator, Coach Chima, was “caught” running a scam that has reportedly made him tens of thousands. “Caught,” however, might be doing a lot of heavy lifting here. What actually happened is that — in the age of sharing every detail of your life online — Chima simply created another account and told his followers what he’s been up to for the past two years. Less of an investigation, more of a self-report.
If you assume being exposed made him apologetic, think again. In the spirit of MAGA’s most recognizable figure, Coach Chima was impressively brazen about the whole thing. He even updated his bio on his main account, which has around 45,000 followers, to read: “I Scammed MAGA for 30 Bands. I’m sorry yall. I was never MAGA, I’m just a monkey from the trenches. #FreeChima.” Subtlety, clearly, was never part of the business model.
Now, nobody in good conscience is going to argue that scamming people out of their money — especially by exploiting their empathy — is funny. But it does get complicated when prominent figures within MAGA, like Elon Musk, have spent a considerable amount of time publicly questioning the value of empathy itself. So when this story hit social media, sympathy was… in short supply.
On his TikTok page, the videos are still up — a full archive of the grift in motion. In them, Chima claims he was mistreated by his family for being a MAGA supporter, repeatedly addressing his audience as “MAGA family” and “fellow Trump supporters.” As it turns out, the only thing he consistently supported was his own cash flow — and an impressively curated rolodex of new crises every week that somehow needed funding.
According to his storyline, his parents kicked him out over his unwavering support for Trump’s policies, after which he was taken in by a woman named Nancy — presumably another devoted supporter. He later claimed Nancy passed away before Trump was sworn back into office in January, even adding at one point that he was sure she was “smiling down” at everything Trump was accomplishing. It was a narrative carefully engineered to hit every emotional note — grief, loyalty, political identity — all wrapped in a neat donation link.
So far, no charges have been filed against him. The only real consequence has been a comment section flooded with words like “fraud” and “scammer,” which, in internet terms, is basically a light breeze. Maybe now that MAGA supporters are keeping receipts, they can revisit some of the other promises they’ve been asked to take on faith — like the one about ending forever wars.
This isn’t really a story to laugh at. But there is a lesson buried in it somewhere: a movement built more on personality than principle will always attract bad actors willing to perform that personality — especially if there’s money on the table.
