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| - A rumor that circulated online in April 2025 claimed Anheuser-Busch closed its iconic brewery in St. Louis, Missouri, purportedly due to a past controversy involving Bud Light. The mention of a Bud Light controversy referenced the company's 2023 partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to backlash from conservative commentators.
Facebook users sharing the claim in 2025 made various statements indicating they believed the rumor. For example, one person said (archived), "Holy smoke, they had to close the St Louis brewery." Another user posted (archived), "I hate to see an American business close but they did it to themselves." In a different post, a user blamed former U.S. President Joe Biden for the supposed closure, writing (archived), "Liberal Democratic rules polishes off a nearly 175-year-old business, within a single presidential administration. Biden's Administration for you liberals that may have forgotten already!" Other users mentioned (archived) diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, or (archived) said (archived) of the claim, "Go woke, go broke."
These users' posts cited a purported news brief from a post (archived) on the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page.
(America's Last Line of Defense/Facebook)
The post read:
The Bud Light saga has cost Anheuser-Busch dearly. After more than two years of waning sales and decreasing demand, the company was forced to shut down its iconic St. Louis brewery.
"The poor decisions of one DEI executive ended up costing us the most lucrative brand we've ever sold," said Marketing Director Joe Barron, "And now it's costing 537 Americans their jobs."
It just goes to show you that "go woke go broke" isn't just a saying; it's a legitimate business philosophy.
A manager of the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page also added a link in a comment under the post to an article on the website The Dunning-Kruger Times. That article (archived) began:
Anheuser Busch Forced to Close Iconic St, Louis Brewery As Bud Light Boycott Goes Into Its Third Year
The long, frothy downfall of Bud Light has finally hit rock bottom, and it smells faintly of citrus seltzer and poor marketing decisions. According to a post circulating on the internet—and therefore probably true—Anheuser-Busch has officially shuttered its flagship St. Louis brewery after more than two years of declining sales.
"The poor decisions of one DEI executive ended up costing us the most lucrative brand we've ever sold," said Marketing Director Joe Barron, as he quietly packed a cardboard box filled with office memorabilia, a signed can of Bud Dry, and a "Let's Go Brandon" coffee mug. "And now it's costing 537 Americans their jobs. All because we tried to sell beer to people who don't even own pickup trucks."
The executive in question, whose name has been redacted in certain circles to avoid spontaneous bar brawls, famously greenlit a marketing campaign involving a social media influencer who was neither a NASCAR fan nor a licensed taxidermist. The internet exploded. Cases of Bud Light were dumped, boycotted, or — perhaps the worst fate of all — replaced with Coors.
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence of Anheuser-Busch closing down in St. Louis.
Rather, the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page and The Dunning-Kruger Times website both belong to the America's Last Line of Defense network of Facebook pages and websites, whose owner describes its content as satirical in nature.
Anheuser-Busch's St. Louis brewery received National Historic Landmark designation in 1966. According to a St. Louis government website, the company's complex of buildings also received special landmark designation by the city in 1971.
Days before America's Last Line of Defense posted the satirical rumor, they shared (archived) another false claim, reading, "Anheuser Busch threw away more Bud Light than it sold in 2024." That post received over 22,000 reactions and 4,100 shares. An article (archived) on The Dunning-Kruger Times website also promoted the rumor as, "Anheuser Busch Has Officially Thrown Out More Bud Light Than it has Sold in 2024."
More about America's Last Line of Defense
The bio (archived) for the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page reads, "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real." The photo included in the post itself displayed a label reading "ALLOD."
Meanwhile, The Dunning-Kruger Times features an "About Us" page describing its content as "a subsidiary of the 'America's Last Line of Defense' network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery." The page also makes a humorous mention of Snopes.
The name of the satire-based website referenced the Dunning-Kruger effect, defined by Britannica as "a cognitive bias whereby people with limited knowledge or competence in a given intellectual or social domain greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence in that domain relative to objective criteria or to the performance of their peers or of people in general."
For further reading, America's Last Line of Defense previously promoted numerous other satirical stories about Anheuser-Busch and the Bud Light controversy involving Mulvaney, including one rumor claiming singer Garth Brooks' alleged remarks alluding to the matter led him to cancel the grand opening of his Nashville bar after three investors pulled out of the project.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.
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