Washington Post: Pentagon secretly hired conservative military influencers as civilian staff

The Pentagon hired conservative military influencers with hundreds of thousands of social-media followers as civilian employees, while they publicly backed the Trump administration without revealing their Defense Department affiliation, according to The Washington Post.

The reported hires included retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness, retired Army Colonel Kurt Schlichter and retired Army Colonel and lawyer Thomas Anderson. All three spent decades in the U.S. military before retiring.

They were assigned to the office of the undersecretary responsible for personnel and readiness. Their Defense Department email addresses carried the “.civ” suffix, which indicates civilian employees rather than military personnel or contractors.

The influencers continued appearing on broadcasts and contributing to media coverage while advocating major policies of President Donald Trump’s administration and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The report said they did not disclose their connection to the department.

Schlichter had about 620,000 followers on X. Anderson had roughly 323,000 followers, while Maness had about 135,000. Anderson, however, no longer appeared in recent Defense Department records.