—
The Pentagon hired military veterans and conservative political influencers to advance the U.S. Department of War Sec. Pete Hegseth’s political agenda, according to a Washington Post report published Sunday.
The influencers included retired Air Force colonel Rob Maness, retired Army colonel and Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter, and Thomas Anderson, another retired Army colonel who writes and posts under the pseudonym Cynical Publius, WaPo reported. (RELATED: Democrats Bizarrely Liken Hegseth’s New Readiness Measure To Sex Changes)
Maness and Schlichter had active official government email addresses as of the week before WaPo published its story, according to the outlet. Their addresses reportedly had a “.civ” suffix reserved for civilian employees.
Anderson was listed in Department of War (DOW) records earlier in the year with a “.civ” email address, but was no longer listed when the story was published, WaPo reported.
All three were assigned to the office of Anthony Tata, the under secretary of war for personnel and readiness, according to the outlet. WaPo reported that “at least some of the influencers have been assigned to civilian roles that could lead to changes in policy.”
Maness has over 135,000 followers on X. Schlichter has nearly 620,000. And Anderson, under the Cynical Publius account, has over 320,000.
The issue of social media influencers failing to disclose government connections or ties to domestic and foreign lobbies has become increasingly prominent in recent times. (RELATED: Anna Paulina Luna Exposes Foreign Paid Influencers With New Amendment — But It’s Far From A ‘Crack Down’)
MAGA influencer Jennica Pounds, who goes by the pseudonym DataRepublican, was identified as a special government employee earlier in August after she accused Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers of trying to entrap her and entice her to leak classified information by feeding her a “scoop.” Pounds later said she became a Pentagon employee in July, after previously holding a Pentagon press corps pass from April to June.
Anderson claimed Sunday the DOW approached him after he wrote an article for the right-wing site American Greatness. The article, headlined “Making the War Colleges Great Again,” drew the attention of Pentagon officials, who then invited him to join a special task force studying senior service colleges.
“I may be retired from active duty, but I am still a Soldier and my oath never expired,” Anderson said. “When my country called, I answered, and accepted an offer to be on the task force studying those same senior service colleges, an area for which I have certain expertise. I am a patriot and fully support the necessary efforts of the War Department with respect to reforming the senior service colleges, and I felt that answering this call was my duty and the fulfillment of my oath.”
“At no time have I ever received any compensation of any kind from any government source of any kind for anything I write or have ever written on X or in any magazine or other source. Those who claim otherwise defame me,” he added.
Schlichter responded in a Townhall column Monday, saying he, Anderson, and Maness were brought on by the Pentagon to write a report on the U.S. military’s war colleges and recommend possible changes. He pointed to their experiences serving in the military and in the private sector as the reason they were hired.
“DEI was not the focus of the project, as the WaPo implies; the focus was how to ensure these institutions are preparing future generals and admirals for the challenges of war in the 21st century. The poison of DEI was a component of the inquiry, but just one part of a complex issue,” he wrote.
“None of our duties involved tweeting or messaging; again, the claim we were paid to publicly message is a lie,” he continued. “We would visit the campuses, interview people, review course materials, and prepare a report with recommendations. We began by reviewing reams of written materials. We eventually made several visits to the Pentagon and to various schools, plus had some video interactions. We each talked to hundreds of people. We conducted detailed interviews with large and small groups, including commandants, students, civilian and military faculty, administrators, and civilian and military leaders in the field. So this was not a “secret” in any sense.”
In the wake of WaPo’s report, X users resurfaced Anderson’s old post calling out MAGA influencers who participated in the Trump administration’s release of the Epstein binders in February 2025.
“As soon as you allow yourself to be fed privileged information from the government, you cease to be independent. When you cease to be independent, you stop being the ‘new media’ and become instead the ‘old media,’” he wrote at the time.
The Daily Caller contacted the DOW for comment.
Editor’s Note: An op-ed from Maness was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation and republished by the Daily Caller prior to WaPo’s reporting disclosing his ties to the Pentagon.
