BREAKING: Pentagon Quietly Hired MAGA Influencers Who Publicly Defend Pete Hegseth

The Pentagon has quietly brought several prominent conservative influencers into government positions while declining to disclose exactly what they are doing inside the Defense Department, according to new reporting from The Washington Post.

The Post identified retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness, retired Army Col. Kurt Schlichter and retired Army Col. Thomas Anderson, better known online as “Cynical Publius,” as conservative personalities who have appeared in Pentagon records.

Maness and Schlichter had active government email addresses identifying them as civilian employees assigned to the office of Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, according to the Post. Anderson had also previously appeared in Pentagon records.

Their exact assignments remain unclear.

That secrecy matters because these aren’t people quietly working government jobs while remaining politically neutral online.

They have large audiences and routinely use those platforms to defend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, promote Trump administration positions and attack critics of the administration.

Maness, for example, recently argued that Hegseth should root out what he described as “disloyal” career employees inside the federal government. Schlichter has publicly praised Hegseth, while Anderson has repeatedly attacked journalists and other critics of the administration.

The controversy follows another revelation involving conservative influencer Jennica Pounds, known online as “DataRepublican.”

Pounds built an enormous following presenting herself as an independent conservative researcher and commentator. It was subsequently revealed that she had also been working as a special government employee for the Defense Department.

The Pentagon confirmed her employment but declined to explain exactly what her job involved.

Taken together, the revelations raise a serious transparency question:

When someone with a massive political platform is simultaneously working inside the federal government, shouldn’t the public know about it?

There is currently no evidence establishing that these influencers were specifically hired to post propaganda or that the Pentagon directs their social-media activity. But undisclosed government employment combined with highly partisan public advocacy creates obvious questions about conflicts of interest, transparency and whether audiences understand who they’re actually hearing from.

And those questions become even more significant when the agency involved is the United States Department of Defense.

Cup of Culture will continue following this story as more information emerges about exactly what these influencers were hired to do inside the Pentagon.