A long-standing Air Force^[1] Facebook page created to represent its top enlisted leader has been renamed and rebranded^[2] as a news source -- an apparent move by the service to control online conversation and messaging within the ranks.

The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force page, which has more than 200,000 followers on the social media platform, was renamed earlier this month "the Airman's Dispatch" with a mottos of "your source for trusted updates -- by airmen, for airmen," as well as "Truth moves fast. So do we."

The change, according to comments provided to Military.com by Chief Master Sgt. David Flosi, the service's top enlisted leader, was focused on having a reliable source for quick updates about the issues that matter most to airmen, such as physical fitness standards, uniform updates and deployment^[3] changes.

Read Next: Marine Sergeant Dies After Collapsing During Fitness Test in Florida^[4]

"We took an existing platform with over 200,000 followers and turned it into a more reliable tool for timely information sharing," Flosi said in an emailed statement to Military.com. "This isn't about one person anymore; it's a team effort. We're partnering with subject matter experts across the staff to push timely updates, explain policy changes, and give full context behind what's happening."

Many airmen often learn about policy changes throughout the service by reading leaked memos and communications through social media sites such as Reddit or the wildly popular Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page -- where troops often share insider information about developments facing the enlisted.

Some users and administrators of those sites expressed skepticism about Flosi's new initiative, arguing that it ultimately will just be another avenue for public affairs messaging and will discourage the transparency of those pre-existing pages.

"Rumors move fast, whether through Facebook groups, Reddit threads, or memo screenshots," Flosi said. "This page provides confirmed updates, clear explanations, and [helps] airmen understand what's real, what's still evolving, and what to expect next."

Katherine Kuzminski, the director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, told Military.com that the creation of the page could be a good resource for the rank and file if it's executed properly and actually provides timely updates to airmen.

"To a certain extent, I think this is a healthy and a good thing," Kuzminski said, adding the caveat that "if there is truly a up-to-date, clear, consistent message coming from the service and particularly for the enlisted force, coming from the chief master sergeant of the Air Force to the force, that can get ahead of a lot of speculation or concern that service members may have."

But she added that there is potential for the new page to go haywire if it strays from just providing memos and updates to the force.

"If instead, it gets into kind of partisan debates with other counter-information, that's where it could be risky," she added.

That type of messaging is already occurring in other parts of the military.

The Department of Defense's public affairs communications, since being overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have taken on a more combative tone -- challenging lawmakers, partisan messaging by pundits, and even attacks on the veracity of media reports.

Military.com reported that further changes to the military's once apolitical public messaging are already taking shape^[5] within the Army^[6], and potentially the Navy^[7], as political and partisan spokespeople join the fold.

The Airman's Dispatch hasn't taken on a political or overtly combative tone since its rebrand, but its creation led to some mixed reviews, criticisms and questions from commenters.

"The force will always hear it first from Air Force amn/nco/snco," one person commented, referencing what has long been seen as the go-to social media page for insider updates.

"Understanding the reasoning behind the recent lack of communication on social media will go a long way in helping airmen grasp your intent," one user said, adding, "This is a great idea!"

"Why not create a new page for the Airman's Dispatch instead of repurposing this page?" one account asked.

Flosi told Military.com that, even though the original page changed, he is "very much connected to the Airman's Dispatch, just as my predecessors were connected to the CMSAF Facebook page." He added that he often communicates through internal Microsoft Teams channels, sends notes to the field and makes frequent base visits.

But it's unclear how far ahead of public affairs messaging the new Facebook page will be and how forward it will be with sharing developments. For example, U.S. Forces Korea published a news release Tuesday about lengthening deployments.

The Airman's Dispatch posted a Department of Defense memo on the South Korea deployment on Wednesday morning, mostly reiterating the information within the official correspondence and news release. Many of the policy updates provided on the page link to already released information from public affairs pages.

"The more they can share, the less speculation there will be and thus less dependence on those kind of back-channel conversations that are happening on Reddit or other social media sites among airmen," Kuzminski said. "So it would be in their best interest to make sure they're getting out timely information, or being the lead in getting information out, before people are independently, privately worrying about what changes are coming."

Military.com learned that at least three pages that sprang up this month with similar or related names parodying the new Airman's Dispatch page, including those that were verified with a blue checkmark, had been removed.

When asked by Military.com, Flosi said "we do not have anything to do with Meta verification, account approval or removal," referring to the company that owns Facebook. Spokespeople for the top enlisted leader did not respond when asked whether they had complained or flagged those accounts to Meta.

When the administrator of the popular Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page was reached for comment about his reaction to the creation of the Airman's Dispatch page, he spoke frankly.

"We were here before CMSAF Flosi, and we'll be here after CMSAF Flosi," he said.

Related: Army Puts Political Operative in Charge of Public Affairs, Stoking Concerns of Creeping Partisanship^[8]

NEW YORK -- The Secretary of the Army^[1] on Wednesday directed the U.S. Military Academy^[2] at West Point^[3] to review its hiring practices, bar outside groups from choosing employees and remove a newly announced hire who led the nation's cybersecurity agency under President Joe Biden.

The directive, shared on the social platform X^[4] by Secretary Dan Driscoll, came just a day after Jen Easterly^[5] was announced as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in West Point's social sciences department.

It demonstrated how vigorously President Donald Trump's administration has sought to wield control over the ideology and leadership of higher education^[6] and the military^[7] during the president's second term.

It also highlighted how deeply concerns about censorship have seeped into the Republican Party and the Trump administration. As the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, Easterly faced harsh criticism^[8] from Republicans who argued that her work to counter misinformation about elections and the COVID-19 pandemic amounted to censorship.

CISA secures the nation's critical infrastructure, including the nation's dams, banks and nuclear power plants. It also secures voting systems -- work that became controversial as Trump has made false claims^[9] to create doubt^[10] about the integrity of elections in recent years.

Easterly has denied claims that her agency censored anyone and said last fall^[11] that "allegations against CISA are riddled with factual inaccuracies." She said in January^[12] she hopes the agency will be allowed to continue its election-related work despite "contentiousness" around that part of its mission.

Driscoll's directive came after far-right activist Laura Loomer posted about Easterly's new role on X, saying "Biden holdovers" at the Defense Department were "undermining" Trump's administration. Loomer has frequently urged Trump's administration to purge staffers she deems insufficiently loyal^[13] to his agenda, and on multiple occasions, they have been fired.

The memo directs West Point to terminate Easterly's agreement with the institution and "immediately pause non-governmental and outside groups from selecting employees of the Academy, including instructors, professors, teachers and shaping academic or developmental lectures." It also requests an immediate review of the military training academy's hiring practices.

Asked for a reason for the memo, an Army spokesperson said in a statement that ahead of the new academic year, "we are crafting a deliberate approach to ensure that our future officers are best prepared to meet the demands of the modern battlefield."

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell was more blunt about the reasoning in a post on X.

"We're not turning cadets into censorship activists," he said. "We're turning them into warriors & leaders. We're in the business of warfighting."

Easterly, an Army combat veteran and West Point graduate, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump is now meeting with four-star general nominees personally, a notable departure from past practices that raises ethical concerns about the further mingling of political roles within the military's highest ranks.

A White House spokesperson confirmed Trump's meetings with candidates to be promoted with a fourth star, saying the meetings are meant to vet the officers' qualifications -- a claim that some experts are skeptical of and the president’s allies praise as a much needed change.

"President Trump wants to ensure our military is the greatest and most lethal fighting force in history, which is why he meets with four-star general nominees directly to ensure they are warfighters first -- not bureaucrats," Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, told Military.com in an emailed statement.

Read Next: Navy Still Searching for Sailor Who Went Overboard During Exercise Near Australia^[1]

The new process, as first reported by The New York Times, was required by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the newspaper.

Expanding Trump's role in vetting future four-star generals comes amid a trend by this administration of tapping the military for the president's domestic agenda, including the creation of new militarized zones^[2] along the southern U.S. border, deployments^[3] to tamp down public protests^[4] over immigration raids, and the use of troops to bolster immigration enforcement and deportations^[5].

Trump has also been criticized for openly political speeches to the military^[6], including an appearance at Fort Bragg in June where a crowd of troops were encouraged by the president to jeer elected officials and his political opponents.

Lindsay Cohn, an associate professor of national security at the U.S. Naval War College specializing in civilian-military relations who spoke to Military.com in her personal capacity, said the mingling of the White House and those generals could give an impression that politics and loyalty are at play.

"People are worried that this will give the impression, both to the military itself and to the public, that this is a personal loyalty test and that people will be selected based on how personally loyal they can convince him they are," Cohn told Military.com in an interview Wednesday. "That is not what you want in a democratic society with a democratic military."

Cohn noted it's not uncommon for the president to meet with four-star nominees whom he would be in frequent contact with, such as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs or those who would lead combatant commands in war zones. As of now, there are more than 30 four-star generals and admirals within the ranks.

Historically, the president would not be meeting with all potential and future candidates for those roles.

Legally, there is clear precedent for Trump to be involved in nominating those high-ranking officers as described in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which says the president "shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate" those top offices, including in the military.

Still, Trump's unprecedented rhetoric and aggressive deployment of the military to serve his political agenda is notable to some civilian-military relations experts.

The widespread deployment of troops to the southern border, as Military.com reported in an in-depth feature^[7], has challenged long-standing constitutional norms of not utilizing deployments for law enforcement-related activities and immigration enforcement, experts said.

Additionally, Trump's orders to send Marines and the National Guard^[8] to Los Angeles in June against Gov. Gavin Newsom's wishes to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and respond to protests led to troops detaining a civilian^[9].

Last month, Military.com reported^[10] that Trump's highly partisan speech at Fort Bragg where he attacked his political enemies was met with cheers and boos by the troops in attendance. Soldiers in the audience were also handpicked by commanders based on political leanings and physical appearance.

Cohn said it's a combination of Trump's speeches and his actions utilizing the military that have raised questions and concerns.

"If you combine that with some of the ways that the president speaks about the military and speaks in front of and to the military, what you do get is a sort of overall pattern of a president who seems to want to claim the military organization as a sort of personal tool," Cohn said. "As something that carries out his agenda and does so not just because they are obeying lawful orders, but because they are loyal to him."

However, Trump allies were quick to praise his vetting of four-star officers. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said those officers oversee "hugely consequential" roles and should be treated as such.

"Very welcome reform. I've long advocated for presidents to meet with 4-star nominees," Cotton wrote on X on Tuesday^[11]. "I commend President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for treating these jobs with the seriousness they deserve."

Historically, the military has been seen as a nonpartisan entity. Often, the president's defense secretary is seen as a conduit between the Pentagon and White House.

Cohn said it's notable that Hegseth appears not to want to offer that buffer.

"That buffer role is usually played by the secretary of defense, who is a political appointee and can be political and can be partisan, but who is supposed to sort of serve as the space between the politics of the president and the president's activities and the uniformed military and the civilian members of the Department of Defense," Cohn said. "What this indicates to me is that Secretary Hegseth is not super interested in playing that role."

Related: Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance^[12]