Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon's new deputy press secretary, has a yearslong history of making social media posts that traffic in a variety of extremist rhetoric, ranging from antisemitic conspiracy theories to white nationalist talking points.
In August, Wilson posted a decades-old antisemitic trope[1] questioning the facts behind the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was wrongly convicted of raping and murdering a child more than a hundred years ago in Atlanta.
However, her history of posting xenophobic comments and echoing racist talking points goes as far back as 2021, and she has repeated some ideas -- for example, that colonialism was a "humanitarian venture" -- many times over the last several years.
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Wilson's posts on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, include her parroting white supremacist rhetoric almost verbatim. Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a Trump adviser who is firing thousands of federal employees and slashing agencies, owns the X platform.
The 26-year-old spokeswoman has called "The Great Replacement Theory,"[3] a long-standing and false conspiracy theory[4] claiming there is an active effort to replace white populations with immigrants of color, a "reality."
Wilson also[5] repeatedly argued[6] that American lands[7] were not stolen[8] but "conquered"[9] from the Native Americans. That slogan has been used by the white supremacist group Patriot Front[10] in its propaganda and messaging.
She also referred to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as[11] "one of the greatest Americans to ever live," has repeatedly argued[12] that America is[13] rife with "anti-white racism[14]," and made numerous posts that claimed colonization of African[15], majority Black[16] and Central American countries[17] was a "humanitarian venture."
"If you look at those tweets in totality, what it comes down to is that she is an unabashed white nationalist," Luke Baumgartner, a researcher at George Washington University's Program on Extremism, told Military.com on Thursday.
Wilson also heaped praise on the German far-right political party Alternative for Germany, or AfD[18], which itself has a history of Holocaust denial.
She has[19] repeatedly used the[20] phrase "Ausländer Raus"[21] -- "foreigners out" in German -- and once posted the slogan[22] "Deutschland den Deutschen. Ausländer raus." The phrase, which means "Germany for Germans, foreigners out," is considered to be an extremist slogan with neo-Nazi roots[23].
"If anybody knows anything about the AfD, it's a bunch of Nazis," Baumgartner said. "It's a German political party that uses repackaged Nazi phrasing and advertising."
"A lot of what she says would be right at home in any of the neo-Nazi Telegram chats that I see every day," he said.
If Wilson follows her predecessors in the deputy position, she would be one of two officials responsible for holding regular briefings to the press and acting as the public face of the Pentagon. However, the Pentagon under Trump has yet to begin public briefings.
Military.com reached out to the defense secretary's office on Wednesday with a lengthy list of more than a dozen of Wilson's posts for comment or context. By publication, there was no response, and the posts remain up on her X profile.
Baumgartner noted that, while much of Wilson's rhetoric may seem modern, its roots go back generations.
"She's simultaneously appealing to the new generation of far-right white nationalists, and she's pulling out a lot of the old cards that people from a generation or two ago might resonate with, too," he said.
While Wilson remains silent, her posts have drawn attention from prominent Jewish voices[24] and media outlets like Jewish Insider[25], which was one of the first media outlets to report the story, as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday, Politico reported[26] that her comments have not only angered lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle but led to questions about whether appropriate vetting was done ahead of her appointment on Jan. 21[27] -- the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration.
Some of Wilson's comments seem to also put her at odds with current policies of the Trump administration.
Although Wilson has repeatedly[28] attacked Ukraine[29] and praised[30] Vladimir Putin[31], she has also made repeated[32] posts about[33] her opposition to offering[34] aid and support to Israel[35] as well.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced[36] that Trump had approved "nearly $12 billion" in military sales to Israel and was expediting "the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance."
The move prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call Trump[37] "the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House."
The American Jewish Committee, a Jewish advocacy group, called for Wilson's firing in a social media post Wednesday.
"Anyone who posts antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook should not be in public office," the group wrote.
However, the current Trump administration has already shown that it is willing to ignore such calls and stand by staffers who make inflammatory and even blatantly racist remarks.
In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that 25-year-old Marko Elez, a staffer with Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, had a long history of posts that advocated racism and eugenics, the study of how to breed humans for desirable traits.
According to the Journal[38], Elez's social media posts included comments like: "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity," "Normalize Indian hate," and "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool."
After the story was published, Elez resigned, but Vice President JD Vance came to his defense, arguing that "I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life." [39]
Musk, who has his own track record of advocacy for groups like the AfD, said he was rehiring Elez[40] on the same day Vance posted his message on X.
Related: Pentagon Watchdog Halts Review of Military Efforts to Root Out Extremism[41]
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