Pete Hegseth’s team reportedly invited far-right influencer and conspiracist Jack Posobiec to join the defense secretary on his first trip overseas.
Citing sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity and a planning document that they obtained, The Washington Post reports that whispers of Posobiec’s “media” invitation circulated around D.C. ahead of Hegseth’s trip to Germany, Belgium, and Poland this week.
The invite reportedly sparked concern within the Pentagon, with one official source telling the Post that Hegseth’s judgement has been questioned. Many seem to be wondering what message he’s trying to convey by having a controversial figure—especially one who made his bones as one of the most outspoken pushers of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory—by his side.
The outlet noted that it’s unclear if Posobiec will be joining Hegseth on his trip. He’s slated to arrive in Poland by Friday.
The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Posobiec is a far-right commentator who hosts a daily podcast titled Human Events. He also previously worked at One America News Network as a political correspondent and is a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer.
With a mighty 3 million followers on X, Posobiec is perhaps best known for pushing the Pizzagate conspiracy, a bizarre and baseless theory that claims high-level Democrats operated a child sex ring out of the (nonexistent) basement of a pizza joint in Washington, D.C., called Comet Ping Pong Pizza. It is widely considered to be a precursor to the QAnon conspiracy.
Pizzagate went wide enough that a North Carolina man traveled to the eatery in 2016 with a rifle in the hopes of uncovering the sex-trafficking ring—he fired a shot while inside but ultimately nobody was hurt.
Posobiec also co-authored a book, Unhumans, in which he argues that leftists are, as the book’s title suggests, “unhuman.” Future Vice President JD Vance praised the book in August last year.
On Thursday, Posobiec posted a video on X announcing that he was in Ukraine. He later said in an online recording that he was traveling with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is in Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Posobiec’s invite into the Trump administration’s orbit suggests that the White House is maintaining its promise to invite “new media voices” into the fold.
