A Pentagon staffer was promoted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth despite her history of pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories and neo-Nazi rhetoric on social media.
Kingsley Wilson, formerly a deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense, was appointed as the Pentagon’s chief press secretary on May 23, just months after reports exposed her extremist online views.
That includes endorsing the “great replacement” theory—which falsely claims white Americans are being intentionally replaced as the dominant race in the U.S for political gain—as a “reality.”
She also pushed the long-debunked claim that Leo Frank, a Jewish man lynched in Georgia in 1915 after a wrongful conviction, was actually guilty. Frank was posthumously pardoned in 1986 by the state of Georgia.
“Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a black man for his crime,” Wilson wrote on X in March 2023. She made the claim again in August 2024.
Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told NPR in March that the claim that Frank did rape and murder the child is a viewpoint parroted by neo-Nazis.
“This is a deep cut in terms of the antisemitic ideas that neo-Nazis and others latch on to,” Spitalnick said. “For someone in a senior federal role to directly engage in this conspiracy theory shows she’s trafficking in neo-Nazi and antisemitic spaces.”
Wilson also praised the far-right German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) on a message board in 2024, according to Jewish News Syndicate.
She has also called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky an “entitled midget” and described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “encyclopedic knowledge” of his people’s history as “impressive,” especially when contrasted with the “low-IQ lunatics working at the U.S. State Department.”
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Wilson, 26, is the daughter of Fox News contributor and Trump ally Steve Cortes. She had held her previous role since January before being promoted.
The Pentagon can’t even claim ignorance about Wilson’s online views. In March, Rep. Ritchie Torres wrote to Hegseth demanding Wilson’s firing, describing her social media presence as a “minefield of antisemitic rhetoric, white nationalist conspiracies, and pro-Kremlin propaganda.”
That same month, the American Jewish Committee said Wilson was “clearly unfit for her role” while accusing her of posting “antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook.”
Tom Malinowski, a former Democratic congressman from New Jersey, noted that Hegseth promoted Wilson despite multiple Jewish groups urging her removal.
“Please don’t tell me this administration gives a damn about anti-Semitism,” Malinowski posted on X.
Hegseth didn’t seem troubled by the controversy. Last month, he replied “make us proud” to Wilson’s post announcing her promotion.
