The Department of Defense has promoted one of its most controversial communications staffers, Kingsley Wilson, to serve as the agency's press secretary, Jewish Insider reported.
"The Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs is announcing that Kingsley Wilson will serve as Press Secretary for the Department of Defense," top Pentagon adviser Sean Parnell announced on X. "Kingsley’s leadership has been integral to the DoD’s success & we look forward to her continued service to President Trump!"
Wilson has come under fire in the past for virulently antisemitic comments, including conspiracy theories against a Jewish lynching victim whose cause helped found the Anti-Defamation League. Even a number of Republicans have criticized the Trump administration's "vetting process" for allowing her into the Pentagon in the first place.
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Her new promotion sparked a fresh wave of outrage from commenters on social media.
"It's worse than you think," wrote Rolling Stone's Noah Shachtman, posting information on how Wilson not only pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories but also praised Confederate general Robert E. Lee and pushed the white nationalist "great replacement theory."
"Kingsley Wilson, a deputy press secretary at the DOD who has come under fire for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, has been promoted to serve as the department’s press secretary," wrote the Republicans Against Trumpism account. "Wilson has also called Confederate General Robert E. Lee 'one of the greatest Americans to ever live.'"
"Kingsley Wilson is set to become the Press Secretary for the Department of Defense," wrote NPR correspondent Tom Dreisbach. "The American Jewish Committee and other Jewish civil rights groups heavily criticized Wilson for posting 'antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook.'"
"Maybe someone in the media could write about the hypocrisy of Donald Trump dismantling higher education to 'protect' the Jews while at the same time stocking his administration with antisemites," wrote former U.S. Public Delegate to the United Nations Andrew Weinstein.