Pentagon officials are stunned after President Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited a notorious far-right activist to accompany him on a trip, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
According to the report, the decision to invite Jack Posobiec to Hegseth's first overseas trip "trigger[ed] alarm among U.S. defense officials worried about the military being dragged into partisan warfare."
"News of Posobiec’s invitation circulated among U.S. officials in Washington and in Europe ahead of Hegseth’s visit this week to Germany, Belgium and Poland, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the secretary’s itinerary," the report continued. "One official said the potential involvement of Posobiec, a Trump booster who is known for peddling conspiracy theories and trolling political adversaries online, has raised questions within the Pentagon about Hegseth’s judgment and what he aimed to communicate to U.S. allies if he were to allow a polarizing political figure to be by his side."
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Posobiec, who is embedded in MAGA circles and was even deployed by the RNC last year to train election monitors in Michigan, is perhaps best known for amplifying the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which held that a secret child sex trafficking ring was being run out of the basement of Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. known for hosting political functions.
The pizzeria didn't have a basement, let alone a sex trafficking ring, but the rumors led to a shooting on the premises.
All of this comes as Posobiec has been outspoken on social media in praise of Hegseth, who had a rocky confirmation hearing process marred by allegations of sexual assault and chronic drinking problem.
"Posobiec voiced support for Hegseth’s work in Brussels over the last two days of meetings with NATO allies. The defense secretary on Wednesday pledged that the Trump administration will pursue negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, assessed that it is 'unrealistic' the Ukrainians will recover all the territory the country has lost to Russia since 2014 and said that Ukraine joining the military alliance should not be part of any peace deal," noted the report. "Hegseth on Thursday walked back a part of his message, saying that only Trump could assess whether NATO membership is off the table in Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations."
