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March 5, 2025
Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon’s new deputy press secretary, is facing backlash over a series of recent social media comments in which she has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, opposed U.S. aid to Israel and amplified Kremlin talking points, among several other remarks that raise questions about her elevation to a key role at the Defense Department.
In social media posts that are now drawing particularly fierce scrutiny, Wilson attacked the Anti-Defamation League for memorializing the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who is widely believed to have been wrongly convicted of raping and murdering a child over a century ago in Atlanta.
“Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl,” Wilson wrote in response to the ADL in 2023, repeating her claim just over a year later. “He also tried to frame a black man for his crime. The ADL is despicable.”
In a statement to Jewish Insider on Wednesday, an ADL spokesperson said that “white supremacists and other antisemites have long used conspiracy theories about the Leo Frank case to cast doubt on the circumstances of” his “antisemitic lynching.”
“We are deeply disturbed that any public official would parrot these hateful and false conspiracy theories,” the spokesperson added, “and we hope Kingsley Wilson will immediately retract her remarks.”
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, nor did the White House.
In addition to such posts, Wilson has frequently boosted the antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory”; celebrated Christian nationalism; called Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, “one of the greatest Americans to ever live”; praised the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has downplayed the Holocaust, while using a slogan with ties to neo-Nazis; suggested that women should not be police officers; and compared the murder of Israeli babies by Hamas to abortion shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, among other claims.
She also repeatedly opposed sending U.S. military aid to Israel during its war with Hamas in Gaza, and has vocally criticized U.S. engagement in the Middle East. In a since-deleted post published last fall, for example, Wilson expressed disapproval of a Pentagon announcement that the U.S. was sending additional troops to the Middle East amid escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Israel can fight their own wars,” she wrote in the post, according to an archived version available on the Wayback Machine. “The only place U.S. troops should be sent is the southern border.”
In a post about the Middle East three days after the Oct. 7 attacks, she urged America not to “get involved in foreign ethnic conflicts.”
Perhaps even more vehemently, Wilson has been an outspoken critic of Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression, saying that the U.S. is prioritizing the conflict at the expense of protecting the Southern border and addressing other domestic needs.
She has claimed that Ukraine is “not a democracy,” while expressing sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Wilson has also viciously attacked Republican supporters of Ukraine such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), saying that the U.S. should “deport” and “ship him” to the war-torn country.
Her comments on foreign policy have provoked criticism from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who last week singled out one social media post in which she had called to “Make Kosovo Serbia again.”
“Kingsley Wilson, the deputy press secretary for the Department of Defense, is shamefully attempting to delegitimize Kosovo, which has been the single greatest American ally in the Western Balkans,” Torres wrote. “No amount of historical revisionism can change the fundamental fact that Kosovo is and will always be an independent democracy.”
Wilson, the daughter of Steve Cortes, a GOP activist and campaign advisor, most recently worked as a digital staffer at the Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump think tank that Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought founded.
The young conservative activist shares the views of several new Pentagon hires whose skepticism of Israel and isolationist views have raised concerns among mainstream Republican lawmakers. Wilson is also among several new Trump administration hires who have faced criticism for extreme positions and rhetoric.
But her public-facing role, coupled with her history of inflammatory social media posts, draws a spotlight to the ideological direction of the Defense Department as it seeks to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Jewish Insider senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch contributed reporting.
