Far-right activist Jack Posobiec 鈥� who has a long history of promoting antisemitic and white supremacist content 鈥� last week claimed that he joined top U.S. officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on a trip to Ukraine. Posobiec, who is best known for promoting the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, from an empty conference room featuring Ukrainian and U.S. flags and claimed he was at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Washington Post first reported that . A U.S. official speaking on background because they weren't authorized to speak publicly confirmed to NPR that Posobiec had been invited on Hegseth's trip but didn't go. Posobiec later told Politico that .
"[Hegseth] sees him as a guy whose messaging he trusts. He's a guy who can get Trump's message out to Republicans," said Michael Edison Hayden, an expert on right-wing populism and extremism who's monitored Posobiec for years. "It's a really scary proposition because by inviting Jack Posobiec, you are sending a message to armed service members that this is how you should be. 'You should be like this guy.'"
Neither the Defense Secretary or the Treasury Secretary's offices responded to requests for comment.
Posobiec's inclusion on trips by Trump officials is part of of the new administration welcoming far-right media into official settings.
The "," conspiracy theory claimed that Democratic politicians were engaged in systematic pedophilic abuse. The false rumor inspired a gunman to fire multiple shots inside a crowded Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant in 2016. No one was hurt. The gunman was arrested and sentenced to prison.
"If [Posobiec] were a recording artist, Pizzagate would be his top-selling song and be the number one thing on Spotify," said Hayden. Pizzagate, Hayden said, is just one example on a of false and destructive conspiracy theories Posobiec has promoted.
Posobiec has a track record of making inflammatory remarks, which he later describes as satire. After, later claimed he'd always thought the theory was "stupid." At last year's Conservative Political Action Conference, Posobiec told attendees "Welcome to the. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn't get all the way there on Jan. 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it." He then held up a cross necklace, saying "we will replace it with this, right here." He later told his comments made fun of the Biden administration.
Because of his tendency toward pulling stunts 鈥� including trying to embed as an anti-Trump protester with a "Rape Melania" sign 鈥� Posobiec has been characterized as a "" by some journalists. Hayden disputes that characterization.
"I think the idea of Jack Posobiec as a troll, in retrospect now, is kind of a misunderstanding," said Hayden. "He provides spin for authoritarian politicians, including Trump 鈥� especially Trump. And he also sows disinfo publicly through social media that benefits authoritarians."
Posobiec's profile was lifted after Trump began retweeting Posobiec's posts days after the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va.
At the time "Jack [Posobiec] was promoting spin on Twitter as he does, and sort of [saying]: Hey, what about all this violence in Chicago?" said Hayden, explaining that "Black-on-Black crime" tropes have long been invoked by white supremacists to deflect attention away from systemic racism. Posobiec, at the time a U.S. Naval reserve officer, lost his shortly thereafter.
Today, Posobiec has 3 million followers on X.
According to research by Hayden while at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Posbiec has an extensive history of ties to avowed and movements abroad. He has amplified what Hayden describes as "obscure" media and to his large social media following. Of one example, Hayden said, "I mean, it was extreme far right, antisemitic, racist, misogynistic, violent content on that site. Without any context, he tweets it out, which tells you that he's on that site."
Posobiec, who has, among other things, participated in far right, culture and himself joking about, has being antisemitic himself. Asked for comment, Posobiec told NPR by email that Hayden is a "hysterical lunatic" and called his reporting "psychopathic babble."
Kristofer Goldsmith, a U.S. Army veteran and founder of the Task Force Butler Institute, a nonprofit that trains veterans to research and counter extremism, is particularly alarmed by a false, antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish people deliberately encourage non-white immigration in order to dilute the whiteness of a given country. "That lie has led extremists to walk into Walmarts and synagogues and churches and movie theaters to murder people," said Goldsmith.
Posobiec has also amplified campaigns, though it's unclear whether he's been a willing proponent or a target of those efforts.
Posobiec's presence on the trip sends the message to U.S. allies that "the America that you knew is no longer that the America that's coming to the negotiating table or to the alliance meeting that we had planned," said Matthew Kriner, the executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism.
Posobiec himself did not respond to specific requests for details about who invited him or what he did on the trip, instead telling NPR "enjoy being defunded."
NPR's Tom Bowman contributed reporting.
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