Conservative podcaster Graham Allen started a new job at the Pentagon on Monday, as the Defense Department’s digital media director, a Defense official who was not authorized to speak on the record told Defense One.
According to an email sent to the Pentagon’s public affairs staff, Allen “will further strengthen our ability to communicate effectively.” The official did not provide any details about Allen’s job description.
“I have been asked by the president and by Secretary Hegseth to serve my country again, and come to DC specifically to help with the Pentagon side of things,” Allen said in a recorded message aired on his Dear America podcast Monday morning. “And that’s all I’m going to get into there.”
He’s settling into his new position as DOD prepares to fire roughly 5,400 probationary employees in the first step of a review that the Pentagon expects to result in laying off 5 to 8 percent of its civilian workforce—more than 60,000 employees—alongside a hiring freeze.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first mentioned Allen’s name in a Thursday video statement, as one of the people who will be helping DOD “communicate directly, rather than through the filter of media outlets.”
The other is Sean Parnell, a combat veteran and previous Republican congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, who just came on board as Hegseth’s assistant for public affairs.
Allen did not respond to a request from Defense One for more information about his job description.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the Pentagon has not held a public press briefing. Hegseth has instead preferred to communicate through video statements and social media.
His press secretary, John Ullyot, announced Friday that the Pentagon’s briefing room will be closed to the press outside of public briefings, changing longstanding policy that allowed credentialed reporters to record video reports or use the building’s only public wireless internet connection to file stories.
The department also, over the weekend, debuted a “rapid response” account on X, formerly Twitter, engaging directly with reporters and commentators.
In one case, the account responded to concerns about Hegseth’s unprecedented firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, chief of naval operations, vice chief of staff of the Air Force and the military departments’ top uniformed lawyers with an Investor’s Business Daily editorial from 2013 that cites “Breitbart.com’s Facebook page” in a claim that President Barack Obama fired nearly 200 officers—of all ranks and for a range of causes including inappropriate behavior and inappropriate relationships—during his first five years in office.
“Welcome To The Official Rapid Response Account For The DOD! Supporting The Mission Of
@SecDef And Fighting Against Fake News!,” the account’s bio reads.
