Washington — Pentagon Adviser Kurt Schlichter's Posts Draw Scrutiny

Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel with more than 620,000 followers on X, served as a civilian contributor to a Pentagon task force reviewing so-called woke ideologies at the military's war colleges, according to WIRED, which reviewed years of his social media posts advocating restrictions on voting rights and praise for authoritarian rulers.

What role did Schlichter hold at the Pentagon?

Schlichter appeared in a government personnel database with the designation "HQE," which WIRED reports could stand for "highly qualified expert," and was assigned an active government email address tied to the office of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, according to reporting cited by WIRED. Schlichter confirmed to WIRED that he was a civilian government employee working on a task force targeting what the administration calls woke ideology at senior service colleges. It is not clear whether he remains in that role, WIRED reports.

What did Schlichter say about voting eligibility?

In an August 2021 thread on X reviewed by WIRED, Schlichter proposed barring people without children, without military service, or without property ownership from voting. "Penalize barren, non-familial lifestyles through taxes and disqualification from political participation," he wrote, according to WIRED. "Establish property and military service qualifications for voting." That same thread called for banning masks, unions, critical race theory, and what he termed "leftist media," WIRED reports, and drew a combined 10,000 shares across its posts.

"We must, by any means necessary, force them to be like us. No quarter. No compromise."

That line, from the same 2021 thread, is what Schlichter wrote about political opponents, according to WIRED's review of the posts.

What did Schlichter say about historical dictators?

WIRED documented posts in which Schlichter praised Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. In April 2024, he wrote on X that "Pinochet was too soft," per WIRED's reporting. In May 2025, quoting a post urging asylum for Spanish fascists, he wrote "Franco did nothing wrong," WIRED reports.

How has the Pentagon responded?

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson defended Schlichter's inclusion on the task force in a statement to WIRED: "The Department was proud to have a group of patriotic civilians and veterans like Kurt Schlichter contribute to our Senior Service College Task Force. Nothing is more important than the formation of our future military leaders." WIRED separately notes that Wilson herself shared extremist content and an antisemitic conspiracy theory before joining the Pentagon. Schlichter did not respond to WIRED's requests for comment.

Why does this connect to Hegseth's broader agenda?

Schlichter has posted in support of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's anti-woke initiatives, WIRED reports, and his task force work coincided with a Pentagon policy — reported by WIRED — requiring journalists to sign a pledge restricting what information they could gather. Most major outlets refused to sign and left the Pentagon press corps, according to WIRED's account. The task force's stated mission, per the Pentagon's own description to WIRED, is rooting out ideological content at the military's senior war colleges, the institutions that train colonels and generals for top command.

WIRED's full investigation, including additional posts and the original Washington Post reporting on the Pentagon's use of influencers in government roles, is available at the source link above.

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