MAGA Influencer Revealed to Be Working for the Pentagon

OCTAVIO JONES / AFP via Getty Images Jennica Pounds, a MAGA influencer who posts AI slop under the alias DataRepublican, has been secretly working for the Department of Defense this whole time.

Up until June, Pounds was a member of the credentialed Pentagon press corps.

She had not disclosed her new gig with the Pentagon.

The revelation came during an online MAGA-on-MAGA spat in which Pounds accused the “Deep State” — later revealed to be Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers — of attempting to “entrap” her into committing treason.

Pounds had been ranting on X, her preferred social platform, about a message she got from Rogers.

Rogers had given her access to Biden-era government documents about Cuba, in the hope that Pounds would publish as an “exclusive.” But Pounds appeared to botch the potential journalistic “scoop” as she thought Rogers was setting her up to leak sensitive information.

She posted text messages between herself and Rogers that showed Pounds was originally enthusiastic about the exclusive story, but soon turned distrustful.

Pounds then posted that Rogers was “trying to set her up to commit a crime,” claiming that Rogers was attempting to entice her into leaking sensitive information.

“It’s not okay when the Deep State sets you up to commit a crime,” Pounds wrote in a now-deleted social media thread.

“I have never been more angry in my life.” Rogers later joined the dispute and said she had sent the documents as she tried to clear her name online, saying, “The ‘markings’ are FOIA redactions required even for voluntary disclosure.” “To prove this isn’t a ‘trap,’ I will happily disclose the documents myself,” she elaborated.

But by then, the X account for the MAGA outlet AF Post wrote , then exposed her real employment, writing, “Jennica Pounds, aka Data Republican, a Department of War employee,” which the DOD later confirmed.

Pounds defended the fact that she had been secretly working for the government in a follow-up post.

“I began working as a Special Government Employee for the Department of War in July, to serve the country in a more hands-on way,” she explained, adding, “I currently am not a member of the Pentagon Press Corps and no longer attend briefings or events as a journalist.” In a more bizarre post during the fight, an account that appears to be run by Pounds’ mother, Mom of Data Republican, defended her daughter in the spat while also insulting her intelligence as she called for Rogers to resign.

“Even if your intentions were not totally nefarious, you took advantage of someone who is not inherently cunning like you are. ‘GIFT,’ my a*s.