The Defense Department’s new chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, held a tense meeting with reporters in which he asked if they were “rooting” for President Donald Trump and questioned why it would be unfair to expect them to cheer on the MAGA leader, according to a report.
The clash unfolded inside the Pentagon on Thursday afternoon during an off-the-record meeting in which Parnell introduced himself to the press corps, journalist Oliver Darcy wrote in his Status newsletter. Parnell signaled that he hoped to have a good relationship with reporters in the meeting, which rapidly went south when they were permitted to ask questions.
One reporter in the room told Status that Parnell’s “mask slipped” when someone asked about a rapid response X account created by the Defense Department that seemingly exists to attack the media. “It was bleak and horrible,” another told Status.
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Parnell allegedly told the reporter who asked about the account that he’d “recently gone through their social media feed and voiced displeasure with some of their comments about Trump,” Darcy wrote.
It was at that point that Parnell asked the few dozen journalists in the meeting if they were rooting for Trump and questioned why it would be unfair of him to expect their support for the president, according to the report. One journalist supposedly said that their job is to report facts rather than root one way or the other in their coverage.
Another flare-up came when a reporter asked “why the Pentagon media affairs department was not responding to press inquiries in a timely manner” but finding time to rapidly post on X criticizing journalists, according to Darcy. “So it’s our job to let you publish stories that trash the warfighter?” Parnell reportedly answered, leaving reporters nonplussed.
“It seems like they are purposefully trying to discredit and paint any questioning of their policies as an attack on the troops—instead of a legitimate questioning of policy,” a journalist present at the meeting told Status.
Parnell’s deputy, John Ullyot, also allegedly berated the reporters for their previous coverage of Trump. In one particularly bizarre moment, Ullyot reportedly claimed the media had intentionally ignored former President Joe Biden needing “to use the kiddie steps” to board Air Force One.
When the journalists highlighted that covering Biden hadn’t been part of their beat as Pentagon reporters, Ullyot allegedly countered that they should have reported on the “kiddie steps” because Air Force One is technically a military aircraft, according to Status.
The meeting comes after the Defense Department, which former Fox News star Pete Hegseth now leads, kicked eight media outlets out of its offices within the Pentagon. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico were among those evicted to make way for the likes of the New York Post, Newsmax, and Breitbart.
Parnell also indicated further change was on the way, according to Status, when asked if media would continue to have access to Hegseth during his overseas trips. Parnell reportedly signaled that the traditional press pool would be dropped, with journalists being told that the department’s media affairs team “realized” Hegseth could get his message publicized through “new media.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
