When Logan and Jake Paul walked into the Pentagon last Thursday to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, they carried with them not just their considerable social media reach, but also years of controversy that made the visit feel, to many observers, like a collision between the gravity of military institutions and the weightlessness of influencer culture. The appearance was not without precedent — celebrities have long moved through the corridors of American defense for purposes ranging from recruitment to entertainment — yet the particular figures involved, and the moment in which they arrive