The White House recently unveiled what it called a "powerful new official mobile app" designed to keep citizens connected with the Trump Administration. But a former FBI intelligence analyst has uncovered a curious detail about the small business behind the project.
The app was built by 45Press, a design and development agency based in Canfield, Ohio, a small town of fewer than 8,000 residents situated between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. The company describes itself as a WordPress VIP Agency Partner and lists Amazon, NBC, and Sony among its past clients.
Here is where it gets interesting. Joel Kendall, the CEO of 45Press, also runs a side project called "Sir Storia," a social media presence and store dedicated to conspiracy theories. Among the topics explored: whether Nazis escaped on a UFO and whether Ohio is a hotbed of UFO activity.
The discovery was made by a former FBI intelligence analyst, adding an extra layer of irony to the situation. Infosec experts and developers had already been raising questions about some of the app's technical design choices before this revelation surfaced.
Why does this matter? Government apps handle sensitive user data and serve as official communication channels. The vetting process for contractors building these tools is worth scrutiny, especially when the person at the helm has a public track record of promoting fringe theories.
To be clear, having unconventional hobbies does not automatically disqualify someone from building software. But when that software represents the executive branch of the United States government, the optics and the oversight questions are hard to ignore.
The story highlights a broader tension in government tech procurement. Speed and political alignment sometimes take priority over the kind of rigorous background review that security professionals would prefer to see applied to projects of this visibility and sensitivity.
