Trump, Hegseth Force Hundreds Of Military Officers To Attend Their Two-Person Circle Jerk

A lot of money was spent to make this happen. And, for all the money spent and all the logistical problems it created, it had nothing to do with rallying the troops and everything to do with giving the president and his defense secretary yet another place to air their personal grievances. This insanely large, stupid, and possibly dangerous mandatory meeting dragged hundreds of high-ranking officers away from their respective missions, along with their staff. And for what?

What spilled out of Trump's and Hegseth's mouths wasn't anything resembling the sort of respectful address high-level government officials are expected to deliver. Instead, it was Trump acting like he was campaigning for a constitutionally forbidden third term in office and Pete Hegseth thinking he can win the hearts and minds of military members by sounding like the broadest caricature of a keyboard warrior. Trump thinks he'll hold office forever. Hegseth thinks every speech or comment to reporters should sound like the most-downvoted comment in a Reddit forum.

Lots of people hated what happened during this unprecedented commandeering of the military's top brass. And lots of those people were the military brass forced to attend a two-person stroke-off when slipping into a coma would have been a more productive use of their time.

Lots of dumb stuff was said. So was a lot of dangerous stuff. The worst stuff, however, made up a majority of both delivered speeches. And that would be the stuff that combined stupid" and dangerous" as only Trump (both iterations) has proven both capable and willing.

Here's some of the horrific stuff that fell from the permanently slackened jaws of two of the most powerful yokels in the world:

It seems that the ones that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places," the president told the generals and admirals at a military base in Virginia. And we're going to straighten them out one by one, and this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room."

That's a war too," Mr. Trump said. It's a war from within."

That's Trump telling the troops they're going to be part of his martial law plans, and a major part" at that. While military service is very definitely self-selecting, almost no one enters the military for the purpose of acting as inland invaders at the direction of someone who views them as toy soldiers he can just push around his Map O' Revenge. (If you harbor the desire to treat your fellow citizens as enemies in a war, you become a cop. If you're just a soulless sociopath, you get a $50,000 bonus when ICE hires you.)

This other comment from Trump is more stupid than dangerous, but it makes it clear he and his party think it's okay to joke about words that have always been associated with the United States' distinct brand of racism:

Trump also repeatedly discussed nuclear weapons during the speech. I rebuilt our nuclear," he said. I moved a submarine or two, I won't say about the two, over to the coast of Russia just to be careful, because we can't let people throw around that word." He continued: I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can't use either of them."

That's the kind of thing this president feels comfortable saying in front of US military members. This is a guy whose mind is so fucked he not only makes this comment where hundreds of people can hear him, but acts like the two words are equally reviled.

It's like saying there are two things you really can't do any more: wolf-whistle at a passing woman or just walk up to her and grab her by the pussy." It's the same thing in Trump's mind: the merely offensive and the actual act of sexual violence. (As for the nuclear" part, the public's antipathy towards nuclear power is nothing compared to Trump's blind hatred of any renewable energy source.)

Meanwhile, Hegseth's speech was more of the same from him: the casual abuse of Bible verses coupled with his inexplicable amount of blood lust.

Hegseth, stalking back and forth across the dais during his address, invoked Jesus's golden rule to do unto others" while threatening that those who challenge the United States will be crushed with violence." Hegseth continued: In other words, to our enemies: FAFO," Hegseth said, using an abbreviation for fuck around, find out."

Yep, still got that Old Testament God in him: the one who was always out for revenge, at least according to the very vengeful men who banged out this half of the Bible on behalf of an entity apparently sorely in need of script punch-ups from a handful of ghostwriters. The New Testament - quoted directly here - somehow gets turned into fuck around, find out" by a guy who has never earned the respect of the military he's been put in charge of. This is a guy who wouldn't know OPSEC if it stole his identity and donated his next paycheck to LGBTQ+ legal defense funds.

But Hegseth has even more hate in him, which definitely isn't something you want to see in a Secretary of Defense, especially when coupled with Trump's promises to deploy troops to US cities to engage war on American citizens.

No more dudes in dresses," Hegseth ranted. We are done with that shit." The clean-shaven secretary railed against troops with beards and long hair, saying that only members of the Special Operations forces would be allowed to flout standards. No more beardos," he decreed, taking aim at those whom he said looked like nordic pagans."

You kill people and break things for a living," said Hegseth toward the end of his remarks. Move out and draw fire because we are the War Department."

What sounds like standard haircut stuff is deeper and darker than that. Hegseth has rolled back exceptions that were created to allow more minorities to serve in the armed forces, while simultaneously wink-nodding every Confederate namesake for a military base name back into existence.

This is nothing but racism being pushed by a racist who's somehow been allowed to command a military that has long relied on the contributions of people who have - for most of the past century and a half - never been given a good reason to fight for it. Now, he's directly shitting in the mouth of anyone who isn't a straight, white male while being directly in the middle of a decades-long downturn in military recruitment and insisting the only way forward is to give millions of Americans yet another reason to reject the military as a viable career option.

Stupid, dangerous, and pointlessly, performatively angry: that's the GOP and these are their leaders. But even though the speakers included the nominal Commander in Chief" and the so-called Secretary of War," military leaders attending this atrocity came out of it feeling they'd just been treated (against their will) to a bunch of froth served up by decidedly non-serious (and possibly non-sane) people who don't deserve to hold the positions they're in.

Secretary Hegseth's misogynistic lethality screed was disqualifying. His continued railing against women in combat roles shows his deep personal inadequacies," said the first defense official. It shocks the conscience to hear the Secretary of Defense - he is no warrior - endorse bullying and hazing of service members. How dare this former National Guard major lecture our military leaders on lethality when he's focused solely on his own cult of personality."

[...]

This is truly disturbing. He is clearly unwell even for Trump," said a second defense official, who later referenced the 25th Amendment, which permits a president's powers to be transferred to the vice president when the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet conclude that the commander-in-chief is incapable of performing their duties. This is incredibly embarrassing for the United States." He added: Imagine sitting through this in person."

Exactly. Imagine this. It's every day now in this nation: someone who actually knows how to do their job well has to sit back and listen to dangerously unqualified people spew hatred, ignorance, and fascist fantasies at their captive audience.

But it's clear why both Hegseth and Trump wanted this to happen so badly they shredded budgetary concerns (and just ahead of a potential government shutdown) and any sense of proportion to make it happen. Saying whatever the fuck you want in front of true professionals allows you to bask in the reflected glory of people who have earned both their positions and the respect of the people they command. These two mooks will never have that. The closest they'll come are moments like these, even when it's immediately obvious they'll never be the smartest people in any room that isn't filled with GOP congressional members.