Today Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (who likes to call himself “Secretary of War”) called into Quantico Marine Corps Base, Virginia, 800 one-, two-, three-, and four-star generals and admirals along with their Senior Enlisted Advisors for a waste of their time. Hegseth was joined by Trump – which was an even larger waste of time.
Hegseth raved about “fat generals and fat admirals,” and told everyone about how he starts his day with pushups ( I’m an old Army Ranger; at age 80 I knock out 100 pushups daily ). The rest of his comments were equally useless, ignorant, and pointless. Hegseth has watched too many John Wayne war movies. He’s a former National Guard Major who was bounced out of his unit.
Trump spoke for an hour and ten minutes, telling the crowd that they could leave if they didn’t like what he was saying, but, if they do walk out, “there goes your rank and your future.” He then went on to say he had ended seven wars (he had not), the 2020 election was rigged (it was not), and he won the 2024 election by the largest margin ever (he did not, he barely won). He drew only occasional polite applause.
The meeting was an insult to the officers and their senior enlisted advisors who had been called urgently to Washington to be lectured on personal grooming by a drunk wife-abuser and to listen to a campaign rally by an increasingly demented president. These senior men and women are serious, educated people with lifetimes of experience in their fields.
Trump’s and Hegseth’s incompetence was on full display. The whole affair was reminiscent of 1930’s Germany.
And to think — we are stuck with another three-plus years of these incompetents.
