Pete "Drunky McDrunkPants" Hegseth and Donald Trump had their find little show in front of the military leadership on Tuesday morning. I guess they expected a full on party atmosphere with raucous applause and whooping as they talked about the "warrior ethos" and how we were totally not work anymore. Instead they were met with silence.
The Washington Post called it a "meandering speech" where Trump was met with a "room full of silent Generals" and that cracked me up. He fully thought the Generals would stand up and pledge their undying love and devotion to him, just like the Nazis did with Hitler in 1930's Germany. Instead he was met with a room of stoic, seated, apolitical (at least outwardly) military leaders who were dragged to a meeting in Virginia with a few days notice to listen to a speech that could have been an email...or at the very least, a zoom call.
The tone was set instantly. Trump walked out to a silent room. He seemed thrown off his game, mumbling to the attendees: “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before. If you want to applaud, you applaud.”
No one applauded.
So, off he went. Partly reading his pre-written speech, partly rambling like only a dementia ridden 79-year old can. He blasted Joe Biden, talked about how great tariffs are, joked about using American cities as military training grounds.
He lied about Putin telling him that America was "hot" again.
But, the attendees showed that they would not be part of a political show. When Trump bashed Joe Biden, the room was silent. When Trump tried to get the audience to respond to a call for support of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Caine, the room remained silent.
He continued to prod them, saying “I was told that, ‘Sir, you won’t hear a murmur in the room. I said we had to loosen these guys up a little bit.”
It did not work.
Trump could not feed off the energy of the room, so his speech was remarkably low energy. He rambled about TWO n-words you can't say. One is nuclear. The other, thankfully, he didn't say.
He talked about battleships and about Canada becoming part of the United States.
When it was over, a few officers stood, but most remained seated.
And then, Trump left. Deflated and defeated. A room full of Generals that have no respect for him.
