At what point do you pull the plug??? Just fucking INSANE!

Trump, Hegseth fat shame generals, test loyalties in manic military rant 

Bill Goodykoontz

This is not normal.

Yes, it's becoming more and more difficult to define "normal," but the speeches that President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered to the nation's top military brass on Tuesday, Sept. 30, were genuinely jaw-dropping, even by their standards. (Unless you're a guest on Fox News, apparently.)

The commander in chief telling his highest-ranking generals and admirals, "We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military" certainly qualifies.

"There were just so many false claims," Daniel Dale, CNN's fact-checker, said after Trump's speech. "And I say that after essentially every speech, unfortunately, from President Donald Trump. But I think this is notable because of the audience. He was telling a lot of lies, saying a lot of other inaccurate things, regardless of his intentions, to the U.S.’ top military leaders."

Exactly.

Any media outlet that characterizes this as just another day at the office isn't doing its job. Simply put, this was nuts, often in a scary way. No matter how many bizarre lawsuits Trump files against media companies or what insane demands Hegseth makes of reporters, this has to be called out as what it was: crazy.

Hegseth's speech was crazy. Trump's was crazier

Hegseth strutted around talking about how tough the military would be under his leadership (and what good shape he was in).

Trump, meanwhile, basically delivered a head-spinning, unhinged campaign speech, only instead of the usual full-throated, MAGA-hat wearing worshipful followers, this was in front of an audience ordered to be there, the nation's highest-ranking military officers ― who, one supposes, must have better things to do. He railed against Joe Biden and Democrats; talked again about how "tariff" is his favorite word; said, "I love my signature, I really do"; and more.

Hegseth called the meeting on short notice, ordering the generals and admirals from around the world to Quantico, Virginia. Hegseth made it clear early on what kind of loyalty he expected from them.

"If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign," he said.

Hegseth went on to decry "wokeness" and "dudes in dresses" and, taking a page from his boss' book, praised himself. "It all starts with physical fitness and appearance," Hegseth said. "If the secretary of War can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals."

Hegseth called rules of engagement 'stupid'

Worried about those pesky rules of engagement, which help prevent war crimes? Don't be!

"We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy," Hegseth said. "We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

And in what has already become a meme, Hegseth also offered this: "Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies, FAFO."

Don't know what that means?

"If necessary, our troops can translate that for you."

Amazingly, Hegseth was just the warm-up act.

Trump tested the loyalty of top military officials

Next up was Trump, who rambled (there really is no other word for it, except maybe "raved") for more than an hour. He lied about the 2020 election results, again. He attacked the media, again. He trotted out this old chestnut: "We were a dead country a year ago, and now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. You must be proud of that.”

What must the generals and admirals have been thinking?

When Trump came out, there was no applause. He said he'd never "walked into a room so silent before." When the audience laughed, Trump said, "Don't laugh, you're not allowed to do that." He was joking, and then said, "Just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want, you can do anything you want. And if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future."

The remarks drew some laughter. There were worries that the purpose of the meeting would be a loyalty test among military leaders. It never got that explicit. But it was pretty close.

He said far more alarming things, but Trump really reached back into his greatest-hits repertoire when he trashed "fake-news CNN" and claimed, "Oh, they just turned their camera off," and that they do so every time he mentioned them.

Interestingly enough, I watched him tell this lie ... on CNN.

Veterans reacted on CNN, Fox News

At one point, Trump talked about battleships and how much he loves watching "Victory at Sea." He didn't ask anyone what their favorite war movie was, although in Hegseth's case, he didn't have to. The speeches took place in front of a giant American flag, identical to the backdrop of the opening of the movie "Patton." Trump mentioned more than once how important optics are to him.

MSNBC cut away from Trump's speech eventually. Later, CNN did. Fox News carried the full speech, then spoke with military veterans who mostly praised the speeches. The absolute insanity went either unnoticed or unremarked upon.

Not so on CNN, where Amy McGrath, a retired lieutenant colonel who flew combat missions, described Trump's speech perfectly.

"There was a lot of rambling, there was a ton of lies, a lot of politicization … and some of the craziness that you heard from this speech," she said. "But the scariest part was when the president talked about using the military and using our cities as a training ground for the United States military." 

"I’m very worried about this," she continued. "I think the whole part of bringing these generals and admirals back here was to discuss this type of thing. It should scare us all. This is something that we just don’t do in America."

It is now. If there were any doubt, Tuesday's speeches removed it. It's the job of the media to make clear how scary that is.