"The president who received five draft deferments—four for college, one for bad feet—continued to a room full of career officers....
For the next 70 minutes, he spoke slowly, slurring words, delivering to the hundreds of professionals who had rushed from around the world to attend this meeting a rambling, incoherent stream of words that jumped from what appeared to be prepared remarks to his own improvisation."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-30-2025
"The most remarkable aspect of Trump’s speech to the assembled generals and admirals of the US military was the silence.
The generals sat in silence.
They sat in silence as Trump slurred and rambled through a 'speech' that insulted the intelligence, professionalism, and loyalty of the generals."
~ Robert B. Hubbell
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-silence-of-the-generals
"In their adolescent fantasies, Trump and Hegseth believed the generals would fête them with standing ovations, chanting, 'USA! USA! USA!'
Instead, Trump and Hegseth were humiliated as their unhinged, delusional words slapped sharply against the bare walls and fell to the ground, their lunacy heightened by the silence of the generals.
Without the crutch and cover of cheering crowds, Trump’s mental deterioration was laid bare for all to see."
"The true story of the speech is that it is also one of the most deranged speeches in the history of our nation.
That’s often what gets lost in all the coversge, where the media has to provide short, cogent snippets.
The truth is that generals and other top brass were hauled into a room from around the world to listen to 70 minutes of meandering, stream-of-conscious insanity."
~ David Pepper
#Trump #Hegseth #military #dementia
/4
https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/diagramming-a-historically-horrific
"If they are a narcissist of the sadistic variety, they will almost certainly remain as cruel as ever, if not more so, so don’t hope for much, and know that it is them, not you. As with all forms of narcissists, dementia will exacerbate their feelings of anxiety, paranoia, and suspiciousness, which will increase their desire to exert more power and control, and their default for that is cruelty."
"The generals and admirals should be forgiven if they walked out of the auditorium and wondered: What on earth is wrong with the commander in chief? ...
In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: 'How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?' The question cost him his career."
~ Tom Nicholls
"Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?"
"Today, our military leaders personified the ethos the former Secretaries of Defense called for in their pre-January 6 letter, which we reviewed in last night’s post. The military isn’t about Hegseth’s phony warrior ethos, which would exclude many people who have served bravely from the military."
~ Joyce Vance
#Trump #Hegseth #military #dementia
/9
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-first-amendment-and-a-court-punch
"America’s toxic masculinity crisis was on full display today when Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense or, as he likes to say, Secretary of War, stood up in front of a room full of generals, admirals, and other senior military brass and lectured them about what it meant to be a real man."
~ Mary Trump
#Trump #Hegseth #military #dementia #ToxicMasculinity #overcompensation #MachoCosplaying
/11
"There was no hooting, no hollering, no one applauded. They just sat like this. Like, it was emasculating in a way that this man who desperately tries to cosplay as an alpha was seen as a beta cuck by U.S. military leaders. Like, that was, I thought literally, and them televising this, I think it was even worse."
~ Wajahat Ali
#Trump #Hegseth #military #dementia #ToxicMasculinity #overcompensation #MachoCosplaying
/12
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/shutting-down-a-fascist-regime-run
"Trump laid out a lawless, authoritarian vision for the armed forces, including fighting a 'war from within' against the his domestic enemies.
In other words, boots on the ground — in places like Portland, not Pyongyang."
~ Justin Glawe
#Trump #Hegseth #military #dementia
/13
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-military-speech-posse-comitatus
"The phrase 'enemy from within' has an ugly history. It was famously used by Senator Joseph McCarthy in a 1950 speech: 'When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be from enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within.' (McCarthy attributed the quote to 'one of our outstanding historical figures,' but that claim appears to be apocryphal.)"
~ Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims
Entitling his commentary "Bulging Biceps Don’t Win Modern Wars," Paul Krugman writes,
"Hegseth’s speech was morally vile. It was also, however, profoundly stupid. Hegseth seems to have gotten his ideas about what an effective military looks like by watching the movie 300."
#Trump #Hegseth #military #ToxicMasculinity #misogyny #racism #DEI #woke #stupidity
/16
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/bulging-biceps-dont-win-modern-wars
"A military rife with sexual abuse and bigotry isn’t going to attract the best minds — many of which, although people like Hegseth will never believe it, reside in female and nonwhite bodies.
…All of this is of a piece with Trumpian policy in other domains."
#Trump #Hegseth #military #ToxicMasculinity #misogyny #racism #DEI #woke #stupidity
/17
"Of course a regime that believes it can make America great by defunding science and destroying higher education believes that it can make our military more effective by making it prejudiced and stupid.
The good news is that America’s officer corps isn’t stupid, at least not yet."
#Trump #Hegseth #military #ToxicMasculinity #misogyny #racism #DEI #woke
/18
"The stony silence with which the assembled generals and admirals greeted Hegseth’s and Trump’s rants was eloquent.
But you can now add the military to the list of great American institutions that MAGA is, in effect, trying to destroy."
#Trump #Hegseth #military #ToxicMasculinity #misogyny #racism #DEI #woke #stupidity
/19
"The other thing that he said was, as history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it. That's why pacifism is naive and dangerous."
~ Allison Gill
#Trump #Hegseth #military #fascism
/20
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/magas-animal-house-military-frat
"Michael Wolff: Is it dementia or something else? What one of Donald Trump's closest political advisors revealed to me."
#Trump #Hegseth #military #stupidity
/22
https://bsky.app/profile/iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social/post/3lzmech76hk2p
"Trump and Hegseth did serve important national interests on Tuesday. It’s just that the nation whose interests they served wasn’t ours. The spectators in the Kremlin must have laughed when they heard Hegseth mock 'diversity' and proclaim that 'unity is our strength.'
Trump and Hegseth clearly hate diversity. But they wouldn’t know unity if it bit them in the ass."
~ Will Saletan
As Evan Hurst reports, from late-night comedians like Jimmy Kimmel to Stephen Colbert and Military Reddits, Trump-Hegseth are being resoundingly mocked now. Hurst offers links and video clips — including to MSNBC's Pentagon reporter Helene Cooper reporting on what she's hearing said inside the military.
#Trump #Hegseth #military #stupidity
/24
https://www.wonkette.com/p/here-are-your-clips-of-late-night
And, of course, cartoonists are adding to the commentary, including Nick Anderson, whose "Men, let me tell you about the warrior ethos" cartoon is featured by by Gene Weingarten.
#Trump #Hegseth #military #ToxicMasculinity #overcompensation #MachoCosplaying
/25
"Trump has checked off the list of independent sources of political power that authoritarians typically target: the courts, law enforcement, the press, universities, and civil society organizations, among others. The military remains a key holdout. But none of these institutions can resist alone, and even together they can’t resist forever without broad-based cultural support for them."
~ David Kurtz
#Trump #Hegseth #military #fascism
/26
https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/the-test-of-our-time-even-the-military
@wdlindsy the members of the military have pledged their lives and blood to protect the people of the United States
@Computeforloot And that pesky thing known as the Constitution. @wdlindsy
@AlliFlowers @wdlindsy of course