Pete Hegseth's Meeting With Military Commanders: Predictable
Pete Hegseth’s Meeting With Top Military Command Was, As Predicted, Just A Big ‘Anti-Woke’ Farce And Waste Of Time
Last week, we reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered some 800 top U.S. military generals and admirals to gather at a Marine Corps base in Virginia for some mysterious reason that mystified even many of those top-ranking military officers, who were defending the nation at posts spread out across the U.S. and several other countries.
Hegseth must have had something big — something world-changing — to announce that would have necessitated such a rare, seemingly extreme directive. Are we under attack? Has someone important been assassinated? Has the threat of “World War III” that President Donald Trump is always talking about finally become imminent? HAVE THE ALIENS LANDED???
Well, because we know you were all waiting with bated breath to find out exactly why Hegseth called this alarming meeting of top military officials, NewsOne has the answers. And, fair warning, these answers are alarming. They are world-changing. “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth called this meeting to inform our military that we are on the precipice of a monumental, possibly cataclysmic event!
Nah, I’m just messing with you — he just wanted to spew more anti-woke, anti-DEI, and anti-anti-fascist nonsense, and also called the top military leaders a bunch of fatties who need to hop on a treadmill once in a while.
Now, Hegseth’s address to these military leaders started off sounding serious enough. In fact, according to Newsweek, he told them they must “prepare for war.”
“From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: Warfighting,” he said, referring to the Trump administration’s MAGA-macho rebrand of the Department of Defense. “Preparing for war and preparing to win. Unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit. Not because we want war. No one here wants war. But it’s because we love peace.”
Seriously, you would have thought Hegseth was covered in Braveheart body paint while going over war plans to fight against impending doom. I mean, it was an in-person meeting, not an unsecure Signal chat, but still. Instead, he mostly just did more whining about everything he described as “woke” in his department.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusion, no more debris. I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that s***,” he reportedly said.
Yes, Hegseth has said all of this before — ad nauseam even — which is why, so far, this great meeting of military minds is coming off like the epitome of, “This could have been an email.”
Of course, telling these generals and admirals to get off their fat-asses and get to Planet Fitness might not have had the same sting in writing.
From Newsweek:
“It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country, in the world, it’s a bad look,” Hegseth said.
Since taking office under Trump, Hegseth has made physical readiness central to his effort to restore what he calls the military’s “warrior ethos.” He has repeatedly highlighted the importance of new fitness requirements as part of that broader push.
The Defense Secretary pointed to his own regimen as an example. “It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” he said. “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT [physical training], so can every member of our joint force.”
“Today at my direction, every member of the joint force, at every rank, is required … [to] meet height and weight requirements twice a year every year,” Hegseth added.
He added that the U.S. military will mandate troops in combat roles to meet “this highest male standard only,” requiring every service member in such positions to score above 70 percent on the “male standard” of their branch’s physical fitness test.
Look, setting aside the fact that Hegseth is out here berating and body-shaming top military officials who, on average, are in their late 40s and 50s, to call these military leaders away from their international posts, where an actual attack or act of war can happen at any moment, just seems to be beyond irresponsible. It’s no wonder that military personnel have been speaking (anonymously and not anonymously) with the media to complain about the irregularity and potential danger of calling all these top military leaders to this one, publicly announced location, just for this arbitrary show of authority.
It’s also no wonder that when Trump spoke at this meeting, it was to express to those in attendance that it was all just as unserious as they must have known it was.
From the Guardian:
He says he’s “never walked into a room so silent before.”
Some in the audience laugh, to which Trump jokes: “Don’t laugh, you’re not allowed to do that.”
“Just have a good time,” he adds. “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.”
People laugh, and Trump tells them to “feel nice and loose.”
Sure, this would be one casual, comedic display — if it weren’t such a prime example of how our federal government has become a perpetual display of amateur hour.
Don’t get me wrong, both Hegseth and Trump said things that were completely alarming during this meeting, but only because their rhetoric was full of more of the same authoritarian threats that have come out of this administration since the start of Trump’s second term.
Actually, it is worth noting that Hegseth announced he’s not only continuing his authoritarian policies, but he’s also implementing rules that essentially make it against department policy to complain about it.
As the Guardian reported, he announced that he will end anonymous complaints procedures, and that the DOD’s Inspector General’s Office (which is investigating him over Signalgate) would be “overhauled,” accusing the office of creating a culture of “walking on eggshells” that had been “weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat.”
“No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more sidetracking careers, no more walking on eggshells,” he said. (Sure, a governmental ideologue complaining about ideologues in government. Why not?)
Meanwhile, Trump made it a point to continue blustering about his propaganda-reliant agenda to weaponize the military in Democratic cities based on false info and outright lies about rising crime.
“I told Pete we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, national guard, but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor,” he said.
Again, WHY CALL THIS BIG-ASS, INCONVENIENT-ASS MEETING WITH ALL THE NATION’S TOP GENERALS JUST TO SAY EVERYTHING THEY HAVE ALREADY SAID OVER AND OVER AGAIN PUBLICLY???
What the hell is wrong with these people? Are these incompetent wannabe dictators really so comically insecure that they need to call this meeting just to do more jingoistic chest beating and decrying of what they call wokeness?
Apparently, the real purpose of this meeting was to tell all of these experienced military leaders that if they can’t get behind this administration’s Hitler-esque agenda, they should get the hell on.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,” he said. “But if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign.”
So, this is how we make America great again, huh? Make it be known that far-right ideology is the only acceptable ideology to hold in this administration, and show all dissenters the door. That’s how we bring the nation together and end the divide.
My God, we are cooked if this is all we have to offer to call leadership.
Sad.
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