September 30, 2025 02:59 PM UTC

Hegseth and Trump Waste Everyone's Time at Ridiculous Gathering of Military Leaders

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• by: Colorado Pols

Top brass from every branch of the United States military flew in from all over the world to attend a lecture in Virginia today in which Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, or War (or whatever) called them fat and President Trump rambled about a bizarre proposal to conduct military training in American cities while demanding applause.

As POLITICO reports, today’s meeting turned out to be even dumber than anticipated:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to top generals was supposed to serve as a rallying cry for military exceptionalism — but it didn’t land that way with many of the people it was targeting.

Numerous defense officials — who watched senior brass scramble to Washington and then sit through a partisan speech from President Donald Trump and a return to old-school military standards by Hegseth — were left wondering why the event had occurred at all.

“More like a press conference than briefing the generals,” said one defense official, who, like others, was granted anonymity due to fears of retribution. “Could have been an email.” [Pols emphasis]

Defense officials, in the Pentagon and at bases around the world, spent much of Tuesday trying to make sense of the last-minute gathering at the Quantico base in Virginia. Hegseth called out “fat generals,” and, separately, pushed fitness standards that could limit women in combat roles, while Trump offered his justification for sending the military into American cities.

Everyone was probably thrilled listening to Hegseth, who berated military leaders for being too fat while pounding his own chest because he hits the gym regularly:

HEGSETH: It all starts with physical fitness and appearance. 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, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.

Hegseth said that he is now ordering that all military members pass a physical fitness (PT) test and meet height and weight requirements twice a year — you know, in case they suddenly get taller or shorter. Hegseth is also demanding that all military members cut their facial hair and keep their haircuts short.

President Trump himself delivered his signature meandering hour-long speech to the brass, standing in front of a giant American flag in a scene that could have come straight from the movie “Patton.” Trump’s remarks went over so well that he essentially ordered military brass to clap for him, adding: “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future, but you just feel nice and loose, ok?”

Mfer literally said “please clap” and nobody did my god

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— The Get More Smarter Podcast (@getmoresmarter.com) September 30, 2025 at 11:38 AM

As The Associated Press reports, the content of Trump’s speech was…odd:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the “invasion from within.”

Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military’s role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

The dual messages underscored the Trump administration’s efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but to enlist military resources for the president’s priorities and decidedly domestic purposes, including quelling unrest and violent crime.

The last-minute gathering was incredibly unusual and certainly very expensive considering that military leaders were ordered to travel to Virginia from every corner of the globe. Here’s what Retired Real Admiral Eileen Laubacher, now a Democratic candidate for Congress in CO-04, told the Get More Smarter Podcast this week:

LAUBACHER: It’s super weird. I’ve never heard of anything like this in my entire life. First of all, it’s inefficient…the idea of bringing Flag and General Officers from across the entire globe, that is extremely expensive. In addition, we have excellent secure communications abilities…

…There are approved secure communications methods that are available everywhere to all Flag and General officers to be able to communicate without taking leadership away from our major commands… 

…This is nothing short of madness in my opinion…it seems unwise on every level. 

Laubacher likely would have been required to attend today’s meeting were she still on active duty.

As The Intercept reports, the primary accomplishment of today’s meeting seems to have been to remind military brass that they are reporting to morons:

During the largest single gathering of top military brass in memory — and perhaps ever — Hegseth began with an unhinged address filled with confusing contradictions, wild-eyed cheerleading, and politically charged rhetoric.

Trump followed with a long, rambling address that only sporadically touched on military topics. At one point the president, who has used the troops to quell protests and occupy American cities, warned the assembled military leadership of “a war from within.”

Three different defense officials who spoke with The Intercept called Trump’s speech “embarrassing.” The same defense officials took Hegseth to task for gathering the military’s top commanders from around the world for a rant little different than his social media posts. One called Hegseth’s address “garbage,” using a term the war secretary used during his speech. Another said: “We are diminished as a nation by both Hegseth and Trump.” [Pols emphasis]

And here’s the cherry on top: This expensive peacocking took place just hours before a likely government shutdown that will force active-duty military members to serve without pay for an indefinite amount of time.

This is Donald Trump’s America.