I imagine the top brass of the United States military is scared out of its collective wits right now. They’ve seen that their Commander in Chief is a pubescent boy locked in an old man’s body. He’s also a narcissistic simpleton who is not prepared to lead the nation out of a wet paper bag. Likewise the Secretary of Defense/War/Whatever. Pete Hegseth may be in better physical shape than Trump but clearly never quite navigated his way out of adolescence and has unresolved Mommy issues. Hegseth’s “warrior ethos” seems to mostly involve grooming, lots of pushups, misogyny, and sociopathy.
This meeting, which could have been done over Zoom, cost taxpayers several million dollars.
Retired Marine Col. Mark F. Cancian, senior adviser for the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, calculated that it would cost a minimum of $6 million.
“The DOD has not released any cost information. One calculation put the cost at $3.4 million, but that may be low,” wrote Cancian. “My rough estimate would be higher, $6 million, calculated as follows: If there are 1,000 visitors (400 senior officers and 600 support personnel), and each costs $4,000 for air travel, ground transportation, and lodging, then the total travel cost would be $4 million. Extra base costs for overtime, food, and security might be another $2 million, bringing the total to $6 million. That does not include opportunity costs for diverting DOD assets from other activities. There might be lost training at Quantico for the hundreds of military personnel at the base’s schools, military aircraft might be diverted to ferrying VIPs, and events might be canceled because of the senior officers’ absence.”
From the same link above, citing The View:
“I don’t get it. There’s an estimated $6 million that taxpayers paid for their travel, lodging, and security when we all learned a few years ago, you can do it all on Zoom,” said co-host Sara Haines. “So, I don’t know because some of the messages, as Joy mentioned — don’t be fat, shave your beard, go back to hazing people.”
I take it this meeting was entirely Pete Hegseth’s idea, and that Trump invited himself when he found out about it. There are a number of reports out today that Hegseth is crumbling. This is from the Daily Beast via Drezner’s World.
Pete Hegseth is crumbling under the pressure of leading the Pentagon.
The defense secretary—who prefers the moniker “Secretary of War”—is being described by staffers as “manic,” erupting into fits of rage and tumultuous tirades, the Daily Mailreported on Monday.
While he has reportedly always been temperamental, two staffers claim the former Fox News star’s mental state has reached new, frenzied heights after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month.
They said Hegseth is becoming increasingly “obsessed” with his own security and exhibits frantic behavior, such as fidgeting and pacing during meetings.
“There’s a manic quality about him. Or let me rephrase, an even more manic quality, which is really saying something,” an insider told the outlet.
“Dude is crawling out of his skin,” another source said….
Also under scrutiny are Hegseth’s extensive personal security demands, which, according to the paper, are now straining the Army agency responsible for protecting him. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has reportedly pulled agents away from criminal probes in order to safeguard Hegseth’s residences in Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
Trump seems to have been taken aback by the silence of the brass. They sat silent when he appeared. It’s reported Trump told them more than once it was okay to applaud. They did not. They were probably fighting off nausea. News stories say there was mute applause when Trump finished his speech, but otherwise the brass sat on its hands. Trump’s speech was full of his usual airing of grievances combined with bragging about how great he is. Trump wants to use U.S. cities as “training grounds” for the military. Trump thinks the Navy isn’t building battleships properly. Yes, he said battleships. Trump has no idea what he’s talking about. And if the brass weren’t collectively terrified of what he might order them to do before the meeting, they are are now.
Update: Trump admin made up of ‘sniveling losers’ and ‘crybabies’ putting on ‘tough guy act’: analyst
In an article for The Nation published Monday, Katherine Krueger, a contributing editor for Current Affairs, argued that the Trump administration is governed by men who imagine themselves as Nietzschean Übermenschen, but in reality are insecure, performative, and deeply flawed.
She claimed that these figures, especially those at the heart of the administration, project strength and dominance while signaling anxiety, neediness, and a compulsion to overcompensate.
“They effectively control our fates, but deep down, they know they’re sniveling, pathetic, and inadequate, and it eats them up, the article said.
Krueger contended that these so?called winners are “huge losers and crybabies,” despite controlling levers of power. She argued that their contradictory behavior — insisting on total authority while revealing inner fragility — undermines their claim to superiority.
She noted that the Trump era is marked by governing elites who posture as dominators but expose themselves as desperate for validation and unable to withstand dissent or embarrassment.
Yeah, pretty much. And it seems to be most of them. Not just Trump.