Trump and Hegseth are Out of Their Depth

The astonishing two hours of speechifying by Trump and Hegseth before America’s 800-strong general officer corps show a dangerous ignorance of the world we live in.

The commander in chief talked about taking the stairs slowly in order not to fall. The so-called secretary of war scolded “fat generals” walking the corridors of the Pentagons and ordered the end of “beardos.” The 800 generals, admirals, and senior enlisted officers sat stone-faced as their civilian leaders went on and on about PT and push-ups and aluminum naval vessels that would melt as missiles approached within 2 miles. As George Bush said of Trump’s first inaugural, “That was some weird shit!”

That it was. But behind all the nonsense — the fake bravado, the disparagement of past commanders in chiefs — what the military leaders who had been ordered to travel from around the world heard was deeply disturbing, even dangerously so.

For the president of the United States, the constitutional Commander in Chief, described a mission for the US military that has been alien to them since the Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878, barring the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement. But here was Trump recounting a conversation with Hegseth, “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” referencing Chicago in particular. “We are under invasion from within.” Adding, “after spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries with your help, we’re defending the borders of our country from now on. We’re not going to let this happen.”

And there you have it. It may have taken 44 minutes for the president to get to the point of his speech and the meeting, but finally he did. Henceforth, the mission of the men and women seated in front of him — the 800 or so generals, admirals, sergeant majors, master chief petty officers, and chief master sergeants and the million plus men and women they command — was to defeat the enemy within and protected our borders from invasion, not by foreign armies but by immigrants and drugs.

The message was clear. America’s military needs to come home. It needs to defeat drug cartels and guard our borders against the hordes of families seeking a better life for themselves. It needs to halt crime and domestic terrorist and extremist organizations that are making our cities and societies unsafe. Oh, and they need to be fit, trim, groomed, and unshaven.

What was missing from the nearly 2 hours of speechifying was any sense of the what was happening in the larger world out there — the world these military men and women knew intimately well and had devoted their careers to making safe and secure for America’s broader interests.

There was nothing about great power competition. Nothing about how the war in Ukraine poses a danger to American security. Nothing about the threat from China, Russia, North Korea or Iran, or from nuclear proliferation, foreign terrorism, pandemics, let alone climate change. Nothing was said about the value of allies, partners, and friends — long a stock-phrase of American national security policy. Nothing about new technology and the changing nature of warfare. The president talked about building battleships from steel, but not how AI was transforming the battlespace they would need to operate in.

It was unreal. Dangerously so. Never before has a president and his chief defense adviser demonstrated more clearly that they have no idea what they are doing, no idea of the world America is living in, no idea what the US military does and is capable of doing.

Sitting there in silence, jaws clenched, those generals and admirals and senior enlisted officers must have thought their commander in chief and the chief of the Pentagon were completely out of their depth. Then they must have looked at each other and said, we’re in deep and dangerous trouble. And so is our nation.

As they headed back to their bases around the world, there was only one thing could ask: What do we do now? It’s a question all of us should ask. And think of how to answer.