A former Fox News host and a convicted felon who received five military deferments during the Vietnam War called about 800 U.S. military leaders from around the globe to a mandatory Sept. 30 meeting in Virginia then proceeded to call them fat and threaten them with demotions, forced them to listen to criticism of a past president and a sitting governor, and told them they would begin using American cities as military “training grounds.”

This wildly expensive meeting-that-could-have-been-an-email came hours before the government is expected to shut down and presented an opportunity for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ‒ the former TV host who earlier this year shared classified military battle plans in a group text that included a magazine editor ‒ and President Donald Trump ‒ the bone-spurred war-avoider ‒ to show the world that they are small, insecure and, frankly, not that bright.

“I'm very careful when I walk down stairs, like I'm on stairs ... I walk very slowly,” Trump told the nation’s top military brass, for no discernible reason whatsoever. “Nobody has to set a record. Just try not to fall because it doesn't work out well.”

Trump tells US military generals that Americans are the real enemies

Trump told the gathering that he has seen the enemy, and it is us: “We're under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms. At least when they're wearing a uniform you can take them out.”

He said he told Hegseth: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military. Because we’re going into Chicago and it’s a big city with an incompetent governor, stupid governor.”

Raise your hand if you feel great about the U.S. military using American cities as “training grounds.”

You won’t see many hands. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found nearly 60% of Americans oppose Trump sending the National Guard into other cities.

A president criticizing a former president in front of US generals?

Trump also took a moment to insult a former commander in chief in front of the generals and admirals whose duty is to remain apolitical: “You’ll never see four years like we had with Biden and that group of incompetent people that ran this country.”

That’s not norm-breaking; it’s shameful beyond measure. No president should put soldiers in a position like that, much less force them to sit through a rambling diatribe that sounded like a typical Trump rally without the slavish, cheering crowd.

Hegseth fat-shames the troops because looks are all that matter

Hegseth, who served in the U.S. National Guard and should know better than to take part in this kind of performative authoritarianism, told the assembled leaders: “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.”

Aesthetics first, soldiers!

Trump leaned into that concept to criticize what he sees as America’s uggo battleships: “I am a very aesthetic person. I don’t like some of the ships you’re doing aesthetically. They say, ‘Oh, it’s stealth.’ ... That’s not stealth. An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you’re stealth.”

Trump and Hegseth disgraced America in front of hundreds of generals

I’ll ask what I hope most of the generals, admirals and other military higher-ups in the room were thinking: “How is this real life?”

How do a wildly unqualified, almost comically buffoonish Defense secretary and a president who went out of his way to never serve his country have the gall to bring hundreds of military leaders into one room and lecture them? How does an American president talk about U.S. citizens as “the enemy from within” and propose military training on the streets of our cities?

What happened Sept. 30 was ghastly, inappropriate and embarrassing. The nations we should be worried about ‒ our actual enemies ‒ are laughing at us.

But hey, at least two unfathomably small men had a chance to act big. It’s all about aesthetics, right?

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, Hegseth show they're small men acting big in front of military leaders | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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