In a meandering, embarrassing, and even nonsensical address to the nation’s top military leaders Tuesday in Virginia, President Donald Trump was almost incoherent at times as he switched topics endlessly, listed out his grievances repeatedly, and even went on a tirade about sending a nuclear submarine to Russia’s coast.
But one of the most eye-popping comments Trump made, after bizarrely mentioning “N-word” twice, once in a new context, was when he first walked into an utterly silent room full of admirals, generals and other top members of the armed forces and demanded they applaud him.
“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before. Don’t laugh, don’t laugh. You’re not allowed to do that. You know what? Just have a good time. If you want to applaud, you applaud and if you want to, do anything you want,” he urged them.
Then, in his passive-aggressive way, he appeared to get a bit angry and threatened them.
“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 [crowd laughs at this]. But you just feel nice and loose, OK, because we’re all on the same team,” he said in trying to downplay the threat.
“What a disgrace to our county. How far we have fallen,” Call to Activism asked on X.
And the answers quickly followed.
“Imagine needing to order applause from generals. That’s not leadership—that’s desperation. America deserves a Commander-in-Chief who earns respect, not demands it,” X user Emma Ezeaka stated.
This X user quoted English author and critic George Orwell in responding to Trump demanding applause, “All tyrannies rule though fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.”
“The orange dictator has spoken,” another person responded.
“NARCISSIST!!!! They should (have) booed!!!” this X user proclaimed.
Even before the meeting, as he was leaving the White House, he boasted to reporters he planned to “fire” anyone he didn’t like.
“I’m gonna be meeting with generals and admirals and with leaders, and if I don’t like somebody, I’m gonna fire them right on the spot.”
As Trump rambled through his achingly long-winded speech, he told the top generals, who already knew what the U.S. plans were, that he couldn’t remember if he sent one or two subs to Russia, then he called nuclear the “N-word.”
“There are two N words, and you can’t use either of them,” Trump said, seemingly musing aloud to himself, raising the question of why a sitting U.S. president would even say this.
Troop also brought up his repeated claims about ending seven wars and implied that he may have ended the largest one between Israel and Hamas. And of course, he brought up the Nobel Peace Prize again.
He seemed to be speaking to himself, “Will you get the Nobel Prize?” he wondered. Then he answered himself, “Absolutely not.”
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered top military leaders stationed around the world to a highly unprecedented meeting in Virginia that was initially shrouded in secrecy.
And before Trump spoke, Hegseth, in his address, ordered the military to accept a new MAGA military or resign.
He also detailed a new 10-point plan, according to The Hill, to rebuild military culture. The plan includes new requirements for grooming and physical fitness, including so-called “highest male standards” for combat troops.
