U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth turned up his intensity, demanding all eyes on him, but his best was not enough to captivate the most powerful person in the room.
Donald Trump called Hegseth, 46, away from the Pentagon to participate in his announcement of a ten-billion-dollar investment in the defense industry at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit on July 15.
Trump, 80, anchored the historic, first-of-its-kind U.S. roundtable as its keynote speaker. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
His lengthy remarks lasted 55 minutes, leaving a little under 30 minutes for JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon, Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick, Hegseth, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortega to speak.
Trump’s voice was gravelly and his energy low as he read a prepared speech.
Occasionally, Trump glanced out at the audience, his voice projecting loud and clear whenever he added his spin on facts that staffers expected him to read without distraction.
In one instance, Trump could hardly contain his excitement for a woman who gained his trust and admiration.
“Where is Salena? I love Salena. Where is she? The Queen of the Rust Belt,” he pressed, his eyes scanning the room for Salena Zito, a journalist nicknamed the “Trump whisperer.”
“Salena, are you here? Come on up here, Salena, will ya?” Trump roared. “Be careful, don’t fall down the stairs like Biden. … I wanna show you a woman that does what she’s told, you know, she knows what she’s doing.” Zito never joined him on stage.
The politician could not muster the same enthusiasm for the head of the “Department of War.”
Hegseth stuck to the administration’s playbook: Praise Trump for leading the charge on “Making America Great Again” and putting enemies on notice.
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He raved, “That next midnight hammer that’s required 10, 20 years down the road is because of F-47 and the B-21 and the autonomy and the carriers that this president will build because of this historic investment.”
His boss appeared unimpressed and bored. A heckler quipped, “Hegseth speaking louder when he see’s Trump drifting off.”
Someone else noticed Hegseth’s animated hands and tweeted, “Hegseth Tapping the Table every now & then to wake him up.”
Trump slowly blinked, fighting off fatigue with his head tilted back while Hegseth spoke. He eventually caved, slumping forward slightly and turning his head toward Hegseth as he closed his eyes.
At one point, Trump stretched out his arms, his hand cemented on the table, his head tilted, and he snoozed.
A viewer commented, “See his arms? He is bracing himself so he doesn’t fall over, something Obama never needed to do, because he never fell asleep on the job!!!”
No one could deny the obvious—just like the times he napped during a Cabinet meeting, slept through his Fourth of July fireworks, or bolted upright when his own name was startled him awake during an October roundtable.
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Others harped on how Trump sat at the center of the table with empty spaces—each wide enough for a chair—flanking him, which created extra distance between himself, McCormick, and Hegseth.
“Why is he sitting so far from Trumpy?? Trying to avoid our stinky President?!!” a third person joked.
It’s clear that whenever Trump makes a public appearance he makes headlines for all the wrong reasons.
