Transcription
Donald Trump only cares about political theater, not actual results. It's the reason why his administration is made up of a bunch of Fox hosts. And when you have a Fox administration, you get Fox results. And they're not stellar, by the way.
And that is why Donald Trump had to completely change his plans for tomorrow, abruptly cancel everything, and accommodate a rash decision by Pete Hegseth that has all of the generals in our country laughing at both him and Trump. We are going to get into it all and how this is another act of political theater that we need to call out for how dangerous it is.
But before we do, if I could quickly ask you to leave a like on this video and if you haven't already and you enjoy our channel, to hit that subscribe button because it goes a long way in supporting our work.
Now, before we get into this latest move from Hegseth and Trump to put on a big show, I want to start with the one they are carrying out in Chicago right now that Jessica Taroff called out here. Well, there's a difference between DC and these other places because Donald Trump is actually in charge of DC. The other states elect their own governments, and they are the ones who are responsible for the health and safety of their citizenry and have a right to push back against a president that has not been invited to send his troops. And he's already been overruled by a court for what he did in Los Angeles, where they said, "You can send them, but they can only guard that building." So, we're going to have a couple hundred National Guard members standing around one building, and that's what it's going to end up being.
Or you'll have scenes like we had from Chicago. I'm sure you guys saw a delivery guy went by ICE officers that were standing there wearing masks, just in the middle of the day, a nice kind of, you know, fall day in Chicago, and I think he yelled "F Trump" at them. And then you see them chasing him down the street, and he gets away. And that's what a lot of people think is going on here, that it is unnecessary. And that doesn't mean that there isn't a way to work together, maybe on the south side of Chicago. But in Oregon, I trust the AG there who says we have enough people to deal with this, and they have been dealing with it for several months.
President Trump and the administration want to normalize militarized cities. They've talked about it. It doesn't bother them. It doesn't bother Jesse. He would, if we walked outside there, he, he wouldn't be upset if he saw a militarized New York City. Kathy Hochul put the guard in the subway, and you didn't have a problem with that. Kathy Hochul is in charge of New York State. Donald Trump is not in charge of Oregon or in charge of Illinois, but he doesn't seem to understand that.
Donald Trump is militarizing cities as a pretext to be able to do so ahead of the 2026 midterms. Donald Trump and the rest of his administration understands just how unpopular they are. So either Trump is spending his time pretending that he's a strong man or sending the military into blue cities. But really, this is just an effort for him come 2026 to say, "Oh, those ballot boxes, they're a little dangerous. We have illegals voting all over the place," which has always been a lie. And Donald Trump's going to send troops in to try and intimidate people. And that is exactly what Pete Hegseth is trying to do with a big speech that he has gathered generals across the country and across the world to come watch, that he's getting mocked for.
Before we get into how Trump relates to this insulting and condescending, retired general rips into Hegseth over rah speech. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the US military's most senior leaders, leadership from their posts all around the globe, to an all-hands meeting Tuesday in Virginia. And a retired general said the Pentagon's chief stated reasons were insulting and condescending. Mark Hertling, a retired US Army Lieutenant General, said those officers and senior enlisted personnel were already deeply familiar with the topic of Hegseth's lecture, which Scarboro referred to as a "rah-rah speech" because it's one of the four elements on which military culture is based. The warrior ethos that Pete Hegseth will be talking about is just one of the professional triad about the mil that the military has. Hertling said, "You have the oath to the Constitution, the service's values. I can still name the Army values: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, integrity, honor, and personal courage. All services have that. And then the warrior ethos is just a performative method of actualizing that." Well, it started out that way, and then it became, well, no, there was an announcement that someone in the Pentagon said this was all about getting the horses into the stable and whipping them into shape. That's insulting and condescending.
So Pete Hegseth decided to hold himself a little celebratory rally. Everyone talking about Pete and his and his muscles and in-fighting and wearing a flag on your shirt and, you know, on your pants and a belt, and I, I don't know, nothing that actually matters and only actually puts us in danger because Hegseth is taking generals away from their posts. But it's not just Pete. Donald Trump couldn't see an event like that, something useless and actually putting us in danger, and not join himself. So he cleared his entire schedule, abruptly canceled everything, and decided he had to tag along as well.
Trump to attend gathering of top generals, upending last-minute plans. Donald Trump has decided he is going to the last-minute global gathering of the nation's top generals that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last week, he said Sunday, setting the stage for a highly unusual meeting between the commander-in-chief and US military leaders. Trump's appearance at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia not only overshadows Hegseth's planned address but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event, which has required some generals and admirals to travel thousands of miles. "It's really just a very nice meeting talking about how we're doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good positive things. It's just a good message," Trump said. The comments came after the Washington Post reported earlier in the day that Trump was joining the event, whose creation caught senior military leaders by surprise last week. The addition of the president at Quantico will now put the Secret Service in charge of securing the event. Hundreds of the military's top commanding generals and admirals, ranked one-star and above, along with their senior enlisted leaders, were ordered to attend by Hegseth last week. The orders provided no reason for the event and initially raised concerns among attendees that the military officials that Hegseth was gathering the group to inform them of mass firings or demotions.
So what is the point of all of this? What is the point of this meeting happening? What is the point of us even talking about it? It's a show. Donald Trump is putting on a show. And Donald Trump, many suspect, is going to give a speech in which he demands applause from top military officials for his statements attacking blue cities, blue governors, blue mayors, Democrats more broadly, lauding his illegal attacks on these cities, lauding his invasions of LA, of his attempted invasion of Chicago, and Donald Trump carrying out military attacks across the country. Donald Trump is bringing together these military leaders, or saw that Hegseth was bringing together these military leaders, and thought to himself, "Hmm, how can I make this about myself and how can I use this as a permission structure to continue my militarized attacks?" That is what Donald Trump wants to do here.
And it's just like when he went to Fort Bragg and and got all of those, all of those soldiers who he handpicked, by the way, do you remember that? Do you remember when all those soldiers were behind Donald Trump? All the troops were clapping when he said Governor Cuomo was scum and went after Mayor Bass, and it was just a complete disgrace. Donald Trump handpicked those guys to be behind him. I remember this very clearly. I know it was only like two months ago, but it feels like years. And that's what he wants right now. He wants generals to be seen clapping, probably against their will, when he talks about political issues, which is not what our generals are supposed to be doing. There is supposed to be a separation from the politics and from the defense, keeping us safe. Donald Trump is doing the opposite. Donald Trump needs the praise. Donald Trump needs the permission structure to continue to carry out his attacks.
JB Pritzker called that out right here. 60% of the individuals that ICE has taken in Illinois this year have no criminal convictions of any kind. ICE is running around the loop harassing people for not being white. Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States. Now, ICE is making it commonplace. That's not making America great. In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists and protesters when unprovoked, what would we call it? If federal agents marched down busy streets harassing civilians and demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have any trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism. So, let's not pretend it's something else when it happens in our American cities. The MAGA Republican supported invasion of Portland and Chicago and LA and Washington DC is not making us any safer. Instead, it is putting our people in danger. This is an attack on neighborhoods, on lawful residents, on US citizens. That's not preventing crime, as Donald Trump claims. That's threatening public safety.
We know what Donald Trump wants out of this. It's exactly what Donald Trump wants out of every opportunity he has, which is a photo op. Donald Trump wants to play the political theater game. It is very unsettling the way that Donald Trump has used the military in recent weeks, months, really throughout this entire presidency. This is a man who famously called for protesters to be shot in the legs. Of course, his then Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, said, "Um, [ __ ] no. We're not doing that." But I don't think "no" is in Pete Hegseth's vocabulary. I know that's a little bit of a tough joke considering that Pete Hegseth is a is an abuser. Um, but seriously, he's not going to take no from Donald Trump and and say or give no to Donald Trump. He's not going to turn down Donald Trump. We know that to be the case. Pete Hegseth will fall in line because he, much like all the other cabinet officials, serves an audience of one. They are focused on what Donald Trump wants at all times. And this is overtly political. We know this is the lead-up to 2026.
JB Pritzker said it right here. But as I've said many times, for Donald Trump and the MAGAs in Congress, this is not about fighting crime or about public safety. This is about sewing fear and intimidation and division among Americans. It was about creating a pretext to send armed military troops into our communities. This is about consolidating power in Donald Trump's hands. What he plans to do with that power now or during the 2026 elections should worry all of us.
When you add to that the Trump administration's effort to label as dangerous free speech critical of him, White House senior staff calling the Democratic party fascist, the Trump-appointed FCC chair threatening to revoke broadcast licenses, and the approval of a merger in order to silence late-night comedians, Trump's threats to jail political opponents, you cannot call this anything except an attack on the Constitution of the United States. If you do not think this is a political action by Donald Trump, I, like, I don't know. May I introduce, introduce you to Donald Trump? Of course, this is a political action. Of course, Donald Trump wants to use this as the permission structure, the run-through for his intimidation. He needs the this supposed sign-off from these generals. That's what Donald Trump is looking for, right? He needs them to clap. He needs them to smile. And he likes pretending that he's a big, strong, tough guy. That is what all of this is about. And it's why it's very unsettling. And it's why it's very unsettling that it kind of came together at the last minute. It just kind of makes you think that Hegseth called this on his own because he always likes to do his stunts. He wants to play up for Trump. And then watching the failure of their invasion of Chicago, they thought, "Hmm, maybe this is a good opportunity. Maybe this is a jumping-off point for us. We get a bunch of the top brass to clap to to pretend like we're doing a great job. And from there, we say, 'Hey, look, our military is strong. We're unified. And we're going into Chicago.'" That is the imagery that Donald Trump wants. That is not the truth, though. And we've got to call it out. We certainly will on this show.
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