Donald Trump sounded “incoherent, exhausted and… at times stupid” in his recent speech to military leaders, a retired general has said.
Retired General Barry McCaffrey branded the president’s Tuesday presentation at Quantico, in Virginia, “one of the most bizarre, unsettling events I’ve ever encountered.”
It comes as other leaders, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, have questioned Trump’s ability to lead effectively. “There is something genuinely wrong with this man and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked,” Pritzker said Wednesday.
Speaking during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, McCaffrey shared the governor’s sentiment.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. That presentation at Quantico from the president and Secretary of Defense was one of the most bizarre, unsettling events I’ve ever encountered,” he said.
“The president sounded incoherent, exhausted, rabidly partisan, at times stupid, meandering, couldn’t hold a thought together.”
As well as the president’s delivery, viewers were also stunned by the content of the address by Trump and Pete Hegseth, in which the Defense Secretary told the top brass to lose weight, shave their facial hair, and prepare for possible deployment against the American public.
Trump also announced plans to use “dangerous” cities as “training grounds” for military efforts, alleging the country was undergoing a “war from within.”
“We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms,” Trump told service members, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s to protect our republic,” he said. ″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom.”
The purpose of the surprise meeting was not shared beforehand, leading to predictions ranging from Trump demanding a loyalty oath from generals to Hegseth publicly firing “woke” generals.
“We flew every general from across the world for this?” Democratic Senator Reuben Gallego, an Iraq war veteran, said in a post on X. “This meeting could have been an email.”
Others were more critical of the meeting, with Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling the presentation “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership.”
“Even more troubling was Mr. Hegseth’s ultimatum to America’s senior officers: conform to his political worldview or step aside,” Reed said Tuesday in a statement, shared with The Hill.
“That demand is profoundly dangerous. It signals that partisan loyalty matters more than capability, judgment, or service to the Constitution, undermining the principle of a professional, nonpartisan military.”
