Trump Jokingly Threatens U.S. Military Leaders After They Don't Applaud Him In Alarming Speech

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's fragile ego took another hit Tuesday.

The current POTUS and the former Fox News weekend host, reported alcoholic, and alleged abuser of women that Trump made Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, took the unprecedented step of forcing all of the United States military's top brass to gather in one room just to hear Hegseth and Trump speak.

Almost 800 generals, admirals, and their senior enlisted leaders from around the world were ordered last week to report to the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia, without initially being told why.

All-hands military briefings are largely done via recorded message, recognizing that the timezone differences affecting a global military force make a live video feed inconvenient. And such an in-person gathering ignores national security and military protocols by making the military vulnerable to losing all of their leadership in one attack or accident or natural disaster.

But the ill-advised gathering wasn't the most disturbing part of the day—that was reserved for the message Trump and Hegseth delivered and for the Commander in Chief's behavior.

When Trump got to the podium, his insecurity and immaturity was front and center.

Not receiving the fawning adoration he's used to from his MAGA minions or his vetted and/or paid audiences, Trump sounded like a petulant child in front of a room full of career military professionals.

If it was intended as a joke, it read more like someone desperate for the admiration and respect of people who have no reason to give him either.

Trump was accused of calling military veterans and active-duty service members "suckers" and "losers" by The Atlantic—which was later corroborated by Former Trump White House Chief of Staff, retired United States Marine Corps General John Kelly.

The Trump family has also actively avoided military service for at least four generations, going back to the President's grandfather who was banished by his home country of Germany for avoiding mandatory military service. The POTUS himself avoided the draft with a questionable diagnosis of bone spurs.

Trump whined to his captive audience:

"I never walked into a room so silent before. This is very–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, you can do anything you want."

He then threatened:

"And if you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank and there goes your future."

You can see the moment here:

Hegseth set the stage when the conclusion of his 40-minute speech—scripted to be inspiring—was met with silence from the military's top brass.

The Trump-Hegseth show didn't get much better reviews from social media.

Hegseth—a veteran of the Princeton University ROTC and the Minnesota Army National Guard—tried to promote the regressive name Trump decided to return to, the Department of War, despite Congress not officially approving any name change.

He then trotted out Project 2025's white supremacist, Christian nationalist rhetoric, claiming "toxic leaders" lowered standards—through embracing diversity, equity and inclusion—and made the Defense Department the "woke department."

Hegseth's meaning was clear based on his removal of any accomplishments by anyone who wasn't a white, cisgender, heteronormative, Christian man from military websites, libraries, and Arlington National Cemetery guides while restoring racist Confederate imagery and homages to the Confederacy that had previously been removed.

In addition to his plan to out sexual assault survivors, Hegseth announced 10 new directives for physical fitness, grooming requirements, and a return to "the highest male standard" for combat positions.

Hegseth called out "fat troops" and said:

"It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the world. It's a bad look."

Then the fat Commander in Chief—a veteran of New York Military Academy and 90's STDs—addressed the generals, saying:

"Together, we're reawakening the warrior spirit."

Trump rambled for over an hour about the Nobel Peace Prize, peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas, his love of tariffs, and his plans to use American citizens as targets and cities in the United States as combat training grounds for the military.

Trump said:

"The ones that are run by the radical left Democrats... what they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places. And we're going to straighten them out one by one."

"This is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war too. It's a war from within."

Trump also stated:

"Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances."

"This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won't get out of control."

Trump added:

"I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military. National Guard, but our military. Because we're going into Chicago very soon. That's a big city with an incompetent governor."

All of Trump's targets thus far share two things in common: Democratic governors and mayors being touted as strong contenders to be the 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.

The cities and states with the highest crime rates, in Republican controlled states, have never been mentioned as targets by Trump—a fact not lost on anyone outside the MAGAsphere.

Neither Trump nor Hegseth addressed the government shutdown. During a shutdown, all active-duty troops are required to report for duty, but their pay is delayed until the shutdown is over.

The last government shutdown was in 2018, during Trump's first term.