You know by now how big a flop Trump’s bigly birthday parade was. Co-opting the U.S. Army and it’s 250th Birthday in an attempt to make the country and world see it as HIS Army celebrating HIS birthday didn’t turn out to be the reality TV show he thought it would. It turns out the soldier’s hearts weren’t in it and there’s all manner of pictures and videos proving it. Worse for Trump are the pictures and videos of him and others on his reviewing stand looking forlorn, and like they wanted to be anywhere else! You just had to know Trump was some weird combination of disappointed/deflated and outraged. Someone was going to get blamed and it looks like hapless and totally unqualified Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is the proverbial “fall guy.”
That’s who Trump is blaming according to this article from The Daily Beast. They report that according to biographer Michael Wolfe Trump wanted a “menacing” show of force – and got a “festive” show instead. I didn’t watch the freaking sh*t show but have seen enough short clips that “festive” isn’t the word I’d use. No, it was more “listless” or frankly half-assed. The troops it was clear didn’t want to be there. I’m not surprised.
Think about it. The Army’s 250th Birthday could have and should have been a BFD for them. Had Trump not decided to co-opt it to stroke his fragile ego, the parties at every base and post would have been one for the books. It would have been epic except their Commander-in-Chief decided since the date just happened to be his own lame-ass birthday he’d make the day all about HIM. So, instead of being with fellow troops and families in comfortable surroundings those in the ‘perade’ got shuffled off to DC and likely housed in less than ideal conditions. No partying for them! Instead it was a grind. A ‘shut up and deal with it’ situation. It’s no wonder they didn’t put on a “menacing” show! It was a ‘let’s just get this sh*t over with and hope they saved a keg or two and some cake for us back at the base kind of thing!
So the troops weren’t into it. Neither was the ‘crowd’ which turned out to be not even close to what was expected. Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out last night that several million Trump voters were within the states surrounding DC. Within a couple hours drive in fact. He’s right. I lived in northern Virginia after leaving active duty for close to twenty years. After than another ten in the eastern panhandle of WV. At the top of the Shenandoah Valley and a few miles from MD – the part that turns ruby red even though the state overall is blue. Millions of Trump voters were within a reasonable drive. They head to DC for ballgames and shows all the time but not for Trump’s parade!
So the crowd sucked. The troops taking part sucked. It’s almost like the potential crowd knew the whole thing would suck so they didn’t bother showing up. This was supposed to be a Trump TV show showcasing how powerful he was. Trump doesn’t know much but our Reality TV President knows TV and he knew early on THIS episode of ‘Trump – White House Edition II was a ratings disaster. Worse, he had to sit through it live. Nowhere to run. He had to sit there and take his humiliation. You’d assume heads would roll.
Well, as The Daily Beast tells us no heads got chopped off but Pete Hegesth’s butt got reamed by Trump! Hell, since Hegseth has constantly been talking about having re-creating a “warrior culture” in the ranks Trump might have been stupid enough to believe troops actually respected and feared their boss. That they would indeed put on a “menacing” show of force/power. Wolfe accurately recounts that particular failure and the general reaction. Or that Trump was aware of how lame it all turned out to be with the public:
That didn’t escape Trump, who pointed the finger at his defense secretary, according to Wolff.
“He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this,” the Trump biographer said. “Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, the tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this? There was the tone problem. Trump, he keeps repeating himself.”
“Tone” seems to be Trumpty’s takeaway buzzword. As in it was all wrong. Or, as Wolf continued:
“It didn’t send the message that he apparently wanted, which is that he was the commander in chief of this menacing enterprise,” Wolff added.
So, while the WH denies it complete with calling Wolfe nasty names SecDef Hegseth got a bigly chewing out from the boss. Sadly, that chewing out didn’t include the words that made Trump famous on his Tee Vee show, the one’s he relished saying each week – “You’re Fired.” No, Trump still has enough PR savvy to know the hay that will be made over his admitting what a mistake it was to appoint Hegseth in the first place. And worse engage in furious arm twisting to get him confirmed. We are I fear stuck with Hegseth for another six months. It will take until early next year for us to hear the ‘It was an honor to serve Trump but it’s time for me to move on to new opportunities/challenges’ bullshit resignation speech.
In the meantime we have to be content with Hegseth getting called in for a Trumpian cussing out. Oh to be a fly on the wall while Trumpty unloads on his hapless SecDef!
***From Ursula*** Zoomers, if you can help the Little Political Blog That Could keep trekking through cyberspace, we would appreciate it. My medical issues are still ongoing. I need to have a minor operation to remove a skin tumor. The hits just keep on coming, like a ’50s radio station. Thank you for all you do. Ursula
the best protest ever!
the worse perade ever!
It wasn’t even the best worst parade.