A draft dodger and a drunk walk into a room of 5-star Generals to lecture them on how to be warriors. Their tone-deaf remarks were met with deafening silence.

Silence is Golden.

The wasteful extravagance of this unprecedented gathering became even more glaring the moment Pete Hegseth opened his mouth.

After forcing thousands of senior military personnel to abandon their posts and travel on days’ notice to Virginia, Hegseth delivered an embarrassing, self-aggrandizing speech comparing himself to World War II Secretary of War Henry Stimson and referencing his own book.

The generals sat in silence, showing restraint and discipline.

Fat-shaming generals, this former Fox TV host now cos-playing as GI Joe, turned a blind eye to our grossly obese commander in chief – a waddling, boorish beast as larded with fat as he is with lies.

Hegseth, a drunk monument to male mediocracy, wants to return the U.S. military to “highest male standards only,” solidifying his lifetime membership in the “He Man’s Woman’s Hater’s Club.”

His final move to remove women from the roles they have fought to gain, he lectured these warriors on how to shave, do push-ups, and lose weight. Without a hint of irony, the most manly of facial features, facial hair, is strictly banned. No “beardos” for Pete. (Sorry, General Grant)

They sat in silence as Trump rambled, meandered, and slurred through a “speech” that insulted the intelligence, professionalism, and loyalty of generals.

Silence is Golden

They sat in silence when Trump pandered to them to applaud.

This grifter carnival barker, whose oxygen is adulation, must have been gasping for air at the lack of applause from the stern-faced military.

The 5-time draft dodging coward, whose only self-described war maneuvers during the Vietnam War were dodging syphilis, now wants to send the military into dangerous American cities to practice war maneuvers. And yes, full force into our war-ravaged cities.

“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. Stupid governor.”

No, a Democratic Governor.

This said to Generals and Admirals whose chests are covered with purple hearts and bronze stars, and who have all seen real combat.

Then waxing nostalgic to his boyhood TV viewing, their Commander in Chief opines, “I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships by the way. I used to watch Victory at Sea. I love Victory at Sea.”

The Silence is Golden.

Dumb and Dumber

Trump followed Hegseth by opening with, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.”

The Silence was Golden

Unlike dumb and dumber, these military men know history.

They know about Nazi Germany.

They understand authoritarian plays.

They know that in July of 1935, German Generals were all summoned to Berlin for a mandatory meeting. They were told that their previous oaths to the Weimar Republic were void and that they had to swear a new oath to the Führer.

Most did to keep their jobs.

The deafening silence in the face of this brazenly anti-democratic insanity was reassuring. Unlike the oafs on the podium, the Generals took an oath to preserve the Constitution, to protect American ideals.

Their Silence is Golden.