- cross-posted to:
- trump_watch@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- trump_watch@lemmy.world
Donald Trump was unhappy with his sparsely attended military parade over the weekend and blamed it on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, biographer Michael Wolff revealed.
Wolff told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump wanted a “menacing” show of force to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary and his 79th birthday on Saturday—but got a “festive” parade instead.
“He’s p—ed off at the soldiers,” Wolff said. “He’s accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.”
He’s not happy they smiled and waved at the people they signed away their lives to protect.
This is how Trump treats the US Army soldiers who were forced to march in front of Trump for a day that was supposed to celebrate them and their accomplishments.
Thank you to the US Army for trying to pit something together that would be fun for US citizens. If it weren’t for Trump smearing his shit all over everything I’m sure plenty more would have turned out to show their support as real Americans celebrating real patriots rather than the fascists so many US soldiers have died fighting against.
Didn’t see much of it but the uniforms and equipment from every era was hella cool. They actually made it about army history, not a goose-stepping show of force.
This is precisely why Trump is so angry
Frankly, it’s just about the best way the Army could have handled this whole thing.
Always remember: the vast majority of the US Army is very, very good at malicious compliance. I’m pretty sure the E4 mafia grants you an unofficial Malicious Compliance MOS once you make that rank.
There are two types of people who survive decently in the military. Those who can find every loophole and can maliciously comply, and those who allow themselves to be completely broken and reshaped into perfect compliance by the system.
Many people believe the second group is more common, but it’s really not, since those people tend to be in lower ranking positions. Bullet catchers and the like.
Drumpf isn’t a fan of history, or learning.
I bet the parade could have been well executed and vibrant. My guess is that the organizer deliberately botched things when they got word about Dinky Donnie wanting to be the centerpiece. Donald really shouldn’t be an ‘Era’, not the kind to be proud of, at any rate.
Oh dang, I might have to go watch it now XD
I mean some of them might actually believe that. But Trump is not wrong here. They signed away their lives to protect Billionaires and their property. There is a reason as things get worse and worse that the police and military budget gets bigger and bigger. Theyre the class traitors that protect the wealthy from both domestic and foreign threats. With the military now being turned inward as well to bring a taste of American foreign policy to its own citizens that dare to resist.
I can only speak for myself, the vast majority of the people I served with, and my family and friends who are currently active duty.
I have never met a single person I believed signed up to “Protect billionaires and their property”.
How they may be used by the current administration has nothing to do with their personal motivations.
The purpose of a system is what it does.
Yes. Because you’re believing a lie. Our military is used to secure the interest of the wealthy. I don’t see how anyone could think otherwise at this point.
You can lie to yourself and project your individual ideas and morals onto your role in the military. That’s a way to feel good I guess. But that doesn’t matter when the material goals of the military are to cause instability in regions we want to exploit for resources and control.
Everyone is always against the past crimes of the military. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. But only decades after the fact.
It’s difficult to standup against it now as we support Israel in its aggression against Iran.
Most of the people I know that signed up for the military did so because they didn’t have any other options out of high school. Their grades weren’t good enough for college, their families were too poor to keep supporting them, and the job market (especially when I graduated high school in 2009) was so shit that the military was the only viable option for a lot of people. We have slim to none in the way of social safety nets in this country, and for the people who want to try to get some semblance of stability and self-sufficiency after high school, the military is often the best and/or only option.
Your stance here is woefully narrow-minded and completely ignores the reality faced by many young Americans who are just trying to make their way in the world. It’s hideous and abhorrent that our systems are set up like this to the point that the military is a lifeline for many young adults, but I’m not going to blame them for believing the ubiquitous propaganda or making a calculated choice to try to survive in this capitalist hellscape.
This exactly, if you believe the military only serves the interests of billionaires, instead of attacking those who enlist look at the systemic reasons why people join the military. It’s usually poverty.
I’m not attacking people that join. I’m critizing people that have joined, served, and still advocate for it because it “pays for college”. Like, serving a military that causes the deaths countless innocents and disrupts the stability of entire nations is somehow ok because of that?
No. I respect those that served, learned, and advocate against it wholeheartedly.
You are seriously underestimating cyclical poverty. It’s not just about “paying for college”. There are a lot of places in this country where you’ll struggle your whole life and will then statistically die much younger than your better off peers.
We as a society have generally failed to provide solutions to this kind of poverty. For many the military is the only choice. For many it’s not even about college, it’s about having a meal tomorrow.
You speak as someone that’s never expirenced the worst of poverty.
I can agree it’s not the best solution, but people will take it because our society offers little else. I won’t critize them for taking it.
We should focus on the systematic issues that lead to this type of poverty and maybe adress all the other problems surrounding the military industrial complex before we critize poor kids
I guess the only people in poverty are in the west. I guess all the people in the poorest countries in the world are ok with getting bombed for decades so we can have a jobs program.
We can have a jobs program without bombing poor and impoverished countries mate.
The irony of saying I’m disconnected from poverty. I’m literally advocating to stop murdering the poorest countries and people on our planet.
Tell me which part of this makes what I said incorrect? You’re just describing the material conditions that lead to working class people joining the military. Which I don’t disagree with. They are parasitic in nature. I don’t blame anyone that was fooled or forced into it by default.
I’m talking about the material outcomes and purpose our military serves. The military being a government jobs program doesn’t somehow change its purpose and who it serves.
You could have a Orphan Baby Murdering Factory that provided jobs and benefits. It could even sometimes build infrastructure or help it’s community outside of its main purpose. But it would still have a purpose to murder orphan babies.
Our militarys main purpose is to uphold and defend American imperialism. It is the world’s largest terrorist organization.
I’ll back that up with receipts too if you want. But I really am just trying to get you to understand that this isn’t an attack on individuals in the military. But more of an attack on their delusions of what purpose they think it serves.
I respect wholeheartedly those that joined, served, and are now outspoken against it. But I cannot respect for a second someone that served in the military and also advocates for others to do so. Because all they are saying is “well, it’s ok to bomb innocent people and disrupt entire countries because otherwise I couldn’t have afforded college”. It’s inherently selfish and quite frankly it’s disgusting.
Most of the military members I know are well aware of what the end result is, and the ones that are sticking it out for a prolonged career are doing so in order to try to change things from the inside. Most of the ones that did the minimum amount of time and got out are aware as well.
And for this part: > But I cannot respect for a second someone that served in the military and also advocates for others to do so. Because all they are saying is “well, it’s ok to bomb innocent people and disrupt entire countries because otherwise I couldn’t have afforded college”.
There are shades of gray here and you are stubbornly ignoring any nuance that might exist. For a lot of people, it’s not just a matter of being able to go to college, it’s a matter of being able to eat regularly and keep a roof over their head. There are plenty of veterans that fully acknowledge that being in the service comes with many problems and ethical quagmires, but they still recommend it for people in the position of having to choose between destitution or military service.
Yeah, you’re just justifying serving a terrorist organization. These same things could be said of people that join ISIS if you wanted to make excuses. And those people have much more dire circumstances than anyone that lives in the US ever could.
I’m sure you’d have this same moral gray area discussion when ISIS kills innocent people. /s
Just because someone can click a button on a controller or do paper pushing for a terrorist organization doesn’t mean they are any less of terrorist.
I’m sure you’d make the same moral gray argument for the person that booked the tickets for flight 93. They were clearly just doing paperwork.