This is not normal.
Yes, it's becoming more and more difficult to define "normal," but the speeches that President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered to the nation's top military brass on Tuesday, Sept. 30, were genuinely jaw-dropping, even by their standards. (Unless you're a guest on Fox News, apparently.)
The commander in chief telling his highest-ranking generals and admirals, "We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military" certainly qualifies.
"There were just so many false claims," Daniel Dale, CNN's fact-checker, said after Trump's speech. "And I say that after essentially every speech, unfortunately, from President Donald Trump. But I think this is notable because of the audience. He was telling a lot of lies, saying a lot of other inaccurate things, regardless of his intentions, to the U.S.’ top military leaders."
Exactly.
Any media outlet that characterizes this as just another day at the office isn't doing its job. Simply put, this was nuts, often in a scary way. No matter how many bizarre lawsuits Trump files against media companies or what insane demands Hegseth makes of reporters, this has to be called out as what it was: crazy.
Hegseth strutted around talking about how tough the military would be under his leadership (and what good shape he was in).
Trump, meanwhile, basically delivered a head-spinning, unhinged campaign speech, only instead of the...
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