Not even Pete Hegseth’s own buddy at his old employer Fox News was impressed by his bizarre speech before hundreds of top military brass on Tuesday.
The Five co-host Harold Ford Jr. said the Pentagon chief’s 45-minute rant about fat generals, men with beards, and “dudes in dresses,” which was followed by a rambling speech by President Donald Trump, reminded him of authoritarian nations.
“I didn’t like the televised part of this because it reminded me of something that might happen in China or North Korea,” Ford said, throwing in a disclaimer that he didn’t mind his friend Hegseth “doing what he did.”
“I have to say, if I were an adversary of the United States—and obviously I’m not—but if I was watching this, I’m not convinced that I would be more fearful of the United States, or, for that matter, wanting to be more like them,” he added.
Hegseth and Trump staged the highly unusual meeting in Virginia with about 800 senior military leaders as an attempt to rally the troops, but instead ended up delivering chest-beating diatribes against “woke” culture.
The Defense Secretary, who argued in his 2024 book The War on Warriors that women in combat weakened the fighting force, said he wanted to hold women in the military to the “highest male standard.”
“If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it,” he said.
The comment did not seem to sit well with Ford.
“I just wish and hope that both the president and Secretary Hegseth—I’m sure they understand—the men and women in that room today, they are the most important, the most experienced commanders in all of the world,” he said.
“They have seen more combat and successfully managed through more crises than anybody, I would argue, in American business, education, media, and certainly the military.”
Trump, for his part, went on a meandering speech that covered everything from his struggles descending the stairs at age 79 to his long-running bid to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” the president said as he took the stage before a muted audience. “If you want to applaud, you applaud.”
For The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld, however, the pep rally hit all the right notes.
“I feel like this is progress in a big way. It is not about Russia or Iran, it’s about us,” he said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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