'How is this real?' Hegseth pilloried for bizarre cartoon asking for $1.5 trillion

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced backlash after he shared an animated video arguing that the Pentagon needed a massive $1.5 trillion for war preparations.

In a social media post on Thursday, Hegseth called the funds a "GENERATIONAL DOWN PAYMENT on America's national defense."

"We remain the strongest military power on Earth, but that power requires renewal," the defense secretary said in the video. "And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a $1.5 trillion investment, a generational down payment. For far too long, Washington bureaucrats allowed America's defense industrial base to fall apart."

The video featured a cartoon version of former President Joe Biden alongside a crumbling factory.

"The execution of operations Midnight Hammer, Southern Spear, Absolute Resolve, and Epic Fury are testaments to this restoration of strength," Hegseth crowed. "America's $1.5 trillion investment guarantees that the United States military will maintain this advantage against any adversary, anywhere, at any time."

However, not all viewers of the cartoon were sold on Hegseth's pitch.

"How is this real?" author Jim Stewartson asked. "This is a pitch for $1.5 trillion and it looks like a bad Sora demo. The Pentagon is a clown show. What a tragedy."

"Not for nothing, but the School House Rock vibe is bad," Lincoln Project strategist Reed Galen observed.

"More bullsh— from a bulls—er," Democratic author James Graham quipped.

"We've never seen a Secretary of a Cabinet position have to SELL the PRESIDENTS ideas with bad AI commercials," KRLL radio host Mark Bland commented.