Retired Army Major General Randy E. Manner strongly criticized President Donald Trump’s and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to senior military officials during a meeting in Virginia last week, saying they used the officers as “props.”
During a podcast on The Signorile Report posted Thursday, Manner said, "If he truly wanted to say something to the generals and the generals and senior enlisted leaders of the world, he could do it any time by setting up a secure Zoom call, essentially. It's not a Zoom call, but it's a secure teleconference call to be able to talk to them about any issues."
He continued: "The fact that he did it televised, reflects the fact that the generals and admirals and senior enlisted leaders were props and nothing more than props."
"And it's very sad, extremely sad that the administration continues to go down in the depths of despair and desperation because those any respect that the generals and admirals and senior enlisted leaders might have had for the person who by law is called the commander in chief, was further diminished by a rambling political speech that if any general or admiral, or for that matter, a college student had been giving a speech, would have received an F in terms of its effectiveness and for its cohesion."
He said it was "unbelievable to have a senior elected leader to be quite frankly so incompetent at speaking."
Manner, who knew many of the generals in the room in Quantico, Virginia, when Trump and Hegseth gave speeches, said Trump "seems to be slipping quite a bit, even from the campaign, let alone from years ago, into the depths of, quite frankly, self-serving dictatorship.”
He also noted that the attendees were not applauding Trump's speech the way he wanted. During his speech, Trump top military brass to clap for him as he criticized the far-left and the "enemy within."
"So I told many of my friends, family, and a few networks that the one thing that's going to come out of this is the president's going to be pissed as hell that no one was applauding and hooting and hollering the way that he did with the 82nd Airborne Division, where those young soldiers were handpicked as Trump supporters to be able to respond to him like a political rally," Manner said.
The veteran also mentioned the discipline that military officials are trained to display.
"Senior military officers and senior enlisted leaders are trained and educated about the appropriate way to act in front of their elected leaders, which is, by the way, being totally apolitical," he said.
Manner added: "They are there to follow all lawful orders, not to participate like a political rally. And despite the president, and I won't call him the secretary of whatever, the SecDef saying the words, they were told not to applaud, that's c---. It's absolutely lies. They were acting as the true apolitical leaders that they are."
He also criticized Hegseth for telling military officials to do whatever it takes to win.
"The idea that the SecDef said, 'I want you to do whatever it takes to win. I don't care what you do. Ignore all the laws of war.' That sounds a lot like the Soviets in World War II, and it sounds like the Russians right now, where they will do anything to civilians. They will do anything to destroy infrastructure, to attack hospitals. They will do anything, 'it takes.'"
He added: "That is not the American way. That is not the way of the heritage of the American soldier. That is not what we are known for."