Donald Trump spoke to members of the Coast Guard on Thanksgiving, and … if he went in with prepared remarks, it doesn’t seem like he used them, because this is bonkers. Trump began, according to the White House transcript, by talking about how recent hurricanes had affected the Coast Guard’s “brand.”
You know, the Coast Guard, always respected. But if you were looking at it as a brand, there’s no brand that went up more than the Coast Guard, with what happened in Texas. And I would say, in particular, Texas has been incredible. You saved 16,000 lives -- nobody knows that -- 16,000 lives.
In fact, when I first heard the number, I said, you mean like, six hundred? Five hundred? Sixteen thousand lives in Texas. So, as bad as that hurricane was -- and that was a bad one. That was a big water job, right? It kept coming in and going back. They couldn’t get rid of it. They’ve never seen -- I guess it was the biggest water dump they’ve ever seen. But when you get 16,000 -- good to see this group of people. (Laughter.) But when you do 16,000, that’s really something.
And then Florida hit, and you know that one very well. You knew that one pretty well, right? The job you did in Florida. And then, Puerto Rico.
And I really mean that. I think that there is no brand, of any kind -- I’m not just talking about a military brand -- that has gone up more than the Coast Guard. Incredible people. You’ve done an incredible job. And I love coming in here and doing this with you today. I think it’s -- well, we have to keep you very well fed. (Laughter.) This is good stuff. But it’s an honor.
Later, after the traditional-for-Trump shot at the press (“The press, I know, doesn't have any questions. If you do, we won't take them, but that's all right”) and insistence that in recent years the military had been starved of resources (Reality, from the Congressional Budget Office: “The Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) base budget grew from $384 billion to $502 billion between fiscal years 2000 and 2014 in inflation-adjusted (real) terms—an increase of 31 percent and an annual average growth rate of 1.9 percent”), Trump said this:
The Navy, I can tell you, we're ordering ships. With the Air Force, we're ordering a lot of planes, in particular the F-35 fighter jet, which is, you know, almost like an invisible fighter. I was asking the Air Force guys, I said, how good is this plane? They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said, yeah, but in a fight -- you know, a fight -- like I watch in the movies -- they fight, they're fighting. How good is this? They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to it, it can't see it. I said, that helps. (Laughter.) That's a good thing.
Just … wait … okay, he said this: “I said, yeah, but in a fight—you know, a fight—like I watch in the movies—they fight, they're fighting. How good is this?”
Then again, it fits. Donald Trump’s entire understanding of government and the military seems to come from movies—bad ones—so why wouldn’t he be asking the Air Force how new military equipment compared with Top Gun?