Yesterday was not only a bad look for the Grand Lord Doofus Trumpelthinskin, it also revealed quite a bit about what the military thinks about Pete Hegseth.
Military leaders know exactly what a military parade should look like. Above all, they know it should project respect and honor at multiple levels, especially towards chain of command and what separates our military from that of every other military service on the planet — civilian oversight and leadership.
From the shambling shuffle of the troops to the deeply ironic musical selections, it was clear that This Is Not Pete Hegseth’s (and by extension, Cadet Bone Spur’s) military. Hegseth’s crusade about “warriors” and the “warfighting mindset” were fully NOT on display yesterday. The soldiers looked like they could care less about being there and the music was listless and played with a decidedly “low energy” effort.
And about that music:
… the repeated playing of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s classic “Fortunate Son” — a song that virtually the entire world knows by now was written during the Vietnam era as a slam against wealthy draft dodgers. The assumption being made by at least a few tweeters was that this had to be some kind of deliberate trolling of the president by someone on the music selection team who just has it in for him. Because if you were going to make a top 10 list of songs that Trump should not want to have played at any of his events — but most of all not at a military-themed ceremony — “Fortunate Son” would certainly be No. 1.
In 2020, in fact, no less a figure than the song’s author, John Fogerty (a military veteran), directly made the connection between Trump and the rich kids who got out of the draft that he was writing about back in the day. “It seems like he is probably the Fortunate Son,” Fogerty said at the time. There could hardly be a worse insult.
A parade to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary would have looked very different under any other defense secretary. They appointed competent leaders who commanded and had earned the respect of those they lead. However you want to call it, esprit du corps, high morale and unit cohesion were all missing from yesterday’s performance.
Trump’s DooDah Parade was a big middle finger to DUI hire Hegseth and his “warrior ethos”. And the Felon-in-Chief has no one else to blame for this, because he’s the one who appointed him.
