President Donald Trump took the stage to address an audience of US generals and admirals on Tuesday morning.
And as with his recent speech to the UN, Trump’s comments generated a good deal of confusion.
The weirdness began with a summons from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to US military commanders stationed all over the world.
Surprise gathering of top military brass leads to numerous unexpected moments
The invitation led to widespread bafflement as it offered virtually no details about today’s event.
Nearly 800 generals, admirals, and senior enlisted staff assembled in Virginia with little idea of what to expect.
Following his speech, in which he dared America’s enemies to “FAFO,” a reference that seemed to elude most of the crowd (the acronym stands for “f–k around and find out”), Hegseth introduced the president.
This resulted in another awkward moment, as the attendees were apparently not informed that Trump would be in attendance, and they seemed unsure of how to react.
“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” Trump said before informing the crowd that it’s okay to clap.
“Don’t laugh! Don’t laugh, you’re not allowed to do that!” the president stated, adding:
“You know what, just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if want to do anything you want, you can do anything that you want.
“And if don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes you future.”
“But you just feel nice and loose, okay, because we’re all on the same team. And I was told that, sir, you won’t hear — you won’t hear a murmur in the room. I said, we got to loosen these guys up a little bit. So you just have a good time.”
Trump’s ‘N-word’ remark draws criticism
From there, Trump delved into military matters and alluded to the nuclear option, which he referred to as the N-word.
“We can’t throw around that word. I call it the ‘N’ word. There are two ‘N-words,’ and you can’t use either of them,” he joked.
For obvious reasons, the remark has received quite a bit of backlash on social media.
“I’m sorry is Trump using this speech to complain about not being able to use ‘the N word’?” wrote one X user.
“We know which N word Trump loves.His family has said that it is a regular part of his vocabulary,” another chimed in.
“Trump was talking about nukes and just said there are two N words and we can’t use either of them. I wonder how many times a day they have to remind him?” a third tweeted.
The impetus behind organizing today’s gathering — which some have described as “more like a low-energy campaign event” — remains unclear.