Trump, Hegseth & The War On Reality
My friends,
Thank you as always for tuning into the Wednesday Cliff’s Edge live stream!
We braved some drilling in the hall outside my office, Streamyard glitches galore and the emotional agita of again discussing traitor Trump and punch-drunk Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth, a semi-self aware bacterial infection no woman wanted to encounter in college without a taser handy. A Christian Nationalist who can’t spell Pontius Pilate.
A faux-bravado-bro plucked from important duty as a backup Fox & Friends host—on weekends!—to run the Pentagon.
And then we have Trump. And here, aftter seeing his speech to the flag officers, I’ll just poach from myself about a month ago:
A bloated, stumbling, smash-&-grab, cash-licking cadaver who was born on 3rd base—to spend his entire life finding ways to get thrown out at 2nd—taking out his vast wilderness of dumbf*kery on us all.
This was what we had to contend with today on Cliff’s Edge.
David Schuster and I sat down with Navy veteran and brilliant writer and storyteller Melissa Corrigan, and let me tell you, THIS was one helluva conversation.
Melissa has lived it. Service on the USS Eisenhower. Standing up as one of the first full waves of women aboard ships, fighting elbow-to-rib through the misogyny of the early 2000s Navy culture.
She knows what it means to serve honorably—and what it looks like when politicians betray that service.
Hegseth & Trump’s Fantasy Military
We dug into Pete Hegseth’s speech—Trump at his side—where he waxed nostalgic about “returning” the military to some imagined golden age (psst, this is a telltale signs of fascism, wanting to return to a glorious age that never even existed).
Except Hegseth’s chosen year was 1990. That’s where he wanted to return. Hmm, why that date?
Well, if you remember 1990, you may recall that was the year of The Tailhook scandal: 83 women and 7 men sexually assaulted by naval aviators in Vegas.
That’s the year Hegseth wants back.
You think that’s an accident? Or is he signaling exactly who he wants protected and promoted?
And Trump? The draft dodger who compared dead soldiers to “suckers and losers” delivered his usual rambling nonsense—this time even finding time to complain about the thickness of the White House stationery.
Just the whiniest little pr*k, bar none.
Meanwhile, a room full of flag officers gave him nothing. No applause. No validation. Just silence.
And you could see it on his face—he couldn’t comprehend the concept that united the military faces in the room, “honor,”
Because the man has never had a relationship with the concept.
Intolerable Cruelty
Melissa pointed out something crucial: Hegseth isn’t just fantasizing.
He’s pushing directives—like erasing “adverse information reports” from officers’ records after ten years. Translation: He wants to wipe clean substantiated findings of misconduct, abuse, even sexual assault.
Not reform, not readiness—just protection for predators.
That’s projection, pure and simple, and perhaps self-protection.
The military leaders who were forced to attend knew it. They sat stone-faced, refusing to play his reality-TV clap track.
They know what we know: diversity is strength. Without women, Black soldiers, Latino soldiers—there is no American military.
Period.
And here’s the danger: the speeches were the circus. The real threat is what happens after the cameras shut off. Ten doddering directives have already pushed down the chain.
Courts—military and civilian—will be forced to test them. And we must all be asking: which officers will honor their oath, and who will buckle to Trump and Hegseth’s lawless vision of the American military?
To Trump’s ridiculous claim he’ll be sending these military leaders with their troops into cities across the country—to stop crime that isn’t happening with soldiers who aren’t trained to do it in violation of the U.S.Constitution.
Why It Matters
This is bigger than speeches. It’s about whether our armed forces remain apolitical, professional, and constitutional—or whether they become a mercenary force that bends to the will of a president bone-spur McGee and his B-list Fox lackey.
In other words, authoritarian shock troops.
Yet, If the looks on their faces were any indication, they haven’t and won’t sign up for the Trump/Hegseth Circle-K-parking-lot version of how our military should behave.
Meanwhile, Melissa reminded us: enlisted soldiers go to prison for pocketing a thumb drive with classified material for ten minutes.
Hegseth?
He puts classified bombing plans on Signal, includes a reporter on the chain and gets promoted.
That double standard will destroy morale. It will break the force. It’s exactly what Trump wants.
Bottom Line: Trump and Hegseth are trying to drag our military back into the dark ages of sexism, cruelty, and lawlessness. But the silence of those generals yesterday sent a message: they serve the Constitution, not a weak, wannabe dictator.
It’s on us to stand with them—and to fight like hell to keep it that way.
