'Unprecedented public attack': Widespread shock as Trump blasts the Pentagon -- from the White House

[Lunabell]

Source: Raw Story

President Donald Trump accused the top brass of the Department of Defense of needlessly waging wars to boost the profits of defense contractors during a Labor Day press conference held at the White House.

“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me, the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy,” Trump argued.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/unprecedented-public-widespread-shock-as-trump-blasts-the-pentagon-from-the-white-house/

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Keep on spittin it out dumbass.

[KS Toronado]

56. needlessly waging wars? Military doesn't start wars, politicians do. Rumpie is so stupid.

[TomSlick]

58. Why is that so obvious to you and me

and not understood by Trump and his sycophants?

[Yavin4]

67. If anything, the generals spoke out against going to war in Iraq

and were punished by Dick Cheney for saying so.

[Yeehah]

79. The majority of Democrats in Congress also opposed the illegal Iraq War

although many stupidly went along with AWOL Bush invading the wrong coutnry.

[BComplex]

80. Correction: REPUBLICANS start wars.

They're known for it.

[pwb]

2. The soldiers don't love you Donny boy.

They all hate you. Yeah.

[lapfog_1]

3. this is known as softening up the field of battle

The only people that know the truth about how Trump feels about the military are the very top Pentagon officials so thus the preemptive attack to discredit anything they might say.

[PSPS]

11. Yes, this is his M.O. "They're all bums. You can't believe anything they say."

[OAITW r.2.0]

15. A pre-emptive strike by Trump so as to hold any future revelations of Trumps unfitness

to be proof that the generals are all on the side of everyone who hates Trump.

[Thekaspervote]

20. This!

[KPN]

27. Bingo.

[JDC]

32. Exactly.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. To put a car on the road

they require "proof of insurance."

Can we PLEASE make it a requirement to run for President that you have "proof of sanity?"

[C_U_L8R]

5. So basically he admits to being a feckless commander.

Leaders lead, losers tweet.

[Botany]

6. This tells me that some of the people who gave the Atlantic the story about Trump calling KIA vets..

... suckers and losers or the persons who backed up Fox News' Jennifer Griffen confrimation
of the Atlantic's story are from the Pentagon.

[Tommymac]

66. Good insight. Thanks! n/t

[Botany]

78. BTW Trump going on and on about the MIC (military industrial complex) is pure bull shit

Because he wants to spend trillions on his "Space Force."

Link to tweet

[BlueTsunami2018]

7. I actually agree with him on this.

The MIC is very real.

[AkFemDem]

8. Ha, I was just thinking it's amazing how even a broken watch

Is right twice a day.

[localroger]

10. It's even worse

A watch that runs backward is right four times a day.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

44. um. only if it runs at double time.

[localroger]

74. Nope, at normal time

Basically the backard clock does a day in the same day the forward clock does a day, so with respect to each other they cover two days in each actual day. This makes the backward clock right four times every normal day.

[Lunabell]

9. I know.

But the commander in chief just can't say this out loud, lmao!!

[John Drake]

18. Dwight D. Eisenhower was still CIC on Jan 17th 1961

When he made his farewell address to the nation warning of the Military Industrial Complex.

He was right then.

[KPN]

30. The orange fat ass is no Dwight Eisenhower. His

purposes in spouting those words were to delegitimize top brass who are leaking real info about his unfitness to be Commander in Chief, as well as to position himself as out for the little guy (which lord knows he has never been). Ike’s purpose I’m making this statement was admirable and timed appropriately at the very end of his presidency, whereas tRump’s purpose is entirely self-serving without a thought or care about the well-being of our institutions or nation. His words are distrustful and therefore meaningless at best.

[AllyCat]

40. Yup. The MIC is a problem, but Donald Johnald has done NOTHING

to stop them.

[Sanity Claws]

14. MIC is very real

but it seems that the ones who are really in cahoots are the owners of military contractors and politicians, not the enlisted military. Think of Eric Prince and Blackwater.
The military itself does not declare war or otherwise authorize the use of weapons of war.

[zorbasd]

17. Yup!, you got that right.......MF45 knows that game.

The MIC is the only remaining huge employer of engineers, technicians, scientists, etc., that is barely holding the professional middle class in check. We have no self sustaining manufacturing industry to survive in a purely non-government financed consumer based free enterprise system. None!

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. It is real, but it is not all pervasive

Some top military brass go over to that dark side, but far from all of them. If you tune in closely you can note the difference between those who primarily believe in a need to defend our nation in an uncertain world and those who glorify war and milk profits associated with them. I proudly supported Generl Wes Clark and got to know him personally while doing so. He is a good man who does not see war as positive, and he is not alone among our senior officers.

[Tommymac]

68. Don't forget the reported large minority of Dominist's in the higher ranks especially the Air Force.

[link:https://www.newsweek.com/christian-fundamentalists-us-armed-forces-national-security-threat-613428|

Trump Effect Inspires Radical Christians in Military
BY NINA BURLEIGH ON 5/22/17 AT 1:15 PM EDT

Fundamentalist views are decidedly in the minority in the general population, but they have adherents in some of the U.S. military's most powerful positions, especially in and around Washington, D.C., and in Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the nation's nuclear command center.

The U.S. military has long been seeded with radical Christian fundamentalists—sometimes called Christian Dominionists or Christian Reconstructionists—who believe a "Warrior Jesus" has their backs while they fight against Islam. They believe they are establishing a "Kingdom of God" on earth, starting with the United States, and are predictably anti-LGBT and unfriendly to females among their ranks.

[Karadeniz]

76. I ALWAYS listen closely to Gen. Clark when he's on tv. So clear thinking, good at communication.

I'd have voted for him!

[skypilot]

29. Maybe he just hasn't found a way...

...to position himself to make money from it.

[Falcon101]

34. But why do we have a bloated Defense budget

Yes, I agree that we spend too much on the Pentagon. However, the bloated defense budget has grown dramatically under Trump and he brags about how much he spends on the Pentagon. As usual, he is talking nonsense. Where does he think all that money goes when we buy planes and ships? Its the MIC!

[rpannier]

54. Trump wants to build new stealth bombers/fighters

tanks, nuclear missiles, etc
He doesn't mean it

[jcgoldie]

72. Except he doesn't give a fuck about that

Somebody in the pentagon spilled the beans about what a completely disrespectful asshole he is so he's returning fire. He couldn't give a shit about wars or military budgets except that now its personal because it could cost him an election. For Trump its all about Trump, not the military industrial complex or anything else that involves caring about other people or issues.

[BlueTsunami2018]

73. Agreed.

[John Drake]

12. Eisenhower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=Gg-jvHynP9Y&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=USNationalArchives

[KPN]

62. Really? No comparison -- whatsoever. Applaud

Eisenhower, fine but there’s no similarity whatsoever between the two ... you know that, or should. Don’t insult our intelligence with this kind of crap.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. He's signalling his intent to go full bore liberal by election day

That's how Bush 2000 stayed competitive. Everything Gore said, Bush echoed. It confused voters.

[2naSalit]

21. +1

[bucolic_frolic]

23. Trump has no choice

but to try to push Biden left - looters and liberals and unAmerican - so Trump can shift to the center.

Fortunately Trump has little remaining credibility.

[mahina]

31. Disagree. This is a Quanon message.

I’ve heard it recently from avid Quanon supporters.

[mucifer]

49. yeah trashing BLM and kids in cages social security misogyny etc no you won't fool us

[TomCADem]

81. Trump promises North Korea 'fire and fury' over nuke threat

Yep, I guess we will all forget Trump's bellicose rhetoric toward North Korea and the fact that he was itching to go to war with Iran before COVID hit.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/north-korea-missile-ready-nuclear-weapons/index.html

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary ultimatum to North Korea on Tuesday warning Pyongyang not to make any more threats against the United States or they will "face fire and fury like the world has never seen," during a photo op at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen... he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before," he said.

Trump's harsh words come as US intelligence analysts have assessed that North Korea has produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead, according to multiple sources familiar with the analysis of North Korea's missile and nuclear program.

Soon after Trump's comments, North Korea issued a statement saying it was "examining the operational plan" to strike areas around the US territory of Guam in the Pacific, including the Andersen Air Force base.

[vlyons]

16. The top brass hate wars

But your wonderful Republican senators and congressmen, who rake in big bucks from defense contractors don't mind wars so much.

[2naSalit]

22. His drug addled brain...

can't differentiate between them.

[John Drake]

25. Latest Count of 'Revolving Door' Defense Contractors Names

That doesn't stand up to any scrutiny at all.

As many as 380 high-ranking Defense Department officials and officers over the past decade left government to become lobbyists, corporate board members and defense contractor consultants, according to a transparency group’s tabulations.

In 645 instances documented by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, officials went to work for major contractors—Boeing, General Dynamics and United Technologies are the top three—with nearly 90 percent of them doing lobbying, said the study, the group’s update on one of its regular themes going back to 2004.

“The companies argue that [the hires] have issue expertise, but nearly 90 percent of those being are hired as lobbyists,” said Mandy Smithberger, director of POGO’s Center for Defense Information, who spearheaded the report titled “Brass Parachutes: Defense Contractors’ Capture of Pentagon Officials Through the Revolving Door.”

A 2007 law required the Defense Department to keep a database of its senior employees who move to the private sector, but it was not made public, Smithberger told reporters at a Wednesday briefing. It is called the After Government Employment Advice Repository. So POGO obtained a version under the Freedom of Information Act, which was “heavily redacted,” she said. The compilation is “an attempt to show what it would have looked like.”

https://www.govexec.com/management/2018/11/latest-count-revolving-door-defense-contractors-names-names/152836/

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

45. that's true but

the problem is w no wars= no medals, no field promotions, not much turn over.
my nephew was career army. until iraq 1, he was stuck. then did make his way up between then and afghanistan. got a medal over there.
retired after being turned down for a general's star, but hired by the pentagon.
till john rood insulted both his intelligence and his integrity.
never thought he would retire.

[irisblue]

24. Originating tweet

Link to tweet

[mahina]

33. "Soldiers"

Shut up, you jackass. Every word you say makes us all stupider.

The word you were looking for there is “troops”. Alternatively, soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen. And Coasties.

Ugh.

[SergeStorms]

26. Wasn't Trump just bragging....

about how good he's been to the military, and how much money "he" spent on them? You can't separate the military from the Pentagon Donny. You just can't.

[roamer65]

28. Yeah, mess with the military industrial complex, Dotard.

I know where that one will take you.

[iluvtennis]

35. I so despise this orange POS. Keep digging your hole dumbass. nt

[Swede]

36. Wasn't he bragging about how much money he gives the military.

Like 5 minutes ago?

[AllyCat]

37. Agree or not... IT IS LABOR DAY.

How about some inspirational message for hard working Americans and unions???

[riversedge]

38. "One cold-hearted globalist betrayal after another, that's what it was," the president says in talki

President Trump today accused the United States’ military leadership of being beholden to arms manufacturers, in an attack on his own administration only days after reports that he had mocked fallen soldiers

Link to tweet

?s=20

Trump says Pentagon chiefs are accommodating weapons makers

“One cold-hearted globalist betrayal after another, that’s what it was,” the president says in talking about “endless wars.”


Trump says Pentagon chiefs are accommodating weapons makers

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/07/trump-disparages-pentagon-chiefs-409528



“One cold-hearted globalist betrayal after another, that’s what it was,” the president says in talking about “endless wars.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on the North Portico of the White House, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on the North Portico of the White House, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. | AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

By MATTHEW CHOI

09/07/2020 04:13 PM EDT Updated: 09/07/2020 05:14 PM EDT


President Donald Trump on Monday accused the United States’ military leadership of being beholden to arms manufacturers, in an attack on his own administration only days after reports that he had mocked fallen soldiers.

Speaking at a combative White House news conference, Trump said leaders at the Pentagon probably weren’t “in love with me” because “they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”



“Some people don’t like to come home, some people like to continue to spend money,” Trump said. “One cold-hearted globalist betrayal after another, that’s what it was.”

He asserted that while U.S. troops largely support him, he does not receive the same affinity from the top. He made the comment as he advocated for the removal of American troops from “endless wars” and lambasted NATO allies who “rip us off.”...........................

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. Defense Sec Esper's previous job: VP for govt relations at defense contractor Raytheon

before Trump made him Secretary of the Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Esper

Trump's nominee for Defense Sec before that was Patrick Shanahan, senior VP at Boeing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_M._Shanahan

(Esper's succcessor as Army Sec, Ryan McCarthy, was a VP at Lockheed Martin before he joined the Trump regime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_D._McCarthy )

The 'top brass' in the DoD who are so good to defense companies were appointed by Trump. And brown-nose him.

[PaulRevere08]

41. Says the guy that brags about increasing the military budget

That feeds the MIC.

[onetexan]

70. What is the MIC?

[PaulRevere08]

71. Military Industrial Complex

[TomVilmer]

42. 2019 Was Another Record Year For U.S. Bombs Dropped On Afghanistan

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2020/01/28/2019-was-another-record-year-for-us-bombs-dropped-on-afghanistan-infographic/#2136650279c2

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/30/nearly-4000-afghan-civilians-killed-or-wounded-in-first-half-of-2019-un-says

[Thunderbeast]

43. Wait...Wasn't he bragging at the convention

about the increases in military spending he championed?

People have REALLY short memories.

[Marcuse]

46. It's YOUR budget, PINO!

[warmfeet]

47. Hypocritical, lying sack of shit.

Same as it ever was.

[Maxheader]

48. Stumpys jealous of the military budget...

It would like to get its hands on a few hundred billion for the wall..

[not_the_one]

75. He doesn't give a shit about the wall. That is nothing but a diversion, a shiny object to focus on

and (hopefully) get him re-elected.

But you can be damn sure he IS trying to get his hands on all those defense dollars. It would do so much more good being used to support him as a oligarch/dictator. Then he can jail or kill his enemies, the press, democrats, and anyone else who doesn't drink the kool-aid.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

50. He's losing it

[sarge43]

51. Trump's probably pissed off at the flags for two reasons

1. I think Kelly and Dunford (Chair JCS at the time of the French trip) dropped the dime. They're both Marines and Marines don't take kindly to the Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood being bad mouthed.

2. The Biggii Dickii at the Circus told him publicly they wouldn't be his Praetorian Guard during the election.

As memory serves but doesn't reenlist, not that long ago Moron was bragging about how he got all kinds of bright shinny stuff for the "top people" to play with, like the F-18 and the flying money pit, F-35. Both operational long before he got anywhere near the WH. Still waiting on those 250 ships he promised the Navy back in '16.

[marlakay]

52. I actually agree with him on that

But his supporters and especially people donating money are not going to like it.

[TomCADem]

82. Iran-US tensions rise on Trump threat, Iran satellite launch

I don't know why folks support Trump's threats to start a war with Iran. Trump has threatened to nuke North Korea and he cancelled the Iran peace deal and has steadily increased tensions with Iran to create a pretext for a war. Indeed, Trump has noted how Bush got a polling bump as a result of 9/11.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/north-korea-missile-ready-nuclear-weapons/index.html

WASHINGTON -- Tensions between Washington and Tehran flared anew Wednesday as Iran's Revolutionary Guard conducted a space launch that could advance the country's long-range missile program and President Donald Trump threatened to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats that harass Navy ships.

The launch was a first for the Guard, revealing what experts described as a secret military space program that could accelerate Iran's ballistic missile development. American officials said it was too early to know whether an operational Iranian satellite was successfully placed into orbit. Trump's top diplomat accused Iran of violating U.N. resolutions.

After Iran's announcement, Trump wrote on Twitter, without citing any specific incident, “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Navy reported that 11 Guard naval gunboats had carried out “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf. The Americans used a variety of nonlethal means to warn off the Iranian boats, and they eventually left. Such encounters were relatively common several years ago, but have been rare recently.

[rpannier]

53. Isn't this the guy that wants to build a bunch of new stealth bombers

nuclear missiles, tanks, etc
Trump is hardly the enemy of the MIC

[Demovictory9]

55. Wow

[Martin Eden]

57. Civilian leadership makes those decisions

The military did not decide to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. A Republican president made those decisions.

The MIC is real but the principal blame rests with our government, not the military.

[Xolodno]

59. I'm going to bet there is more to this than we know.

Maybe he ordered them to do something illegal. And when they told him they can't because it was illegal, he said he'll pardon them. But they still refused....which pissed him off.

[DallasNE]

60. How Is This A Surprise?

The officer corps is all college educated. The enlisted corps are heavily non-college and the whites are his base. Here he looks to be trying to divide the white enlisted base away from the non-white enlisted base and that will rile the rank and file enlisted base. Anything to win.

[LudwigPastorius]

61. Trump didn't mean it literally.

It was a metaphor...or, a simile. Maybe he meant it allegorically, or it was metonomy, or a hypophora...maybe an onomatopoeia.

OK, I got nothin'.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-symbolically-anthony-scaramucci-232848

[roamer65]

63. I remember a President who tried to take on these interests.

Especially the CIA.

Enuff said.

[JohnnyRingo]

64. Then why did he increase the Pentagon's budget?

Hell of a way to rein them in.

[SledDriver]

65. He said the quiet part out loud

[Tommymac]

69. Unfortunately there are '5th Avenuers" in the Top Brass too.

https://www.newsweek.com/christian-fundamentalists-us-armed-forces-national-security-threat-613428

Trump Effect Inspires Radical Christians in Military
[Newsweek]
BY NINA BURLEIGH ON 5/22/17 AT 1:15 PM EDT

Donald Trump's election has led to such a steep rise in fundamentalist Christian evangelizing and religious bigotry in the U.S. armed forces that the matter is reaching the level of a "national security threat," according to information shared exclusively with Newsweek by an organization that represents and advocates for secular and minority religious views in the military.
...

Fundamentalist views are decidedly in the minority in the general population, but they have adherents in some of the U.S. military's most powerful positions, especially in and around Washington, D.C., and in Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the nation's nuclear command center.

The U.S. military has long been seeded with radical Christian fundamentalists—sometimes called Christian Dominionists or Christian Reconstructionists—who believe a "Warrior Jesus" has their backs while they fight against Islam. They believe they are establishing a "Kingdom of God" on earth, starting with the United States, and are predictably anti-LGBT and unfriendly to females among their ranks.
...

"The reality of Trump being commander in chief has unleashed a raging battle cry along the lines of 'There's a new sheriff in town, and he loves white, male, straight, Christian fundamentalists one hell of a lot more than anyone else,'" Weinstein says. "The fundamentalist/Dominionist bullies have been emboldened by Trump's own bigotry and that of his henchmen to such a profound degree that MRFF considers the dire situation to be nothing less than a full-fledged national security threat to our country."

https://www.newsweek.com/christian-fundamentalists-us-armed-forces-national-security-threat-613428

[Proximate Centurion]

77. UnAmerican

He's also UnSmart.

[Kid Berwyn]

83. Newsweek compared him to Ike

Trump started appropriating the Military Industrial Complex.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-draws-dwight-eisenhower-comparisons-criticizing-military-industrial-complex-1530206

[EndlessWire]

84. He's gonna

replace the Joint Chiefs with people who will crush the public on his behalf.

He didn't say much after the General informed him that the military would not help in the fray. I took that to mean that he wasn't sure if that statement was good for him or bad, depending on how it calmed the public.

But, since then, he has started to mess with Esper, and now he is making a statement against all of them. He will probably replace every one of them with people who will do his bidding.

People, we have a problem. Watch what he does next. We can't stop him from vetting new guys to put in there. That's the power we gave him.

And, no, Donnie Two Scoops, the rank and file do NOT love you. You put that in your statement because you need them to carry out your orders.