President Donald Trump’s attempt to wish our military a happy Thanksgiving was a failure.
On Thursday morning, Trump announced that he would speak to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan via teleconference. You know, because those old bone spurs forced him to stay home to play golf rather than visit the troops personally.
Anyway, instead of using the speech to honor the troops and thank them for their service and sacrifice, Trump used the occasion to attack President Barack Obama and brag about himself.
“We opened it up, we said, ‘Go ahead, we’re going to fight to win. We’re not fighting anymore to just walk around, we’re fighting to win,’ and you people are really—you’ve turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody’s seen and they are talking about it. We’re being talked about again as an armed forces. We’re really winning. We know how to win—They weren’t letting you win before, they were letting you play even, we’re letting you win. The fight against ISIS is coming our way. It’s coming our way, big, big difference. A lot of things have happened. They say we’ve made more progress against ISIS than they did in years of the previous administration. And that’s because I’m letting you do your job.”
Well, that didn’t sit well with retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, who found Trump’s speech “insulting.”
“First of all, I’m thankful for the fact that he did address the soldiers,” Hertling told CNN. “But the message that I heard and some of the things he said would have not rung very well with me had I been a deployed soldier.”
“You’re talking to soldiers and military personnel around the world who have been in this fight for 17 years and to suddenly be told they’re winning now when they weren’t winning before is somewhat insulting, first of all. And secondly, the comments about the economy and where the economy is growing—deployed service members don’t want to hear about that. They want to hear, ‘Hey, thanks, for what you’re doing.’ They just want to know and let other people know what they’re fighting for, and what they’re serving for, is each other, first of all, and for the oath that they took to defend the Constitution,” Hertling later added. “So again, trying to be positive, I’m glad the president at least took some time to say thank you to the troops around the world, and he’s going to a Coast Guard station today, but the rest of the message may have been a little off-kilter.”
Here’s the video via YouTube:
Trump’s petty address is just another part of an overall holiday meltdown that began when he defended child molester Roy Moore prior to leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago. Trump has also continued feuding with the NFL and attacked LaVar Ball for not thanking him for allegedly getting his son released from China.
Clearly, Trump needs to shut up for the rest of the holiday weekend before he embarrasses himself even more than he already has.
Featured Image Via YouTube Video.
