'Bad optics': 'Vets slam 'unqualified' Trump official’s 'insulting' speech

Members of the military attend a meeting convened by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Quantico, Virginia, U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

On Tuesday, September 30, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered U.S. military generals for a speech that heavily emphasized culture-war themes. Hegseth railed against "wokeness" in the military, claiming that unqualified people were being promoted to senior positions based on racial and gender quotas.

But the speech is drawing criticism from many veterans, some of whom argue that Hegseth needs to pay more attention to national security and less attention to MAGA culture-war obsessions.

In an article published on October 1, The Guardian's George Chidi examines some of the negative reactions veterans are having to Hegseth's speech.

Naveed Shah, policy director for the veterans group Commons Defense, told The Guardian, "A lot of the words that are coming to me aren't fit to print. The people in that room who have served for 20, 30-plus years in uniform do not need Pete Hegseth to tell them about warrior ethos…. Certainly, addressing the troops could be useful or beneficial, but to call 800-plus generals and senior enlisted advisers from around the world into this room just before a government shutdown? It's not just bad optics or strategy. A bad cold could have threatened our entire chain of command."

Dana Pittard, an author and retired U.S. Army general interviewed by The Guardian, said of Hegseth's speech, "I thought it was insulting." And Pittard, who is Black, said he deeply resented Hegseth's claim that non-white military leaders were promoted based on a racial quota system.

Pittard also criticized Hegseth's "partisan" attacks during the speech as a "dangerous, slippery slope."

U.S. Navy veteran Tamara Steven found Hegseth's "lethality" rhetoric deeply troubling.

Stevens told The Guardian, "Basically, he's saying that we're no better than Hamas because people are joining because they want to break things and they want to kill people. I mean, for anyone that's been in the military, he's not qualified to be secretary of defense. He's barely qualified to be a host on Fox News. But so say these things in front of the preeminent generals and admirals leading our military? Has he no honor, to say that we don’t belong in polite society? Maybe he doesn’t."

Read George Chidi's full article for The Guardian at this link.

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