Trump blasts ‘television generals’ in foreign policy speech

In his first outdoor rally since surviving an assassination attempt, former President Donald Trump spoke about the “television generals” who have disparaged his four years in the White House.

Trump, surrounded by protective glass, appeared to be responding to claims from his former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, that Russian President Vladimir Putin exploited his ego and insecurities. He released a book this week making such claims, while Trump has previously feuded with his former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, for accusing him of calling fallen soldiers “suckers.”

“You know, I fire a lot of people when they don’t do a good job, then they come back and write books,” Trump said in Asheboro, North Carolina. “When you fire them, they always come back with something. … They get offered all sorts of money from the fake news and everything else, fame. ‘We’re going to make you famous. All you have to do is make up some stories about Trump.’”

McMaster was a national security adviser to Trump in 2017 and 2018, and in a new book writes that “Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery.”

Earlier in the speech, Trump told the crowd that “television generals are no good.”

Speaking for roughly 68 minutes, Trump addressed job numbers that were revised down heavily this week at the top of his remarks.

“It isn’t really a revision; it’s a total lie,” he said of the numbers, which were lowered by more than 800,000 in a new government report. “The Harris-Biden administration has been caught fraudulently manipulating job statistics to hide the true extent of the economic ruin that they’ve inflicted on America.”

Repeating his new “Comrade Kamala” nickname, Trump described Vice President Kamala Harris as the “most radical left person ever to run for high political office” in the U.S.

The speech was billed as focusing on national security, but Trump, as is typical, veered off script to offer asides on a number of other topics, including how President Joe Biden looks in a bathing suit and whether or not he should only talk about policy in his public appearances.

“Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night take little shots?” Trump said. “He was taking shots at your president, and so was Michelle [Obama]. You know they always say, ‘Sir, please stick to policy. Don’t get personal.’ And yet they’re getting personal all night long.”

Trump even did a mock poll asking the crowd if he should get personal or not.

“My advisers are fired,” he joked after the attendees cheered for the “get personal” option.

Returning to the topic at hand, Trump spent considerable time on the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, blaming it on both Biden and Harris.

“No one will ever forget the horrifying images of their catastrophic retreat from Afghanistan,” Trump said. “Desperate Afghans fell to their deaths from the wheels of U.S. cargo planes that were 3,000 feet up in the air. Bloodthirsty terrorists poured out of the prisons after Biden and Harris surrendered Bagram, one of the largest air military bases anywhere in the world.”

He pledged to ask for the resignation of every “senior military official” involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal if elected.

Trump bragged about having good relationships with the leaders of Russia and China, but said he kept them at bay, whereas Biden caved to their demands.

“The world is on fire, and Kamala and Biden have marched us to the brink of World War III,” he said. “That’s why this November, Americans are going to tell Kamala Harris that we’ve had enough. We can’t take it anymore. You’re doing a terrible job. Comrade Harris, you’re fired! Get out of here.”

In contrast, Trump claimed that he himself could stop a war “with a telephone call.”

His running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), spoke roughly an hour before Trump and delivered a similar message, warning that “if we’re not careful, Kamala Harris is going to walk us right into nuclear war.”

Trump ventured into culture war issues through the lens of the military, promising to eliminate “woke generals” from the military and to “get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our U.S. armed forces.”

“If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you won’t do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines,” Trump said. “Sorry, you’re not going to do it there.”

Trump turned to his signature issue of immigration as well, saying that Harris, who has recently taken a rightward turn on illegal crossings, wants open borders that have allowed thousands of terrorists into the country. He joked that “we probably have a few here.”

“We have to win this election,” Trump said. “If we don’t win this election, we are in such trouble as a country. We’re in trouble right now, but you have the right guy to straighten out. I’ll get it straightened out. I’ll get it straightened out fast.”