Donald Trump has triggered outrage after referencing a racial slur in his speech to top US military leaders.
The US President addressed a gathering of generals and admirals at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, September 30, for a total of seventy-two minutes.
During the strange event, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also stood on stage and gave the audience a chilling WWII warning.
However, the President’s thinly-veiled allusion to a racial epithet directed at Black people in his statement about the nuclear threat was what sparked the issue.
About three months ago, Trump told a group of generals and admirals that he had “moved a submarine or two over to the coast of Russia” in response to threats made by Russian spokesperson Dmitry Medvedev.
On X (now Twitter), Medvedev had earlier criticized Trump for playing “the ultimatum game with Russia” by threatening to impose sanctions on Russia in an attempt to pressure them into agreeing to a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.
Referring to the word ‘nuclear’, Trump then said in his speech: “We can’t let people throw around that word. I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.”
Naturally, this alludes to a vicious rac:ist epithet that has been used against Black people from the time of enslavement until the Jim Crow laws and up to the present.
Trump went on to describe the US nuclear arsenal in bizarre ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ terms, saying: “Frankly, if it does get to use, we have more than anybody else. We have better. We have newer. But it’s something we don’t ever want to have to think about.”
However, it was the President’s blatant allusion to a phrase that has its roots in racist violence that garnered online attention, with many people expressing their displeasure on social media.
One wrote: “Every day I wake up it sh0cks me that this is really our president.”
A second posted: “People really woke up & said yeah I’m go vote for him,” while someone else could scarcely believe it was real, commenting: “This has to be an SNL skit.”
About 800 high-ranking US military personnel were called to the Marine Corps Base by Trump and Hegseth for the address, but they did not offer a rationale for their attendance.
Numerous top officials had served abroad, and the concentration of so many senior officers in one location posed a serious security danger and even triggered wartime rumors.
However, it turned out that the President and the recently renamed Secretary of War were more interested in discussing ‘woke’ in the military, ranting about diversity policy, climate change, and even labeling some soldiers ‘fat’.
Instead of the cheers and adoration he usually receives at his rallies, Trump seemed surprised in a strange moment to be met by a room full of silent generals and admirals.
The President spoke into a quiet chamber an
