#character
4 entries with this tag
On Veterans Day, an Army Sentinel Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Had to Publicly Reprimand Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Own Entourage — His Wife and Senior Aides — for Talking and Laughing During a Group Photo, Calling Out That "All Visitors Will Maintain an Atmosphere of Silence and Respect at All Times"; the Man Who Lectures the Entire Military About Reverence and Standards Had His Group Shushed at the Most Sacred Site of American Military Remembrance
On Veterans Day, November 11, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying — part of the day's solemn observances, which President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump also attended. After Hegseth's group posed for a photo near the Tomb, a member of the entourage was heard talking and laughing as they walked away, and the Army sentinel on duty — a member of the elite Tomb Guard that watches over the memorial around the clock — loudly reprimanded the group, calling out the standing admonition that "all visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times." The group traveling with Hegseth included his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, and senior aides, among them chief of staff Ricky Buria. The video circulated widely and was authenticated by fact-checkers. The Pentagon did not dispute it: chief spokesman Sean Parnell said the sentinel "correctly and respectfully reminded everyone to maintain decorum." In fairness, the footage does not establish who in the group made the noise, and it is not clear Hegseth himself was the one laughing. But the episode is a failure of a particular and pointed kind. This is the defense secretary who has spent his tenure lecturing the entire armed forces about reverence, standards, warrior ethos, and respect — who dressed down generals over grooming and bearing, who wraps his Pentagon in the language of the sacred. And it was his entourage, at the most hallowed ground in American military memory, that a junior soldier had to tell to be quiet.
Three Days After the Midterm Rout, Trump Pushed Out Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — Reportedly Blaming Her for the Party's Losses in Front of Others — and Handed the Most Powerful Staff Job in the White House to Stephen Miller, the Hardline Architect of the Administration's Most Extreme Policies; Rather Than Course-Correct After a Historic Rebuke, Trump Scapegoated His Aide and Doubled Down on His Most Divisive Adviser
On November 6, 2026 — three days after voters flipped both chambers of Congress against him — Trump announced that Susie Wiles was out as White House chief of staff and would be replaced, effective November 9, by Stephen Miller, until then the deputy chief of staff for policy and the homeland-security adviser, and the figure most associated with the administration's hardest-line immigration and executive-power policies. Accounts of the exit differ: Axios reported Wiles submitted her resignation; others, citing CNN, said she resigned after watching Trump lose confidence in her; the Washington Post flatly described Trump as having removed her. The New York Times reported that Trump had blamed Wiles for the party's midterm losses in front of other people. Whichever framing is right, the through-line is the same, and it is a failure of character and of judgment rolled into one. Handed a historic repudiation at the ballot box, a leader capable of self-correction asks what he got wrong. Trump instead faulted his chief of staff — the latest in a series of women pushed out of top roles in his administration — and elevated, to the single most powerful position in the building, the adviser most responsible for the very agenda the voters had just rejected. It was the opposite of a course correction. It was a doubling-down, with a scapegoat.
Amplifying a Satirical Hoax That Claimed He Had Signed Such an Order, Trump Spent Labor Day Posting Seven Times in an Hour to Rename the State of New Mexico "New America" — Crossing "Mexico" Off the Map of a Majority-Hispanic State Whose Name Predates the United States, Smearing It as "One of the Great Vote Cheating States of All Time," and Proposing Something No President Has Any Power to Do
Over the September 6-7, 2026 Labor Day weekend, Trump repeatedly posted that the state of New Mexico should be renamed "New America." He shared a map with "Mexico" crossed out in red and "America" written beneath it (reshared by the White House), an AI-generated video of himself slapping "America" over a "Welcome to New Mexico" road sign, and wrote: "Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA." He posted about it seven times in a single hour. The spree was triggered by a satirical account's fake claim that he had signed an executive order to that effect — a hoax Snopes debunked — which Trump then adopted as his own. Two things are worth stating plainly. First, a president has no power to rename a state; that requires the state and Congress, so this is pure posting, not policy. Second, "New Mexico" is not named for the country of Mexico — the name predates the United States itself, and the state is majority-Hispanic — so crossing out "Mexico" and stamping "America" over it is a nativist gesture aimed at one of the most Hispanic states in the country, bundled with an evidence-free smear that it is a haven of "vote cheating." Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded that the name "isn't up for debate — it's been ours since before the United States existed," and that the stunt was an attempt to "distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran" while "the price of gas — and everything else — keeps rising."
On the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, Trump Plans to Skip the Ground Zero Remembrance — Where Families Read the Names of the Dead — Reportedly Because a Rule in Place Since 2012 Bars Politicians From Giving Speeches There, So He Will Go Instead to the Pentagon, Where He Can Have the Microphone
September 11, 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people — a milestone remembrance. According to reporting, Trump plans to skip the ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero in New York, where the day is observed by relatives reading aloud the names of the dead. The reason, per multiple outlets: the memorial has barred elected officials from delivering speeches at the anniversary ceremony since 2012 — a rule adopted to keep the day nonpartisan and focused entirely on the victims and their families — and Trump wanted to speak. His team had even done advance site visits to the Manhattan memorial before he decided instead to mark the anniversary at the Pentagon, which was also struck on 9/11 and where he can deliver remarks. Vice President JD Vance will represent the White House at Ground Zero in his place. The White House disputes the framing: Communications Director Steven Cheung responded to reporting on it with "FAKE NEWS." But the reported explanation is its own indictment. The Ground Zero ceremony asks a president to stand among mourners in silence while parents and children read the names of the dead — to be present without being the center. That, reportedly, is the one thing he would not do. Even the nation's most solemn day, it seems, is only worth attending if he holds the microphone.