Hegseth Declares Trump Is History's Greatest Military Commander
There was a press conference held at the Pentagon yesterday morning by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. The gist of what they had to say was that the press, the media, whatever you want to call it – specifically, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC – they got it all wrong in their coverage of the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites on Saturday night. But Secretary Hegseth knew what happened, and how it happened, and who was responsible for the “game changing and historic” mission. Here is what he told the press gathered in the Pentagon briefing room:
“Let me read the bottom line here. President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history. And it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of the 12 Day War.”
In history. Got that?
Hegseth was standing there in the Pentagon where General George C. Marshall, working in conjunction with General Dwight D. Eisenhower and British General Bernard Montgomery and General Omar Bradley planned and executed the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944.
That invasion involved a fleet from eight different navies of 6,939 vessels, including 1,213 warships, 4,126 landing craft, 289 escort vessels, 277 minesweepers, and 864 merchant craft. Beginning around midnight, 2,200 American, British and Canadian bombers attacked targets along the coast and inland German military positions.
According to the Eisenhower Presidential Library, about 133,000 combat and support troops landed on French soil during the 24 hours of D-Day. 73,000 American troops, including the airborne troops who parachuted and flew on gliders behind enemy lines and Army Rangers who climbed the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, came ashore at Omaha and Utah beaches. Approximately 83,000 British and Canadian soldiers landed at Sword, Juno, and Gold beaches.
There were at least 10,000 allied casualties on D-Day, with more than 4,000 soldiers confirmed killed.
The Normandy landing on D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history involving one of the largest one-day bombing campaigns in history.
The Secretary of Defense needs to go downstairs to the Pentagon’s department of military history, assuming it survived DOGE, and do some reading. We have a great military, which in conjunction with the great militaries of Russia, Canada, Great Britain, and the Free French, defeated Hitler’s Germany and rid Europe of the Nazi scourge. It took years. Millions were killed in thousands of battles.
Dropping a dozen big bombs from seven stealth bombers, and 75 other precision guided weapons from other stealth aircraft and firing cruise missiles from submarines into a country that had had its air defenses decimated by days of Israeli bombing and drones…well, it was was an impressive military operation, but it weren’t no D-Day, and Donald Trump ain’t no Ike.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. He writes every day at luciantruscott.substack.com and you can follow him on Bluesky @lktiv.bsky.social and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.
Reprinted with permission from Lucian Truscott Newsletter.