‘The Sound of Ingrates!’ Pete Hegseth Scoffs at Protesters During National Guard Ceremony Speech

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth scoffed at protesters he deemed “ingrates” as he addressed National Guard troops ahead of America’s 250th celebrations.

Members of the National Guard stood in formation at Washington’s Meridian Hill Park as part of the Trump administration’s “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.”

Protesters chanted “Guard, go home!” and blared sirens as Trump officials like Stephen Miller and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the troops.

Hegseth began, “To the soldiers here, thank you for everything you’re doing. Thank you for waiting out here in the sun. I’m to blame. Sorry, I had to meeting go long. I never want to make the formation stand out any longer than it has to, because I’ve stood in your formation before, waiting for somebody to show up so I can get out and do my job.”

Hegseth continued:

And that’s the beautiful part about what you do. You do your job no matter what. In fact, this background noise this morning is perfect. It’s the sound of ingrates. Of ingratitude. Of people who are so blinded by ideology they can’t see law and order, and common sense in front of them. But there’s nothing ideological about this group. There’s nothing political about this exercise. Law and order is something all Americans deserve, Black, white, rich, poor, man or woman from DC or far flung places in this country.

And the beautiful thing is, when I look at this group, that’s all of you. From all across this great country, you’re not from Washington, most of you, but this is your capital. And you believe in this 250th year that it should be safe and it should be secure for every single citizen that lives here and every single citizen that comes to visit in this 250th year. And you do it whether it’s cold, whether it’s raining, whether it’s — well it doesn’t snow here that often — whether it’s snowing or whether it’s 100 degrees on the 4th of July. See, these ingrates will fade away. They’ll go back to wherever they came from. You will do your job, and you will do it professionally with courage, boldly, assisting with arrests, helping people who need help.

Hegseth then took a shot at the media.

“The crime rate here has dropped in staggering amounts. And the media won’t want to admit it because of course they’d have to give credit to President Trump. And then they’d have to give credit to the Department of War or to Stephen Miller,” he said. “But courageous men like President Trump and Stephen, who said enough is enough, are the reason why this city is a safe and beautiful place, 250 years into our great republic.”

Watch the clip above via Real America’s Voice.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!