Trump Gets Brutal Review From Pool Report On Military Speech Crowd: ‘Expressionless… Restless… Met With Silence’

President Donald Trump got brutal reviews from a pool report on the crowd reaction to his speech to military brass in Quantico, Virginia.

Trump followed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s address to military leaders Tuesday morning with a lengthy speech that featured several bonkers moments and characteristic deviations — like a poetic ode to the beautiful paper he prefers and a tangent about stairs that included a comical impression of former President Barack Obama’s energetic step-negotiating technique.

At the top of the speech, Trump encouraged the crowd to applaud, laugh, and react in any way they felt appropriate — drawing laughter when he threatened them with discipline after offering them the chance to walk out:

I’ve never walked into a room so silent before. This is very — don’t laugh! Don’t laugh, you’re not allowed to do that!

You know what, just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if want to do anything you want, you can do anything that you want.

And if don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes you future.

(LAUGHTER).

But you just feel nice and loose, okay, because we’re all on the same team. And I was told that, sir, you won’t hear — you won’t hear a murmur in the room. I said, we got to loosen these guys up a little bit. So you just have a good time.

There was no audible applause until the end of the speech, but several instances of scattered laughter.

According to pool reports from inside the event by Guardian News & Media Washington Bureau Chief David Smith, members of the crowd were at turns “expressionless” or “restless,” and greeted attacks on former President Joe Biden “with silence”:

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 10:12 AM

WH in-town travel pool report #6/ Audience color

POTUS’s audience comprises men and women of various ages wearing military uniforms and neat haircuts. They are much more still and quiet than he is accustomed to at political events or campaign rallies.
Pool can see several officers sitting in a row looking expressionless and inscrutable with few smiles. POTUS’s attacks on Joe Biden have been met with silence. Some of POTUS’s lines are eliciting polite ripples of laughter.

One man in a naval uniform is taking notes in a book. Another is rolling his head and looking restless as POTUS rails against the media.

After wrapping up the speech, Smith noted the “polite applause” was again accompanied by “expressionless” face:

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 10:43 AM
WH in-town travel pool report #8/ POTUS finishes speech

… POTUS finished speaking at 10.37am after 72 minutes. The audience rose and offered polite applause, faces still expressionless.

POTUS raised a hand as a military band played then left the stage.

Watch above via The White House.