Trump makes off-the-cuff remark about ‘n-word’ as he rails against ‘woke’ military policies

The president reiterated his administration’s stance against DEI and defended military use in American cities, telling top generals, “We are under invasion from within. We’re stopping it very quickly.”

While delivering remarks to military leaders on Tuesday, President Donald Trump made an off-the-cuff remark about the n-word as he and Secretary Pete Hegseth urged the nation’s top generals and admirals that the newly renamed Department of War is putting an end to “woke” policies.

During his more than an hour-long speech before hundreds of top military officers, Trump touted that he “rebuilt” the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal.

“We have to hope we never have to use it, because the power of that is so incredible,” said Trump. The president continued, “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.”

Trump was notably accused of using the n-word more than once.

His nephew, Fred Trump III, alleged in a book published in 2024 that Donald Trump used the racist slur when implying that a Black person had vandalized his car. A spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 campaign called the allegation “completely fabricated.” That same year, a former producer of “The Apprentice” alleged that Trump referred to contestant Kwame Jackson as the n-word. In response at the time, Trump said, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have.”

The president and Secretary Hegseth also reiterated his administration’s stance against DEI and other “woke” military policies from previous administrations.

Before Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, Secretary Hegseth told military leaders, “An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that ‘Our diversity is our strength.’ …They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQI+ statements.”

Hegseth continued, “We became the woke department. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions…we are done with that s—t.”

Hegseth told any military general or admiral who disagreed with the Trump administration’s new stance on diversity to “do the honorable thing and resign.”

President Trump also defended his use of the military in American cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, which are majority Black and brown, and most recently, Portland. He also threatened to do the same in New Orleans, Chicago, Baltimore, and other cities.

“We are under invasion from within. We’re stopping it very quickly,” he said.

In response to President Trump’s remarks to military leaders, Black Veterans Project CEO and co-founder Richard Brookshire told theGrio, “‘Make no mistake, Trump’s casual bigotry should be the least of our worries as he sets the stage to hijack our military in order to wage war on American citizens.”

He added, “Calling detractors of his regime the ‘enemy within’ while delivering an incendiary speech aimed at intimidating our nation’s generals into political allegiance is a predictable step in Trump’s fascist, authoritarian playbook.”