Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to top generals was supposed to serve as a rallying cry for military exceptionalism — but it didn’t land that way with many of the people it was targeting.

Numerous defense officials — who watched senior brass scramble to Washington and then sit through a partisan speech from President Donald Trump and a return to old-school military standards by Hegseth — were left wondering why the event had occurred at all.

“More like a press conference than briefing the generals,” said one defense official, who, like others, was granted anonymity due to fears of retribution. “Could have been an email.”

The defense secretary and former Fox News host kicked off with a speech extolling the “warrior ethos,” and railing against what he called a “woke” culture at the Pentagon.

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"No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions,” he said. “We are done with that s***.”

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Hegseth, who has criticized the military for allowing women to serve in combat roles, said he is returning “every requirement for every designated combat arms position” to “the highest male standard.”

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“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” Trump said as he took the stage. “If you want to applaud, you applaud. ... If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room.”

In his remarks, which stretched over an hour, Trump vowed to make the military “stronger, tougher, faster, fiercer and more powerful than it has ever been” before moving on to an array of topics, including his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, the possibility of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state, former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen, his pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize, and his aesthetic assessment of U.S. warships.