Washington DC - President Donald Trump was reportedly not happy about the disappointing turnout for his recent military parade, and placed the blame on his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In a interview with the Daily Beast Podcast, award-winning journalist Michael Wolff, who has penned numerous books about Trump, claimed the president was "p***ed off at the soldiers" in the parade, who appeared to be enjoying themselves instead of looking "menacing."

"He's accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face," Wolff explained.

The parade over the weekend, which also fell on the president's 78th birthday, was supposed to celebrate the 250-year anniversary of the US military, but Trump blamed Hegseth for it not conveying the message that he is "commander in chief of this menacing enterprise."

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"He kind of reamed out Hegseth for this," Wolff claimed. "Apparently, there was a phone call, and he said to Hegseth, 'The tone was all wrong. Why was the tone wrong? Who staged this?'"

Despite a noticeably light turnout to the multi-million dollar event, Trump has since called the parade a "tremendous" success, and claimed without evidence that over 250,000 people came out. Wolff reckoned it was more like 40,000.

To make his birthday even more disappointing, the parade was largely overshadowed by massive "No Kings" demonstrations taking place across the nation on the same day, with millions of Americans taking to the streets to protest his authoritarian agenda.

In response to Wolff's claims, Trump's White House told the Daily Beast that he is "a lying sack of s***" who "has been proven to be a fraud."

"He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain," communications director Steven Cheung added.