Jesse Kelly, a conservative commentator, Marine combat vet, and host of his own talk radio and streaming network shows, did not hold back his disdain for the direction the U.S. military is heading, compliments of our most senior leaders, most of whom appear to be more interested in transgender issues and climate change than building and maintaining the world’s greatest fighting force.

And at a time when the world is becoming far more dangerous.

Kelly’s criticisms came late last week during an interview last week with Tucker Carlson after the Fox News host introduced the segment by playing a clip of U.S. Navy Adm. Christopher Grady during Senate confirmation hearings to become the vice-chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (spoiler alert: he was confirmed).

“China’s breakout is indeed … spectacular and indeed, breathtaking,” Grady told senators at one point in the confirmation hearings. “Therefore, we need to be postured to address that issue, need to think about how we would proceed with deterrence, particularly deterrence now against two peer competitors, and who need to be deterred in two different ways.

“And deterrence then, I think, builds on that strong nuclear triad that we just talked about. And so the modernization of the nuclear triad will be the underpinning of that deterrence effort against two nuclear competitors,” he added.

Fair enough. But the clip Carlson played showed Grady struggling to explain to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., how he would handle ‘gender issues’ (it would have been great if a GOP senator would have asked Shaheen to explain why that issue is more important than, say, fighting spirit and fighting capabilities since that is what the military’s primary mission is — to fight and win our wars).

“The role of a gender adviser is a way to attack a very significant issue,” Grady said. “And if confirmed, I look forward to leveraging those advisers who can make me think better and smarter about the issues that you raise. So I look forward to, if confirmed, to understanding that ecosystem and helping advance that cause going forward.”

Brother. The admiral’s stammering indicates that was probably the last question he wanted to answer and to be fair to him, ‘gender issues’ are probably not top of mind for him, considering the very real challenges America faces from Russia and, more importantly, China.

But he had to answer — and as vice-chair, he’ll have to implement the policies that Biden’s rainbow coalition of military policy chiefs will impose on him. That includes dealing with rules that degrade military readiness in favor of social experimentation.

After Carlson ridiculed Grady and his answer, he brought in Kelly, who fired with both barrels.

“China, right now, and Russia, they’re both testing hypersonic missiles that can turn New York City into ash. Russia is developing, has developed, satellites than can push our satellites out of orbit and completely cripple our military,” Kelly began.

“Our military, though, they’re focused on the important things we wanna focus on — climate change, and we definitely have to make sure there are enough tampons in the restrooms at the Pentagon,” Kelly lamented.

Carlson responded by noting it appears that the Pentagon brass is refusing to deal with real threats and instead wants to focus on “imaginary issues to make [them] feel in control.”

Kelly agreed, adding, “What we’re watching is the destruction of the U.S. military — and what we’re gonna end up seeing…is thousands, tens of thousands of, maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans die.

“Those are the stakes of the game we’re playing here,” he continued before dropping a massive bomb on the Biden Pentagon’s ‘wokeness.’

“We don’t need a military that’s woman-friendly, we don’t need a military that’s gay friendly, well all due respect to the Air Force,” he quipped (that’s military humor — a diss of the Air Force — for you non-vets). “We need a military that’s flat-out hostile. We need a military that’s full of Type A men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls. But we don’t have that now. We can’t even get women off of naval vessels. That should be step one, but most of them are already pregnant.”