President Trump has decided he’s going to the last-minute global gathering of the nation’s top generals that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last week, he said Sunday, setting the stage for a highly unusual meeting between the commander in chief and top US military leaders.
Trump’s appearance at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia not only overshadows Hegseth’s planned address but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event, which has required some generals and admirals to travel thousands of miles. Trump cast the discussion largely as a pep talk.
“It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News. “We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.”
The comments came after The Washington Post reported earlier in the day that Trump was joining the event, whose creation caught senior military leaders by surprise last week.
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“We have confirmation from the White House that POTUS is now attending the speech on Tuesday,” states a planning document sent Saturday that was viewed by The Post.
Notice went out to offices around the Pentagon that the decision will “significantly change the security posture” of the speech, set for Tuesday morning at Marine Corps University.
The addition of the president at Quantico will now put the Secret Service in charge of securing the event. Hundreds of the military’s top commanding generals and admirals, ranked one star and above, along with their senior enlisted leaders were ordered to attend by Hegseth last week. The orders provided no reason for the event and initially raised concern among attendees and military officials that Hegseth was gathering the group to inform them of mass firings or demotions.
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Last week, the Post first reported that Hegseth was ordering all generals in command positions to Quantico to hear him speak for less than an hour about military standards and his vision for a “warrior ethos,” but the now expanded visit from the president could change that schedule – and add a more politicized tenor to the gathering.
“It’s the mother of all photo ops,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert at Yale Law School. The potential for the event to be politicized, and add to the politicization of the military, “is tremendously concerning and should be tremendously concerning to the American people.”
It is estimated that flying, lodging, and transporting all the military leaders – some of whom will be traveling from the Middle East, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific – will cost millions. The event has also raised security concerns about having all the top leadership in one place, particularly given that Tuesday is the end of the fiscal year, and if the government shuts down, it could leave key personnel stranded from their units.
Hegseth has committed to reducing the general officer corps by 20 percent and has fired without cause roughly two dozen senior officers – a disproportionate number of them female general or flag officers – since he was sworn in.
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Hegseth is seriously considering reducing the rank of the top commanding generals at several top posts from four to three stars and proposing a significant consolidation of the combatant commands, which are major regional headquarters focused on areas such as Africa, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, several officials familiar with that planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations, told the Post.
All of those moves come as the administration’s new national defense strategy is expected to significantly shift attention and resources from preparing for a conflict with China to sharply focus on homeland defense and military use at home.
On Saturday, Trump in a Truth Social post called for the Pentagon to send troops to what he deemed “War ravaged” Portland, Ore., authorizing them to use “Full Force” to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement sites that have drawn sporadic protesters. The order was not clear about whether he intended to send troops under federal control or activate troops under state control, but any deployment could be challenged in court. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said she doesn’t think Trump has the authority to deploy federal troops on state soil and is working with the attorney general on a potential response.
Trump’s deployment order also comes just days after he signed an executive order directing the nation’s law enforcement and military capabilities to be used against “domestic terrorism and organized political violence,” an edict that gives the administration sweeping powers to investigate and prosecute an array of political opponents.