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Never had so many admirals and generals been summoned from Europe, Asia and the Middle East to a single military base. Because such a gathering has no apparent modern precedent, you would think that the event Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia, was for a good reason. But that wasn’t the case.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to fly in more than 800 of the United States’ most senior military officers to sit through two hours of banal, rambling speeches reflects how far the Pentagon has come in eight months of this administration, becoming subject to President Donald Trump’s politics and the idea that troops should be used at home.
The military was once again used as a backdrop for Trump’s ongoing clashes in America’s culture wars. What played out was largely a political-rally performance in front of service members who, by rule, aren’t allowed to engage in partisan activities.
Instead of hearing about a key strategic military shift or department restructuring, Hegseth informed them about the administration’s plans to tighten fitness and grooming standards, before Trump delivered an hour’s worth of gripes and ruminations on political life that included taking potshots at his immediate predecessor.
Appearing in front of a large American flag display, Patton-style, Trump was surprised when the military officers greeted him with silence rather than uproarious applause. “I never walked into a room so silent before,” he said. “Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. You’re not allowed to do that. Just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want, you can do anything that you want. And if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank. There goes your future. But you just feel nice and loose, OK, because we’re all on the same team.”
It was delivered as a joke — one of many the president made that drew uncomfortable laughter over the course of his address — but Trump has pressure-tested the military’s apolitical posture. He did it this year in a speech to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and he did it repeatedly Tuesday.
He criticized President Joe Biden, taking an unusual swipe at a former commander in chief in front of U.S. forces. He doubled down on rancor when he claimed the United States faced “a war from within.” Cities led by “radical left Democrats,” he said, are unsafe places. “We’re going to straighten them out one by one,” he said. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too.”
Trump’s inclination to use military forces in blue parts of the country has quickly become a defining characteristic of his second term. Rather than the usual practice of deploying U.S. forces into communities confronting an emergency or natural disaster, Trump sees them as a means to establish law and order. He’s already sent the National Guard into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and on Tuesday he suggested they were going into Chicago “very soon.”
These U.S. cities, he said, should be used as “training grounds” for the troops.
In his address, Hegseth criticized the “stupid rules of engagement,” that he claimed constrained soldiers in combat. This could mean that military lawyers are reevaluating what actions are permissible on the battlefield, but he stopped short of detailing what changes were occurring.
It’s hard to believe, given that his speech ran nearly an hour, but outside of suggestions along these lines, there might not have been a single new piece of information that was relayed to the hundreds of officers compelled to attend the meeting, the total cost of which will probably never be publicly disclosed.
Instead, Hegseth spoke at length about the urgent need for U.S. service members to maintain clean-shaven faces, conduct daily workouts and execute physical fitness tests twice a year.
“Unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refused to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards,” he said. “Both are unacceptable. And that’s why today, at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over. No more beardos. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done.”
He described how he was fed up with “fat troops” and “fat generals and admirals.” Equally important, he continued, was the elimination of political correctness and “woke garbage” within the ranks. Hegseth punctuated this point by defending his decision to fire more than a dozen military leaders, many of whom happen to be women or people of color.
While the senior officers managed to keep silent for much of this meeting, Trump is expected to continue to test the military’s nonpartisanship during future on-base appearances. Service members will be tested to hold true to its apolitical tradition — a responsibility that could be as consequential as any they might find while in uniform.
W.J. Hennigan writes for the New York Times.