Overview

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered roughly 800 generals and admirals, plus their senior enlisted advisers, to assemble at Marine Corps University in Quantico.
• President Donald Trump confirmed he will attend and speak at the event, with a planning memo indicating the Secret Service will secure the site.
• The Pentagon has offered few details beyond Hegseth’s planned message on military standards and a “warrior ethos,” with multiple outlets describing the session as a morale-focused pep talk.
• The Democracy Forward Foundation filed a FOIA request seeking the meeting’s purpose and risk assessments, and the ACLU pressed Congress to demand the agenda and conduct oversight.
• Current and former officials cite unprecedented scale, operational disruption, security vulnerabilities, and travel costs potentially in the millions as the meeting coincides with a government funding deadline.