Overview

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered an extraordinary assembly of senior officers at Marine Base Quantico, with media counts ranging from several hundred to more than 800 generals and admirals.
• Addressing the officers, President Trump labeled undocumented immigrants, the press and political opponents as an “enemy of the interior,” threatened to fire generals he dislikes, and suggested using U.S. cities as military “training grounds.”
• Hegseth pledged to end what he called “woke” policies, requiring short hair and clean-shaven grooming and instituting tougher, gender-neutral fitness standards as part of a revived “warrior ethos.”
• He said revised rules of engagement will prioritize “maximum lethality,” granting troops “carte blanche” to intimidate, track and kill enemies, while criticizing Pentagon oversight and prior constraints.
• Officials provided no clear rationale for the costly convocation, reported to run into millions for last‑minute travel, as the event intensified concerns over politicization following leadership purges, a “Ministry of War” rebrand, and domestic troop deployments.