WP Exclusive
Trump to attend gathering of top generals, upending last-minute plans
Hundreds of top military officers and staff have been summoned to Virginia on short notice for a speech by Pete Hegseth. Trump decided this weekend to attend the meeting, adding new security concerns.
WP September 28, 2025
President Donald Trump has decided he’s going to the last-minute global gathering of the nation’s top generals in Quantico, Virginia, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last week.
Trump’s appearance not only upstages Hegseth’s plans but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event.
“We have confirmation from the White House that POTUS is now attending the speech on Tuesday,” according to a planning document sent Saturday that was viewed by The Washington 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.
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 he was gathering the group to inform them of mass firings or demotions.
Last week, The Post first reported that Hegseth was ordering all of the 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.
The Washington Post wants to hear from Defense Department civilians and service members about changes within the Pentagon and throughout the U.S. military.
“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 the cost of flying, lodging and transporting all of the military leaders — some of whom will be traveling from the Middle East, Europe and the Indo-Pacific — will be in the millions of dollars. 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.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the president’s travel for Tuesday’s speech.
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.
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 away 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, Oregon, authorizing them to use “Full Force” to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement sites that have drawn sporadic protesters. The order was not clear as to whether he intended to send troops under federal control or activate troops under state control, but any deployment could be challenged in court. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) said she doesn’t believe 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 a broad array of political opponents.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Pete Hegseth will be addressing his senior military leaders
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week, according to the Pentagon © AP
Steff Chávez in Washington FT 26-09-2025
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has sparked widespread concern among defence experts and military officers with an abrupt decision to summon hundreds of generals and admirals to Virginia next week.
The highly unusual meeting has been shrouded in mystery and intrigue given the invitees are unclear of the agenda.
It has also prompted alarm over the risks to active operations and the military’s ability to respond to any attacks that come with calling so many senior officers away from their commands simultaneously.
Hundreds of general and flag officers — generals and admirals with one to four stars — have been ordered to assemble in Virginia, along with their top enlisted advisers, according to a US defence official. There were 838 active duty general and flag officers — including 446 of the higher-ranking two-, three- and four-stars — as of June, according to the Pentagon, though the exact number called for Hegseth’s meeting was unclear.
Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week”, said chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. The Pentagon did not give any more details about the meeting, which was first reported by the Washington Post.
A congressional aide said: “We understand this will be like a pep rally to talk culture.”
“I’m hearing it’s a flex by [Hegseth], showing he can call them all to heel,” said Kori Schake, a former director for defence strategy on the National Security Council, now at the American Enterprise Institute.
“Since it’s all commanders and their sergeants major, it’s likelier about the secretary’s obsession with a warrior ethos and grooming standards” than strategy, she added.
Other theories for its purpose range from the unveiling of the highly anticipated national defence strategy, to a demand for loyalty to President Donald Trump or a purge of the military’s top ranks, according to former defence officials.
After lawmakers on Capitol Hill asked for details about the September 30 meeting, the Pentagon wrote to Congress to say Hegseth “will use this engagement to provide DoD’s most senior service members his intent for the department”, according to the congressional aide.
He also intends to give the gathered officers guidance about implementing equal opportunity reform, fitness standards and other topics. The Pentagon also told lawmakers the meeting would have no effect on current operations or disrupt the armed forces.
Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of US Army Europe, wrote on X on Friday that in “July 1935 German generals were called to a surprise assembly in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the Weimar constitution was void and that they would be required to swear a personal oath to the Führer. Most generals took the new oath to keep their positions.”
A couple of hours later, Hegseth responded: “cool story, general”.
The meeting was “reckless” and “obviously extremely dramatic”, said Michael O’Hanlon, a defence strategy expert at the Brookings Institution think-tank who served on the Pentagon’s defence policy board.
Mark Cancian, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said: “I think a big thing is that [Hegseth] is going to exhort his senior officers . . . tell them that he expects loyalty” and for “them to carry out the president’s programme, without dissension and that if they can’t do that, they should retire.”
Such a meeting would “be very uncomfortable for the senior officers, because on the one hand, they swore an oath to the constitution [and] on the other hand, they are under the command” of the president, Cancian added.
The meeting comes after Hegseth in May ordered a 20 per cent reduction in four-star generals and a 10 per cent cut in all general and flag officers.
The Trump administration has also fired 14 top military officers during the president’s second term as part of a wider national security purge.
Hegseth has sacked the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General CQ Brown, chief of naval operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and coastguard commandant Admiral Linda Fagan.
The administration also fired General Timothy Haugh, the National Security Agency director, and his deputy, along with Defense Intelligence Agency director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse.
The gathering was “jeopardising the potential for proper command and control when you have no idea if a crisis will erupt, and now our potential adversaries have five days to plan whatever shenanigans they may want to attempt”, said O’Hanlon, though he was not predicting an attack would occur.
As for the meeting itself, “it seems like theatre more than anything else”, he added.
US vice-president JD Vance dismissed the hype over the meeting on Thursday, saying, “It’s not particularly unusual that generals . . . are coming to speak with” Hegseth. Next to him, Trump wondered, “is it a big story?”
While combatant commanders come to Washington twice a year, this particular meeting was “very unusual”, said Cancian. The size, limited preparation time and lack of set agenda made it “unprecedented”.
The meeting could be about the national defence strategy, which is widely expected to be released soon and to shift the priority to the homeland and western hemisphere and away from China and Russia. Hegseth could also talk about organisational changes such as combining the European and Africa commands.
One former defence official said pulling so many senior officers away from their duties highlighted a “growing frustration” among the military’s senior leaders that “red tape and inefficiency is getting worse”, despite the administration’s goal to slash bureaucracy.
