Hundreds of U.S. generals and admirals from around the globe are gathering at a military base in Virginia on Tuesday morning for a highly unusual meeting with President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
When Mr. Hegseth summoned the senior officers last week, he gave no reason for the meeting, which has no precedent in scope and scale in recent memory. The military leaders were told to expect a speech from the secretary heralding a war-fighter culture he has championed since taking office, but they were given little other information.
The event took a new twist on Sunday when Mr. Trump said he would attend. That raised alarm among military specialists over his tendency as commander in chief to use U.S. troops as political props and visits to bases as an occasion to bash his political rivals, liberals and the news media. During a speech at Fort Bragg, N.C., in June, Mr. Trump led troops to boo journalists and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
It was unclear what Mr. Trump will say or do on Tuesday at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., south of Washington. Mr. Trump has sought to downplay the gathering, telling NBC News on Sunday, “It’s just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily.”
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has ordered National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles, Washington and Portland, Ore., over the objections of local political leaders, to assist immigration efforts and combat crime. He has also directed the military to attack boats in the Caribbean that he says were carrying drugs to the United States, but he has offered no detailed legal justification.
Even before Mr. Trump announced he would attend, Mr. Hegseth’s order to drop everything and show up had stirred anxiety and concern among the military’s top ranks. It comes in a period when the defense secretary has fired more than a dozen senior officers, many of them people of color. Mr. Hegseth is also expected to announce a reduction in the number of commands led by three- and four-star officers, effectively thinning out those top ranks.
There are about 800 general-level officers in the armed forces, including 44 at the most senior, four-star level. Not all will attend on Tuesday, but most of those who will appear are in command jobs, and they will be accompanied by their senior enlisted personnel advisers.
The top four-star combatant commanders and Joint Chiefs of Staff typically meet at least twice a year in Washington, often holding a working dinner with the president. But the large number of lower-ranking generals and admirals at this meeting — including many working in active conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and Europe — is without precedent in recent memory, military officials said.
Democratic lawmakers and military specialists have questioned the cost and disruption to daily operations caused by the meeting, as well as the security risks of concentrating so many military brass in one place. All, it appeared, for Mr. Hegseth to be able to lecture military leaders with decades of combat experience on an enhanced “warrior ethos” in a forum that will be televised live.
“It appears to be one more demonstration of Secretary Hegseth mistakenly believing our military leadership needs to be directed to focus on fighting wars,” said Kori Schake, a former defense official in the George W. Bush administration who directs foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.