Just a couple days ahead of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's planned major gather of hundreds of senior military officers near Washington on Tuesday, and President Trump has let it be known that he plans to be in attendance at the unusual confab.
He told NBC News Sunday, "It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message."
"We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing," he continued.
While no official explanation has yet to be given for why some 800 top commanders are being gathered - some traveling from bases across the globe, major media outlets in the US have been reporting it will merely be a big talk by Hegseth in maintaining "warrior ethos" and things like professional standards. It's also being reported as one big "rally the troops" meeting.
Speculation has abounded, but Trump's fresh words on maintaining proper military ethos while confirming that he plans to be there suggests Washington Post's initial reporting is indeed accurate.
However, there's been a high degree of controversy, given also that senior generals and admirals were not informed beforehand as to the content of the meeting, and official militar-wide messages related to discipline and standards are typically communicated via electronic messaging or secure teleconference.
The surprise decision for Trump to be there also of course adds major security concerns, on top of an already unprecedented situation of hundreds of high-ranking officers are being flown in from around the world.
MCB Quantico is about 30 minutes south of Washington D.C. - off I-35, and has several entrances and exits, and is home to significant government facilities like the FBI academy, the FBI lab, and HMX-1 Airbase.
Washington Post earlier noted that key Trump policies may have met with some resistance among top military ranks, and that Hegseth may intend to read them the riot act:
"Critics have argued that his policies have often not seemed aligned with lethality — core initiatives have included removing transgender service members, ordering new shaving standards military-wide and rebranding the Defense Department as 'the Department of War,' complete with new seals and signage marking the entrance to his offices at the Pentagon," WaPo said.
There have in the last months been some firings and reshufflings of top command posts by Hegseth, who dismissed Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Navy Reserve Chief Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, and Naval Special Warfare Command head Rear Adm. Milton Sands.
Was Trump not initially aware when it was first unveiled? Vance tries to do some damage control in an awkward moment...
The optics of the meeting will be interesting, and Hegseth plans to record and later make public his speech. There still remains the possibility that WaPo and CNN's reporting on it being about "warrior ethos" is flat wrong. Could this be war preparations in action? But things will soon become clear on Tuesday.