The defense secretary has ordered hundreds of top military officials to fly to Virginia without providing an official purpose for the gathering.
Hundreds of the U.S. military’s top generals will gather on Tuesday for a rare in-person meeting called by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. On Sunday, President Trump said he will also be attending.
Hegseth sent an order last week instructing all military officials with a rank of one-star general or rear admiral or higher — a group that includes an estimated 800 or so people — to come to Virginia. The order did not describe a specific purpose for the gathering. According to media reports, such a step is highly unusual, given the logistical effort required to have some of the military’s most important commanders travel from all parts of the world with only a few days’ notice and the military’s ability to hold secure meetings remotely.
What is the meeting for?
As of Monday afternoon, there hasn’t been an official statement on the purpose of the meeting. Last week, the Washington Post reported that Hegseth intended to use it as an opportunity to lecture top military brass on the “warrior ethos” he wants to infuse throughout the American armed forces. The discussion will reportedly include a rundown of new standards Hegseth expects the military to operate under in furtherance of that goal.
A separate report from CNN described the meeting as “a pep rally” where Hegseth could underscore the importance of the warrior ethos to military leaders. An unnamed senior official told the New York Times that the goal of the meeting was to “get our fighters excited” about the department’s new direction.
Though the meeting itself is unique, the message has been a core focus for Hegseth since he became defense secretary. While the term doesn’t have a specific definition, warrior ethos is generally used to describe a mentality of dedication and boldness in the military’s approach to fighting and winning wars. Before taking office, Hegseth pledged to “bring the warrior ethos” to the U.S. military and talked frequently about “putting lethality back at the center” of the Defense Department’s mission.
“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,” Trump told NBC News on Sunday. “It’s just a good message.”
When news of the meeting initially broke, some military insiders told media outlets there was concern that Hegseth may use the gathering as an opportunity to carry out mass firings at the top ranks of the armed forces.
Hegseth has reportedly instructed the Pentagon to slash the number of four-star generals and admirals by 20% and to carry out similar reductions at other levels of military leadership. Last month, he fired several high-profile military officials. Those cuts included the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency as well as the heads of the Navy Reserve and Naval Special Warfare Command. No explanation was provided for why they were removed from their positions.
Hegseth’s controversial tenure
Ordering top generals to travel thousands of miles for an in-person meeting is far from the only way that Hegseth has broken from the mold set by his predecessors. The former Fox News host has made it a priority to overcome “wokeness” in the military and promote toughness among the troops.
Some of the initiatives he has pursued to achieve those goals include ordering all transgender troops to be removed from the military, launching a campaign to purge books and online content that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from military libraries and websites, reversing a decision to rename a base that had carried the name of a Confederate general, canceling studies on the national security implications of climate change and promoting Trump’s effort to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War.