US military officials are reportedly bracing for possible firings or demotions after the Trump administration’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, abruptly summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to attend a gathering in Virginia in the upcoming days.
The event, scheduled for Tuesday at Marine Corps University in Quantico, is expected to feature a short address by Hegseth focused on military standards and the “warrior ethos”, according to the Washington Post.
The order to attend the meeting, which has been described as unusual and unprecedentedwas reportedly issued with little explanation – and prompted military personnel stationed overseas to have to make last-minute travel arrangements.
The Pentagon has not disclosed details about the meeting or its agenda. But a senior Trump administration official told the New York Times on Friday that Hegseth intends to deliver a “rally the troops” message – and that one of the primary goals of the gathering is to “get our fighters excited” about the new posture of what was recently rebranded the Department of War.
A White House official told CNN that the event is intended as a “show of force of what the new military now looks like” during Donald Trump’s second presidency.
“It’s about getting the horses into the stable and whipping them into shape,” the military official familiar with the planning told CNN. “And the guys with the stars on their shoulders make for a better audience from an optics standpoint. This is a showcase for Hegseth to tell them: get on board, or potentially have your career shortened.”
Hegseth’s team reportedly plans to record and publicly release the address later, according to CNN, which cited three of its sources.
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the upcoming gathering to the Guardian, saying that Hegseth “will meet with his senior military leaders”, but did not provide any further details.
According to the Times, the Pentagon informed congressional committees overseeing the military on Friday that Hegseth intends to use the gathering to share with “most senior service members his intent for the department”, including new guidance on “military fitness standards and several other areas of interest”.
Sources cited by the Post say that Tuesday’s address will be the first of three short lectures by Hegseth. The second, the Post reported, will reportedly focus on the defense industrial base, and the third on deterrence.
The meeting has reportedly stirred unease and anxiety among some military officers, especially given Hegseth’s efforts to reshape the Pentagon and his recent firings of several senior officers.
In May, he ordered a 20% reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals across the military and a 10% cut in the number of flag and general officers. And in recent months, he has dismissed more than a dozen senior military officials, according to the Times.
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In an interview on Thursday on MSNBCretired army Lt Gen Mark Hertling described Tuesday’s planned gathering as highly unusual, adding that it was something he had “never seen before”.
“There are a couple of reasons why he might be calling this meeting,” Hertling said. “It could be about a shifting national security strategy, or cuts to the general officer corps, which is something he has talked about several times – he’s floated it, to shrink the number of flag officers in the military. It could be a preparation for a potential budget stalemate next week, or it could be concerns over information leaks.”
“Secretary Hegseth has fired 12 senior ranking general officers, so he could be firing more,” Hertling added. “Or is it performative theatre?”
In a post on social media on Friday, Lt Gen Ben Hodges of the army compared Tuesday’s gathering to a 1935 “surprise assembly in Berlin” where German generals were “required to swear a personal oath to the Führer”, Adolf Hitler, in the lead-up to the Holocaust and the second world war.
Hegseth, a former army national guard officer and ex-Fox News host, responded to Hodges by writing: “Cool story, General.”
