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Top American military brass looked on in silence Tuesday as they sat for an extensive lecture from US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who wants to be known as the Secretary of War, and their commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump.
The message from Hegseth is that the US military isn’t ready to fight in the way it needs to be and that he’s tired of seeing “fat generals” parading around the Pentagon.
But his demand that the military clean up and get more fit was less important than the new mission generals and admirals got from their commander-in-chief, who sees an invasion from within: American inner cities are “a big part of war now,” Trump said.
If the brass didn’t like it, they should leave the room, Trump said, apparently joking before issuing the warning: “Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future,” he said.
Hegseth made a similar point—and seemed quite serious. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said.
For the men at the top, the new “warrior ethos” comes with ultimatums.
President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, before speaking to a gathering of top military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, on Tuesday. – Evan Vucci/AP
That includes shaving. Hegseth convened the unprecedented all-stars meeting to reinvigorate the force and build up “the warrior ethos,” which he says has been smothered by diversity efforts and politics at the Pentagon.
There will be new grooming standards – no more beards – and a new “highest male standard” physical fitness requirements for combat roles.
“Climate change worship,” and “dudes in dresses,” are out, he said. A monthly Christian prayer service is in.
It’s 1990 all over again. The military should be thinking like it’s 1990, Hegseth said, and axing any changes since the pre-Internet era that weren’t “based on the evolving landscape of combat” but rather part of “a softening, weakening, or gender-based pursuit of other priorities.”
As part of this, Hegseth said everyone in the military will have to pass a fitness test twice a year, including generals and admirals – a requirement not previously enforced.
Throw out the rules? “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority of warfighters,” he said, expressing that all he ever wanted as a young platoon leader was to have his hands untied.
For the record, rules of engagement are dictated by the US Law of War and the Geneva Convention, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Retired Major Gen. Marilyn Quagliotti told CNN’s Erin Burnett that she does not necessarily have a problem with the concept of raising standards, but she was very worried about the idea of rejecting rules of engagement.
“Once you lose all discipline with an army, what you end up with is what we saw in Russia,” she said. “The American people do not want to see their army or their military act like that.” Russian forces have been accused of committing numerous atrocities, including in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Members of the military attend the meeting convened by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. – Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Women and ‘weak’ men. Hegseth has long been skeptical of placing women in combat roles and he expects that adding a physical fitness test will be a barrier to them. “So be it,” he told the generals. He’s also keen to weed out “weak men.”
It was “an unfortunate focus on a culture war when we should be focused on military readiness,” said Kyleanne Hunter, a retired Major and former Marine combat pilot who is now CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America.
The military had already been working to better prepare recruits, including with a pre-basic training camp for those who need help losing weight or meeting academic requirements, something that started before Trump took office and has been credited with helping the military meet recruitment goals.
‘Merit’ is a buzzword. Both Hegseth and Trump said that they would bring back a “meritocracy,” which they argued has been jeopardized by diversity in the service. They did not mention that merit can be in the eye of the beholder. Hegseth is a combat veteran who served in the Minnesota National Guard and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. But his job before confirmation as Secretary of Defense was as weekend morning show host on Fox News. He also wrote a book, “The War on Warriors,” which he name-checked in his speech.
Trump also discussed the idea of merit.
“Merit. Everything’s based on merit. You’re all based on merit. We’re not going to have somebody taking your place for political reasons because they are politically correct and you’re not,” he said. He did not mention that his efforts to cull the federal civilian bureaucracy have been conducted with an eye to replace a meritocracy with more people who agree with his politics.
Members of the National Guard patrol near the US Capitol on Wednesday. – Al Drago/Getty Images
American troops in American streets. But Trump’s most important comments had to do with his defense of using US troops on American streets – something that could violate various US laws and turn the country against itself. Trump has already called National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Portland. The Department of Homeland Security requested 100 National Guard members for support in Chicago despite the opposition of local officials.
Trump pointed the generals to the actions of previous presidents.
“George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, George Bush and others all used the armed forces to keep domestic order and peace,” Trump said, likely referring to the Whiskey Rebellion, Reconstruction or the Civil War, The Pullman Railcar Strike and the LA Riots.
Today, “America is under invasion from within,” he argued. “No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”
He is hoping to dispatch US troops to cities run by “radical left Democrats” around the country which he said would involve generals in the room.
“That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within,” Trump said, and cities are going to be “training grounds for our military,” although he qualified it would be the National Guard deploying.
On this front, he has already been testing US laws and traditions, which shy away from using the military inside the country. A federal judge ruled that his deployment of troops in Los Angeles around anti-ICE protests violated federal law. He’s on firmer ground to deploy the National Guard in Washington, DC, which is a federal city. But Trump wants troops in multiple other cities, regardless of what local officials say, to deal with either crime or anti-ICE protests.
Such a move – using the military in multiple cities nationwide to deal with law enforcement that falls well short of rioting – is unprecedented in US history. It would require the military to view fellow Americans, protesters, as the enemy in the same way Trump does, something generals in the audience will have to contemplate.
What kind of generals do Trump and Hegseth want? In case it wasn’t clear, Hegseth was explicit. Out with leaders like Gen. Mark Milley, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during Trump’s first term and drew the president’s ire in part because he opposed deploying American troops inside the US. In with generals like World War II hero Gen. George Patton.
Patton is long gone, but many in the audience have served with Milley. It may well have sounded like a warning about what happens when you cross Trump.
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