The hundreds of U.S. generals and admirals who have been ordered to attend an unusual meeting next week at a military base in Virginia are expected to hear a “rally the troops” message based on the war-fighter culture that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has sought to infuse into the Pentagon, a senior Trump administration official said on Friday.
One of the main goals of the gathering, which military officials and historians said was without precedent in size and scope, is to “get our fighters excited” about the new posture of the department, said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Mr. Hegseth and other top administration officials have not disclosed a rationale for the meeting, not even to the officers who have been summoned from all over the world. The secrecy has caused anxiety among the military’s top ranks at a time when Mr. Hegseth has fired several senior generals and admirals, many of them people of color and women.
One general said he had received “no info whatsoever” and had been told to just be there.
The senior administration official’s explanation fits with Mr. Hegseth’s top priorities as well his penchant for performative actions to shake up the Pentagon. Since taking office in January, the secretary, a former Fox News host, has focused much of his energy, in public speeches and on social media, on restoring a “warrior ethos” to the Defense Department, which he has said had been taken over by “woke,” diversity-obsessed ideologues.
The secretary has dispatched thousands of troops to help to stem the flow of migrants at the southern border; overseen the deployment of thousands of National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles and Washington to assist immigration efforts and combat crime; and, most recently, carried out President Trump’s orders to attack boats in the Caribbean that the administration says were carrying drugs to the United States.
Mr. Hegseth may also use the forum to preview a draft of a new national defense strategy for the Pentagon. The document, yet to be released, is reported to place homeland security, and defense of the Western Hemisphere, at the top of the priorities of what Mr. Trump is now calling the Department of War.
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