Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will give his “State of the Force” speech on Wednesday at the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Va., reprising a session last September in which he berated more than 800 generals and admirals about the need to slim down and to be more “lethal.”
The gathering will in some ways be a lesser version of last year’s production, which included an appearance by President Trump. This time, the generals and admirals have been replaced with lower-ranked troops, and Mr. Trump is not scheduled to attend.
Mr. Hegseth is facing precarious times. He is the public face of the Trump administration’s deeply unpopular war against Iran. Thousands of Iranians and 18 U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict, which the United States and Israel started seven months ago. In one incident at the start of the war, more than 175 civilians, many of them children, were killed when a U.S. airstrike hit a school in southern Iran.
Despite the Trump administration’s claims to the contrary, Iran has retained its ballistic missile and drone capability, and its leadership has vowed never to give up its civilian nuclear program. As Iran’s fighting skills have evolved, the U.S. military burned through its munitions.
As gas prices rise because of the conflict, U.S. voters have grown more frustrated ahead of the midterm elections.
Mr. Hegseth has also not been able to get a Pentagon budget request for more funding approved. In addition, a Republican congressman is leading a drive to impeach Mr. Hegseth. He also does not have Senate-confirmed leaders to head the Army, the country’s biggest military service.
The Pentagon has been secretive about what Mr. Hegseth will say on Wednesday. Last year’s speech was greeted by stone-faced generals and admirals who made sure not to cheer, per the norms of a nonpartisan military.
“Last year’s Quantico event was a tough test for the military,” said Peter D. Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who has studied the military for decades.
“The president gave a campaign rally speech full of partisan applause lines, and the secretary gave a speech full of critique of his predecessor’s policies,” Mr. Feaver said. “But the senior officers listened respectfully and quietly, making it clear by their decorum that they were nonpartisan and yet prepared to carry out all lawful orders even if it meant a change in policy direction.”
The defense secretary, who calls himself the “secretary of war,” has embraced his own brand of public showmanship leading the country’s more than 2 million active duty and reserve troops.
That was on display Wednesday morning, as he worked out with some 600 troops, according to a social media post from a Pentagon account.
“It is great to see some great Americans on this beautiful morning,” Mr. Hegseth, clad in gray Department of War T-shirt, shouted at the similarly dressed troops. “Welcome to PT at the Pentagon, how ’bout we call it that?”
The post included clips of Mr. Hegseth doing push-ups and running around the Pentagon grounds with selected service members.
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