Elaina Batista, Asst. Social Media Editor
On Sept. 30, 2025, hundreds of the nation’s highest-ranking military commanders were called to the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, VA, for a meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, without being told the reason in advance.
Commanders traveled in from around the world, including Honolulu, headquarters of Indo-Pacific Command and Stuttgart, home to European Command, all using military and commercial flights – a cost running into millions of dollars. The event itself was about 90 minutes, and some current and former defense officials feared the security risk of hosting nearly all of America’s top officers in the same room.
“It’s also an inexcusable strategic risk to concentrate so many leaders in the operational chain of command in the same publicly known time and place, to convey an inane message of little merit,” one former senior defense official said in a report from Politico.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promoted the new name of the department (the Department of War) and attacked “toxic leaders,” who he accused of lowering standards to make the Defense Department the “woke department.” Hegseth then stated that he will be introducing 10 new directives involving physical fitness, new grooming requirements and a return to “the highest male standard” for combat positions.
Hesgeth proceeded to comment on what he claimed to be “fat generals”.
“It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the world. It’s a bad look,” Hegseth said, as reported by Politico.
“Simply put, if you do not meet the male level physical standards for combat positions, cannot pass a PT test or don’t want to shave and look professional, it’s time for a new position or a new profession,” Hegseth continued in the meeting.
President Trump’s portion of the event included topics such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico, denouncing unauthorized immigrants and criticizing diversity, equity and inclusion. He also mocked “sleepy Joe Biden” and “radical left lunatics” while promoting his administration’s policies. He then floated the idea of using American cities as “training grounds” from the military and to “handle” the “enemy from within … before it gets out of control,” per Politico.
Nonetheless, Trump stated that his administration would be committing $1 trillion in 2026 for the military. He also repeatedly discussed nuclear weapons during his speech.
“I rebuilt our nuclear,” Trump said. “I moved a submarine or two, I won’t say about the two, over to the coast of Russia just to be careful, because we can’t let people throw around that word…I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.”
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), an Army veteran who served in Iraq took to X and posted, “Deploying US troops against US citizens in American cities isn’t just unprecedented and unconstitutional – it’s UNAMERICAN. Every freedom-loving American Patriot, regardless of their political party, must speak up NOW.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) called the resources used for the meeting “totally unjustified,” and an “exercise in chest thumping”. However, on the other side of the aisle, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), said that “there needs to be more warfighter training,” claiming that the US doesn’t do enough flying training. He was in favor of the talking points in Trump’s speech.
According to multiple officials who spoke to ABC News, 200 to 250 National Guard soldiers in Portland, Oregon, started reporting for duty on Wednesday and receiving basic military training on how to handle civil unrest in the Democratic-run city. There were no talks about how to deal with China or how to manage the war in Ukraine and Gaza.