After a week of handwringing about the purpose of an unprecedented gathering of generals and admirals on Tuesday, the meeting in Quantico, Virginia, ended with standard fare from both President Donald Trump and his self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
During the largest single gathering of top military brass in memory — and perhaps ever — Hegseth began with an unhinged address filled with confusing contradictions, wild-eyed cheerleading, and politically charged rhetoric.
Trump followed with a long, rambling address that only sporadically touched on military topics. At one point the president, who has used the troops to quell protests and occupy American cities, warned the assembled military leadership of “a war from within.”
Three different defense officials who spoke with The Intercept called Trump’s speech “embarrassing.” The same defense officials took Hegseth to task for gathering the military’s top commanders from around the world for a rant little different than his social media posts. One called Hegseth’s address “garbage,” using a term the war secretary used during his speech. Another said: “We are diminished as a nation by both Hegseth and Trump.”
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
Trump used his address to take aim at cities he claimed “are run by the radical left Democrats,” including San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. “We’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” he said. “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.” He continued, “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
“We will be a fighting and winning machine,” Trump said during a stream-of-consciousness address that meandered from sleepy word salads to tirades about tariffs, President Barack Obama’s ability to quickly descend stairs, President Joe Biden and the autopen, the press, his own supposed prowess at ending wars, the odds he will win the Nobel Prize, and his hope that the U.S. will get back to building warships of a bygone era.
“I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships by the way,” he said. “I don’t think it’s old technology when you look at those guns. But it’s something we’re actually considering, the concept of battleship, nice six-inch side solid steel, not aluminum.” Trump then expressed his fandom of a television documentary from the 1950s: “I used to watch ‘Victory at Sea.’ I love ‘Victory at Sea.’”
“I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.”
Trump also repeatedly discussed nuclear weapons during the speech. “I rebuilt our nuclear,” he 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.” He continued: “I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.”
At one point, Trump claimed to be the 45th, 46th, and 47th president of the United States. Biden was actually the 46th.
“Listening to Donald Trump was deeply troubling and it is clear he is unfit for the role of commander in chief,” one of the defense officials told The Intercept, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Trump lectured our military leaders on his victimization and inability to let go of perceived past slights.”
“This is truly disturbing. He is clearly unwell even for Trump,” said a second defense official, who later referenced the 25th Amendment, which permits a president’s powers to be transferred to the vice president when the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet conclude that the commander-in-chief is incapable of performing their duties. “This is incredibly embarrassing for the United States.” He added: “Imagine sitting through this in person.”
Hegseth, stalking back and forth across the dais during his address, invoked Jesus’s golden rule to “do unto others” while threatening that those who challenge the United States will be “crushed with violence.” Hegseth continued: “In other words, to our enemies: FAFO,” Hegseth said, using an abbreviation for “fuck around, find out.”
He revealed that he had just sent an email to the assembled leaders containing 10 new Department of War directives. “They were written for you,” said Hegseth. “These directives are designed to take the monkey off your back.”
Hegseth said the Pentagon is reviewing its definitions of hazing, bullying and “toxic leadership.” While “nasty” bullying and hazing won’t be tolerated, he explained, the terms had been “weaponized.” Basic training is “being restored to what it should be: scary, tough, and disciplined. We’re empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits,” he said.
Hegseth focused heavily on lecturing the top brass about fitness and grooming standards. He pushed for rigorous physical qualifications for military personnel, acknowledging that they might disqualify some or even all women from combat. “When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”
“No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions.”
Hegseth pledged to fix “decades of decay” that had diminished what he repeatedly called the “Woke Department.” He took aim at “foolish and reckless politicians” while professing military subservience to civilian leadership. “No more political ideologies,” Hegseth commanded. He continued: “No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions.”
Hegseth took aim at what he called “the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage,” and advanced a “broken windows theory” that he said would restore the military to greatness.
“No more dudes in dresses,” Hegseth ranted. “We are done with that shit.” The clean-shaven secretary railed against troops with beards and long hair, saying that only members of the Special Operations forces would be allowed to flout standards. “No more beardos,” he decreed, taking aim at those whom he said looked like “nordic pagans.”
“You kill people and break things for a living,” said Hegseth toward the end of his remarks. “Move out and draw fire because we are the War Department.”
It was standard bluster by Hegseth, who had already come under fire for the expense of flying commanders from across the globe to Washington on the eve of a federal shutdown.
“Secretary Hegseth’s misogynistic lethality screed was disqualifying. His continued railing against women in combat roles shows his deep personal inadequacies,” said the first defense official. “It shocks the conscience to hear the Secretary of Defense — he is no warrior — endorse bullying and hazing of service members. How dare this former National Guard major lecture our military leaders on lethality when he’s focused solely on his own cult of personality.”
Two of the defense officials expressed shock to The Intercept at the cost and danger, in terms of operational security, of assembling the military’s top officers to listen to a rant. “He wants to talk about ‘garbage,’” one said, referencing the secretary’s use of the term. “That’s the definition of it.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., wrote to the Pentagon seeking details on the costs of Hegseth’s conclave, which brought about 800 general and flag officers to Quantico. With their enlisted advisers and aides, the number likely exceeded 1,000 personnel. She questioned what accounts would be used to cover the expenses and if a cost-benefit analysis of an in-person meeting versus a secure video conference was carried out.
Trump acknowledged the cost of the gathering as he boarded a helicopter to head to the Marine base at Quantico, but said it was worth it for a “great spiritizing.”
The Department of War did not reply to The Intercept’s own requests for details about the costs of the meeting.
Trump was met by silence as he began his address, a contrast from the applause he is used to at rallies and appeared to be uncomfortable. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” Trump said. “I was told that, ‘Sir, you won’t hear a murmur in the room.’” He continued: “If you want to applaud, you applaud.” After jokingly threatening to fire those who didn’t laugh at his jokes, the brass dutifully chuckled during some uncomfortable laugh lines.
Before heading to Quantico by helicopter, Trump threatened to fire any generals at the meeting who rubbed him the wrong way. “If I don’t like somebody, I’m going to fire them right on the spot,” he said.
Earlier this year, Hegseth ordered top Pentagon leadership to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20 percent across the military; reduce the number of general officers in the National Guard by 20 percent; and trim the total number of general and flag officers across the armed forces as a whole by 10 percent.
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the joint chiefs,” Hegseth said during a November 2024 interview on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” referring to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. “Any general that was involved, general, admiral, or whatever, that was involved in any of that DEI woke shit has got to go.”
After Hegseth was installed at the Pentagon, he made good on his threat. Brown, the United States’ highest-ranking military officer and a history-making Black fighter pilot, was fired in February, kicking off a monthslong purge of the upper ranks of the military.
Hegseth fired the Air Force’s and Army’s top judge advocates general, or JAGs, in February to avoid “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” The next month he commissioned his personal lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, as a Navy JAG and empowered him to help overhaul the JAG Corps, reportedly pursuing changes that would encourage lawyers to approve more aggressive tactics and take a more lenient approach to those who violate the law of war.
During his address on Tuesday, Hegseth railed against what he called “stupid rules of engagement.” He continued, “We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country.”
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