Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.
The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. It was issued earlier this week, against the backdrop of a potential government shutdown, and as Hegseth’s overtly political moves have deepened a sense of distress among his opponents who fear that he is erasing the Defense Department’s status as a nonpartisan institution.
In a statement Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell affirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” but he offered no additional details. Parnell, a senior adviser to the defense secretary, voiced no security concerns about The Washington Post reporting on the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia.
It was not clear whether President Donald Trump will attend the meeting or if Hegseth had given the president advance notice of his plans. He told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon that he will go “if they want me.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... o-meeting/
I note I have no idea either, but the thread ought to exist.
I know very little about Hegseth. Wikipedia notes he reached the rank of Major. "He was barred from serving on duty at the inauguration of Joe Biden after a guardsman flagged Hegseth as an "insider threat", noting a tattoo on his biceps of the words Deus vult. He left the Individual Ready Reserve in January 2024, stating in his book The War on Warriors (2024) that he resigned over the incident." He failed to win a Republican primary for the United States Senate election in Minnesota in 2012. Ah - got there - he was a face on Fox News for ten years. Now I see why he's Secretary of War in Washington, it made no sense until that. Americans recognise him off the telly, just like they recognise President Trump.
