President Trump is gearing up to hold court at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s all-hands military meeting Tuesday.
The 79-year-old president’s appearance, first reported by Axios, adds much more scrutiny—and security presence–to what was already a controversial and expensive meeting.
“We have confirmation from the White House that POTUS is now attending the speech on Tuesday,” a planning document obtained by The Washington Post says.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, last week called U.S. generals stationed around the world to Quantico, Va. The highly-unusual order, which will cost the U.S. millions of dollars to bring the generals to the U.S. on short notice, sparked concerns that the U.S. was on the brink of a major military conflict. However, insider reports indicate that the meeting is essentially a photo-op.
Hegseth plans to video himself giving a speech on “warrior ethos” to the generals, because “the guys with the stars on their shoulders make for a better audience from an optics standpoint,” an insider told CNN.
News of the meeting also sparked comparisons to the Third Reich. Former U.S. general Ben Hodges tweeted, “July 1935 German generals were called to a surprise assembly in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the Weimar constitution was void and that they would be required to swear a personal oath to the Führer. Most generals took the new oath to keep their positions.”
Hegseth, 45, retorted, “Cool story, General.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Inside the department, there were worries that the meeting is a pretext for the Trump administration to exert its influence over the military.
“This is a showcase for Hegseth to tell them: get on board, or potentially have your career shortened,” a defense official told CNN on Friday.
The appearance of Trump, who allegedly dodged the Vietnam War draft five times, will do little to quell those concerns—though the president signaled he’s just popping in to tell the military about what a good job they’re doing.
“It’s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we’re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It’s just a good message,” he told NBC News over the phone.
“We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps.’ You know the expression ‘esprit de corps’? That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.”
Hegseth plans to release his speech. At the moment, it is unknown what Trump will do with his speech.
Regardless of whether the speech is a pep rally or a veiled threat, the Trump administration has already begun trying to shape the U.S. military and intelligence organizations to its image.
Hegseth and Trump have been calling the Department of Defense the “Department of War” based on an executive order giving the DoD a “secondary title.” Hegseth is attempting to eradicate so-called “DEI” in the military, with a focus on beards and female officers.
Meanwhile, the FBI is being sued by former senior officers who claim they were fired for failing loyalty tests to the president.
