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Hegseth's abrupt military meeting stokes anxieties
Defense &
National Security
Defense &
National Security
The Big Story
Hegseth's abrupt military meeting stokes anxieties
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will meet with top military leaders next week following a report that the rare gathering will include hundreds of generals and admirals.
© Greg Nash
“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Hill, offering no additional details.
The Washington Post first reported that Hegseth earlier this week ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice and without a stated reason. The meeting is expected to take place on Tuesday at a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., according to the Post.
More than a dozen people familiar with the matter told the outlet that the directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide — all senior officers with the rank of brigadier general or above, their Navy equivalent and their top enlisted advisers — more than 800 generals or admirals. It’s not clear how many had been ordered to attend the gathering in person.
The unexpected confab has created confusion and alarm, as there has not been a Defense secretary in recent history who has ordered such a large number of the military’s top officers to gather like this, and it comes at a time when the Trump administration has taken an axe to the senior ranks.
Meetings of top military officials are not unusual; four-star combatant commanders and the heads of the armed services typically meet at least twice a year in Washington, D.C., a confab that often includes a working dinner with the sitting president. In 2020 and 2021, with restrictions on in-person meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, military leaders relied on secure communications to meet remotely.
It is very rare, however, for such a large meeting of top officers to be in person in one location. The fast timing is also unusual. Such a gathering with senior leadership would typically take months to plan and prior notice would have to be given well in advance, as officers could be coming from the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
President Trump on Thursday downplayed the sudden meeting but claimed not........
© The Hill
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