President Trump, Hegseth to address senior military leaders in rare meeting

President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are expected to address hundreds of generals and admirals Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia, in an unusual and urgent in-person meeting called by Hegseth last week. Hegseth is expected to speak at 8:15 a.m., ahead of Mr. Trump. 

The nation’s top military leaders from all over the world were summoned last week by Hegseth to travel to Virginia for a meeting with the defense secretary but were initially given no information about why. Two defense officials tell CBS News that Hegseth is expected to talk about the “warrior ethos.”

Senior military commanders meet regularly throughout the year in person, but a meeting of this magnitude with so little warning or indication about its purpose is rare, if not unprecedented. 

Hundreds of generals are assembling Tuesday as Hegseth prepares to dramatically reduce the number of top-level military leaders.

In May, Hegseth ordered a 10% reduction in the number of general officers and flag officers across the armed forces. Four-star generals and admirals are expected to be cut by 20%, according to a memo sent out by the defense secretary.

Hegseth described the goal as “removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions.”

In an interview with NBC News, the president said it would be “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.”

“We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps,'” Mr. Trump said in the NBC News phone interview. “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.”

The Quantico Marine Corps base is located in Virginia, about 35 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. It houses around 28,000, and as of January 2024, about 6,000 were Marines and 11,000 were civilians, as well as 5,500 contractors and around the same number of students. 

For the past 30 years, since 1995, the Quantico base has housed the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, which is tasked with conducting experiments in 21st-century warfare. The laboratory relies on war games and other experiments to come up with new tactics and technologies to improve the Marines’ war-fighting capabilities.