U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to assemble at a Marine Corps base in Virginia. No reason was given, sparking unease in military circles and in the press.
According to The Washington Post, a gathering of senior command on this scale is unprecedented: the directive involved more than 800 officers, and its suddenness coincided with the Trump administration’s plans to cut the number of senior commanders and overhaul the command structure.
“The Secretary of War will address the senior military leadership early next week,” Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. He provided no further details.
As The Washington Post reported earlier, this week Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of U.S. generals and admirals to convene urgently without explanation. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, according to the paper.
More than a dozen sources told the paper that the directive was sent to nearly all senior commanders worldwide—brigadier generals and above, their naval equivalents, and senior enlisted advisors. In total, it involves more than 800 generals and admirals. It remains unclear how many are required to attend in person.
The unexpected gathering has caused bewilderment and concern: in modern history there has been no case of a defense secretary convening such a large meeting of senior officers. It comes against the backdrop of Trump administration policies sharply reducing the number of senior commanders.
High-level military meetings are held regularly: commanders of unified commands and service chiefs gather in Washington twice a year, sometimes joining the president for working dinners. In 2020–2021, when COVID-19 restrictions were in place, such meetings were conducted remotely over secure channels. A personal gathering of this scale in one location, however, is rare. The timing is also unusual: events of this kind are typically planned months in advance, since some participants travel from Europe, Africa, or the Middle East.
On Thursday, President Trump sought to downplay the significance of the upcoming meeting, saying from the Oval Office: “Why is this such big news? Isn’t it wonderful that people are coming together from all over the world?” Vice President Vance also dismissed the discussion as overblown: “This is not unusual at all—it’s strange that you’ve turned it into a story.”
Even so, Greg Williams, director of the Military Information Center at the Project on Government Oversight, called the meeting “unprecedented” in scale. “The question is why Hegseth convened it so suddenly and demanded so many attend in person,” he said. Such gatherings, he argued, carry security risks, divert attention from ongoing operations, and create vulnerabilities when so much of the military leadership is concentrated in one place.
The meeting comes shortly after Hegseth ordered a 20 percent reduction in the number of generals as part of a review of U.S. global force posture. It also follows a series of dismissals in which the Trump administration this year removed several senior military leaders.