Top military commanders gathered in Quantico, Va., on Tuesday to hear from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.News AnalysisTrump Gave the Military’s Brass a Rehashed Speech. Until Minute 44.
On an almost daily basis, thousands of words pour forth from the president’s mouth. Sometimes, he tucks in a wildly revealing insight about the direction he is taking the country.It was a speech unlike any other and just like every other.
The makings of it were strange and rare. Washington had raised a collective eyebrow last week when news began circulating that President Trump and his defense secretary had summoned the country’s military brass to a base in Virginia for an unexplained meeting.
The timing was notable. This summons had come just as the president had started to act with a new aggressiveness to carry out his long-held and oft-stated desire to send the military into U.S. cities, ostensibly to reduce crime.Several hundred military commanders turned up at Quantico on Tuesday morning.
Some had flown in for it from places as far away as Germany, Brussels, Japan and South Korea. They sat mostly in silence as Mr. Trump talked for 73 minutes about the same things he talks about almost every day, no matter where he is or to whom he is speaking.
He talked to the generals about Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the infamous autopen. He talked about the media. He talked about tariffs and the border. He talked about the time he went to a restaurant in Washington to eat dinner. He talked about not being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize he felt he had earned.
