President Donald Trump said Sunday he will attend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s gathering of military generals this week, according to a report from NBC.
The meeting, convened by Hegseth, is to discuss how the military is doing, Trump said.
“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,” Trump told NBC News in a phone call.
Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to report to Virginia to discuss grooming, standards and his vision of “warrior ethos,” or a more aggressive military. Nearly every general and admiral in the U.S. military, including many abroad, will be required to report to a military base in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday.
The unusual and logistically complicated meeting will be one of the only times such an assembly of senior military leaders has been in the same space.
“We have some great people coming in and it’s just an ‘esprit de corps,’” Trump told NBC. “That’s all it’s about. We’re talking about what we’re doing, what they’re doing, and how we’re doing.”
Hegseth is expected to deliver a speech at the meeting, and officials have said it will be recorded and potentially released publicly at a later date.
The White House recently said it has rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War; Hegseth was given the title Secretary of War.