'People… have no idea what it means': Alarm raised by ‘weird’ military meeting

“Nothing good is likely coming out of this,” said one Democratic political scientist on Thursday regarding reports that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a meeting of hundreds of top military general and admirals in Quantico, Virginia next Tuesday.

The highly unusual summit was announced on short notice and no reason was given to military commanders and other leaders stationed in conflict zones, across Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region who are being required to leave their posts The order applies to “all senior officers with the rank of brigadier general or above,” The Washington Postreported. There are roughly 800 generals and admirals in the US military.

“You don’t call [general officers and flag officers] leading their people and the global force into an auditorium outside DC and not tell them why/what the topic or agenda is,” one person familiar with the matter told the Post.

Some sources told the newspaper that the order raises security concerns.

“Are we taking every general and flag officer out of the Pacific right now?” one person said. “All of it is weird.”

The directive comes months after Hegseth fired about 100 generals and admirals and a month after he dismissed top leaders of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Navy Reserve, and the Naval Special Warfare Command, without giving the officials reasons for their firing.

The DIA had found a few months earlier that Iran’s nuclear program had not been significantly damaged by US strikes, contradicting President Donald Trump’s claims.

The Pentagon has said there will likely be another 10% reduction of generals and admirals, and political consultant Joel Montfort noted that the right-wing policy blueprint Project 2025 “details a plan to remove senior leaders and consolidate power to loyalists” at the Department of Defense, which Hegseth has claimed is now called the Department of War.

“Are we taking every general and flag officer out of the Pacific right now? All of it is weird.”

“People are very concerned,” one official told the Post regarding the meeting. “They have no idea what it means.”

The Interceptreported that military sources it spoke to “speculated about the purpose, wondering if it might foretell a culling of general officers; a significant reorganization of the military command structure; a threat to eschew contact with the press; or a loyalty oath about putting Trump administration priorities above all else.”

“One source, somewhat in jest, evoked the phrase ‘coup d’état,’ later clarifying they meant a gutting of leaders who might question Trump’s policies,” reported the outlet.

Some other officials familiar with the matter told the Post that they believed the Trump administration’s desire to make “homeland defense the nation’s top concern,” rather than China, was likely to be discussed at the meeting.

The order also came a day after the Office of Management and Budget threatened a new round of mass firings at federal agencies unless Democrats in Congress agree to a funding bill to keep the government running before the October 1 deadline.

“This is either a meeting that could have been an email,” said Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America, “or something ominous.”