{"id":176013,"date":"2025-09-28T19:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T19:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/176013\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T19:30:09","slug":"trump-plans-to-attend-gathering-of-senior-military-officials-in-virginia-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/176013\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump plans to attend gathering of senior military officials in Virginia next week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n President Donald Trump plans to attend a surprise gathering of top generals and admirals this week, two sources familiar with the matter said, adding a new dynamic to a meeting that\u2019s been described as a \u201cpep rally\u201d for top military brass.\n <\/p>\n

\n The gathering, set for Tuesday in Virginia, was originally intended as a way for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to describe the administration\u2019s reinvention of the Department of Defense as the \u201cDepartment of War\u201d and outline new standards for military personnel, according to half a dozen people familiar with the planning.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump described the gathering as an \u201cesprit de corps\u201d in a phone interview with NBC News on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we\u2019re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It\u2019s just a good message,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe have some great people coming in and it\u2019s just an \u2018esprit de corps.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When Trump was first asked about the meeting last week, he appeared to know little about it. He suggested it was meant as a showcase for new weaponry.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, Trump plans to attend in person. It will come days after he ordered US forces into Portland to protect immigration officers in the Oregon city, and as he ratchets up his use of the military to combat what he calls domestic terrorism.\n <\/p>\n

\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Trump\u2019s plan to attend, which was first reported<\/a> by The Washington Post.\n <\/p>\n

\n As of Friday, there were no plans for Hegseth to make a major national security-related announcement as part of the meeting, sources said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instead, the event is meant \u201cto be a show of force of what the new military now looks like under the president,\u201d a White House official told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The idea for the meeting originated with Hegseth, who later let the White House know about the plans, sources said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Several of the sources CNN spoke to on Friday expressed concerns about the cost of getting hundreds of generals and admirals and their aides to Virginia on such short notice. The cost of plane tickets alone will likely be in the millions of dollars, the sources said. They were even more baffled about why they needed to be there in person when they learned on Sunday that Hegseth\u2019s remarks will be live streamed.\n <\/p>\n

\n The meeting is expected to resemble \u201ca pep rally\u201d where Hegseth will underscore the importance of the \u201cwarrior ethos\u201d and outline a new vision for the US military, said three of the sources. He is expected to discuss new readiness, fitness and grooming standards the officers are expected to adhere to and enforce.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has long touted his push to strengthen the US military, including by increasing Pentagon spending.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump plans to attend a surprise gathering of top generals and admirals this week, two sources…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-176013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}