Trump to attend gathering of top generals, upending last-minute plans [View all]

Source: Washington Post

September 28, 2025 at 10:32 a.m. EDT


President Donald Trump has decided he’s going to the last-minute global gathering of the nation’s top generals in Quantico, Virginia, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last week. Trump’s appearance not only upstages Hegseth’s plans, but adds new security concerns to the massive and nearly unprecedented military event.

“We have confirmation from the White House that POTUS is now attending the speech on Tuesday,” a planning document sent Saturday and viewed by The Washington Post states.

Notice went out to offices around the Pentagon that the decision will “significantly change the security posture” of the speech, set for Tuesday morning.

The addition of the president at Quantico will now put the Secret Service in charge of securing the event. Hundreds of the military’s top commanding generals and admirals, ranked one-star and above, along with their senior enlisted leaders were ordered to attend by Hegseth last week. The orders provided no reason for the event and initially raised concern among attendees and military officials that he was gathering the group to inform them of mass firings or demotions.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/09/28/trump-hegseth-speech-generals-quantico-security/