At a rare gathering of top generals and admirals in Quantico, Va., President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled a sweeping — and highly political — plan to reshape the U.S. military.
For nearly 90 minutes, the two mixed policy with theater: railing against “wokeness,” blasting what they called a culture of weakness, and promising changes they said would restore discipline and make the force more “lethal.”
Hegseth also delivered a warning for adversaries: “To our enemies: FAFO,” he said, using an acronym that translates to “F*ck around and find out.” “If necessary, our troops can translate that for you,” he said.
But if they were expecting applause, they didn’t get it. Hundreds of officers, summoned from around the world, sat mostly stone-faced — a stark contrast to the raucous cheers Trump drew from rank-and-file soldiers at Fort Bragg this summer. At one point, Trump even broke the silence: “If you want to applaud, you can applaud.”
Here’s a closer look at the most eyebrow-raising lines — and how military officials are reacting behind closed doors.
Hegseth says the era of political wokeness in the military is over
Few things fire up the Trump administration more than railing against “wokeness” — and Hegseth is no exception. In his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth argued that too many promotions had been driven by race, gender quotas, and “historic firsts” rather than merit. He cast rolling back those policies — effectively reversing decades of efforts to diversify the armed forces — as a way to make U.S. troops more “lethal.”
“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth declared, urging any senior officers who disagreed with his approach to “do the honorable thing and resign.”
Hegseth defended his decision to fire several flag officers, including Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown Jr., then serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and only the second Black officer to hold the post, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s chief and the first woman to lead the service. He argued they represented what he called a broken culture.
What does this mean on the ground? For starters, it could lead to fewer women in combat roles, something first opened up under the Obama administration. While he stopped short of calling for a full reversal, Hegseth announced that the “highest male standards” would now apply across all combat positions. “If women can make it, excellent,” he said. “If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”
Hegseth rails against “fat generals and admirals”
Even waistlines weren’t off-limits: Hegseth warned of what he called an epidemic of overweight leaders, though some critics said the remarks amounted to fat-shaming.
“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations — and frankly any formations — and see fat troops,” he said. “It’s unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading all around the world.”
To back up his point, Hegseth announced that all service members, regardless of rank, will now face a mandatory personal fitness test twice a year — a step he said is aimed at restoring discipline and credibility.
And fitness wasn’t the only target — Hegseth doubled down on grooming rules, too, pointing to new standards he rolled out earlier this month.
“No more beards, long hair, superficial, individual expression,” he said. “We’re going to cut our hair, shape up, shave our beards, and adhere to standards, because it’s like the broken windows theory of policing. It’s like, you let the small stuff go, the big stuff eventually goes.”
Hegseth takes aim at whistleblowers
Another big target in Hegseth’s speech: the Pentagon’s whistleblower system. He said the Defense Department will stop taking anonymous complaints about toxic leadership or unequal treatment — including those tied to race, gender, sexuality, or religion — dismissing many as “frivolous.”
“Upholding high standards is not toxic,” he declared, blasting what he called the “bastardization” of terms like “toxic leader.” Instead, he said commanders will get more freedom to enforce rules “without fear of retribution or second-guessing.”
Still, Hegseth stressed there are limits. “Of course, being a racist has been illegal in our formations since 1948. The same goes for sexual harassment. Both are wrong and illegal.”
Trump refers to nuclear as “the N-word”
As part of his message on making the U.S. military more powerful, Trump said doesn’t even like saying “nuclear,” calling it too dangerous to throw around. Instead, he dubbed it the “N-word” — a phrase used to describe a racial slur.
“We can’t let people throw around that word,” he said. “I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.”
The remark drew silence from the crowd. Trump made it while recounting his back-and-forth with Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev over the war in Ukraine. In June, he posted on Truth Social that Medvedev was “casually throwing around the ‘N-word’ (Nuclear!).” Two months later, Trump said he “ordered two nuclear submarines” deployed near Russia after what he described as “highly provocative statements” from Medvedev.
Trump suggests using the military against the “enemy within”
Trump cast his warnings in stark terms, telling military leaders the real threat wasn’t abroad but at home. “This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control,” he said.
He added that he’d told Hegseth the U.S. should use “dangerous cities” as live training grounds — pointing to Democratic-led areas he’s long argued are plagued by crime and “unlivable.” At one point, he even labeled Portland a “war zone,” though local influencers have pushed back with photos that painted a very different picture.
Trump didn’t stop there. He vowed to go after other cities next, promising to “straighten them out one by one.” Meanwhile, the White House has already sent National Guard units into Washington, D.C., and Memphis, framing it as a crime-fighting measure.
Reaction and fallout
The Quantico event drew swift reactions beyond the base. Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham praised it as a “breath of fresh air,” while Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, warned it should “terrify people.”
“Declaring war on our nation’s cities and using our troops as political pawns is what dictators do,” Newsom wrote on X. “This man cares about nothing but his own ego and power.”
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, called it “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership by the Trump administration.”
Inside the Pentagon, military leaders stayed quiet in public but vented in private. “Could have been an email,” one defense official told Politico. Others dismissed the gathering as “a total waste of money,” especially on the eve of a possible government shutdown.
What’s clear is that Hegseth’s rhetoric blurred the line between national defense and domestic politics — a line the military has traditionally worked to keep intact.
