Speculation has been swirling after U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth abruptly ordered roughly 800 top officers from around the globe to return to the U.S. next week for a meeting — with no explanation or agenda provided.

“Hegseth’s orders,” The Washington Post reported on Friday in an exclusive, “require anyone in a command position with the rank of one-star general or rear admiral and above, as well as their senior enlisted leaders, to be at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday.”

Experts have expressed that the national security concerns alone are disturbing — every top officer in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces — and their support staff — away from their posts and together in one room.

Others expressed concerns that the nation’s top military brass might be asked to take a loyalty pledge — not to the Constitution but to the President or to his ideology. Some suggested it might be to refocus the officers on domestic U.S. issues rather than external threats or enemies.

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Instead, the meeting, according to the Washington Post’s report, will be for all 800 or so generals and admirals to listen to Secretary Hegseth speak about his own beliefs regarding what the U.S. military should be — his “warrior ethos” ideology.

The speech is expected to last less than one hour.

As The Washington Post reported on Thursday, the Defense Department “possesses highly secure videoconferencing technology that enables military officials, regardless of their location, to discuss sensitive matters with the White House, the Pentagon or both.”

The Defense Secretary’s “directive comes in the wake of Hegseth’s firing of numerous senior military officers without cause this year, upending military norms and creating a culture of fear in the Pentagon, the people familiar with the matter said,” the Post also reported on Friday. “The recent firings of top military officers and the unusual nature of the order has stirred widespread concern among military officials that Hegseth may also have [an] additional surprise in store.”

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Hegseth appeared to respond to — or at least acknowledge — concerns the meeting might include a loyalty pledge on Friday, when retired United States Army officer Ben Hodges, who served as commanding general, United States Army Europe, posted to social media remarks that echoed concerns of others:

“July 1935 German generals were called to a surprise assembly in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the Weimar constitution was void and that they would be required to swear a personal oath to the Führer. Most generals took the new oath to keep their positions,” he wrote.

Secretary Hegseth mocked General Hodges’ remarks:

“Cool story, General,” he wrote.

Hegseth was quickly chastised.

“You are pathetic,” declared Fred Wellman, a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School, and a 22-year combat veteran who is now the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”

“Supposed to be leading the largest department of our government with millions of troops and civilians and you are trolling retired generals who served honorably longer and more heroically than you could,” Wellman added. “You’re not even a good squad leader.”

Fred Guttenberg, the well-known anti-gun-violence activist, noted that Hegseth’s remarks were “not a denial.”

Other critics responded to the Post’s reporting.

“Yes, totally worth the cost and time and effort to pull hundreds of people away from their commands to listen to Hegseth and his deep thoughts about being a warrior,” snarked The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor.

“So it’s a juvenile Rah Rah high school football speech, that cost[s] a ton of money, takes leaders out of positions in where they [are] managing crises, and puts a massive target on Quantico,” remarked Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired senior U.S. Intelligence Service officer. “Plus they all gonna get stuck when govt shuts down. Genius all around.”

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With just days to go before the federal government could shut down, President Donald Trump appeared to welcome the crisis, blaming Democrats who refused to support his policies for the impending calamity while charging them with wanting “transgender for everybody.”

The President did not explain his allegation.

“They want to have transgender for everybody. These people are crazy — the Democrats,” the President declared. “So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down the government.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has already sent members of the House home, and “may not bring the House back at all next week,” according to Punchbowl News co-founder  Jake Sherman. “They think the ball is in the Senate’s court. and they will return when they have a bill to pass” to keep the government open.

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Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.

President Trump has told Republican House and Senate leaders to not negotiate with Democrats and canceled a meeting with the top Democratic leaders earlier this week.

Trump this week has also alleged that Democrats are “threatening” to shut down the government “unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens.”

He, also wrongly, claimed Democrats want to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

On Thursday in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why he would fire or lay off federal workers — which his administration has threatened to do — rather than furlough them, as is the norm during government shutdowns.

“Well, this is all caused by the Democrats,” Trump replied.

Trump: “They want to have transgender for everybody. These people are crazy — the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down the government.” pic.twitter.com/VVnMZQ3WTn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 26, 2025

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In Friday morning remarks, President Donald Trump lashed out at James Comey, who was criminally indicted Thursday evening — just days after the President urged his Attorney General to take action against his political enemies, including his former FBI Director.

Comey was indicted on two counts, including making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, according to NBC News.

Just before 7:00 AM on Friday, President Trump praised the Comey indictment.

“James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey was a destroyer of lives. He knew exactly what he was saying, and that it was a very serious and far reaching lie for which a very big price must be paid!” Trump charged.

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“He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start,” he added.

“Nevertheless, words are words, and he wasn’t hedging or in dispute. He was very positive, there was no doubt in his mind about what he said, or meant by saying it. He left himself ZERO margin of error on a big and important answer to a question. He just got unexpectedly caught,” Trump said about alleged remarks Comey made five years ago.

Attorney Ed Whelan, a constitutional law expert and senior fellow at the right-wing Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote on Thursday night: “Indictment doesn’t happen w/o president’s vindictive personal intervention and directive. I wouldn’t call that ‘equal justice under the law.'”

Responding to Trump’s Friday morning remarks, Politico senior legal correspondent Kyle Cheney wrote: “Trump’s inability to stop live commentary on Comey’s case could actually doom it. This isn’t just a broad ‘no one is above the law,’ he’s doing legal analysis that Comey’s team will plug right into their selective prosecution motion to dismiss the indictment.”

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Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias, responding to the President’s remarks, wrote: “There are some subtle indications here that the Comey prosecution reflects direct involvement in the process by a president who pre-judged the case rather than an objective prosecutorial assessment of the facts.”

Overnight, MSNBC Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian wrote, “The filing of felony charges based on a five-year-old statement to Congress, against a man whom Trump has identified as one of his chief political enemies, underscores the extent to which Trump has shattered the post-Watergate norm that the Justice Department would operate independently of the White House on criminal matters.”

“Trump has not only ended that tradition,” Dilanian added, “but he has bent the Justice Department to his will, firing prosecutors and FBI agents his supporters don’t like, quashing politically inconvenient criminal cases, and pushing for criminal investigations against his adversaries.”

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