Donald Trump says US cities should be used as military ‘training grounds’

Donald Trump said US cities should be used as military “training grounds”, as defence secretary Pete Hegseth called for a new “war fighting culture” at an unprecedented gathering of the country’s admirals and generals.

The president told the military’s top brass on Tuesday that “America is under invasion from within”, as he defended his deployment of troops to cities including Los Angeles and Washington.

Trump also vowed to continue to expand the military’s deployment on US soil, which he claims is vital to fight crime in America’s cities.

“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” he said.

Trump’s warning came shortly after Hegseth vowed to continue a purge of top military leadership and lashed out at “fat” generals as he called for new physical fitness standards.

The summit comes as Trump seeks to tighten his grip on the military and extend its use in pursuit of his domestic agenda, including aggressive crackdowns on immigration, crime and violent protests that have raised fears of an authoritarian lurch during his second term.

Trump told military officers on Tuesday “we’re going into” Chicago “very soon”.

Illinois’s governor JB Pritzker on Monday said the federal government had taken initial steps to send 100 troops to his state.

Trump on Saturday ordered troops to Portland, Oregon while Hegseth on Sunday requested 200 Oregon National Guard troops. On Monday, the Republican governor of Louisiana asked Hegseth for 1,000 National Guard troops for a trio of cities, including New Orleans.

Speaking before Trump’s arrival at Tuesday’s meeting, Hegseth promised “more leadership changes” in the military, demanding a stronger “warrior ethos” and telling the generals and admirals to resign if they disagreed.

After abruptly summoning hundreds of top military leaders from their commands around the world, Hegseth used his remarks to slam “woke” Pentagon policies he claims have left the US unprepared for war.

Pacing across the stage in front of a large American flag, he hit out at overweight generals and admirals and said disciplinary rules and whistleblower protections would be loosened. He also called the Pentagon’s rules of engagement “overbearing”.

“More leadership changes will be made — of that, I’m certain,” Hegseth told the officers gathered at Quantico, a Marine Corps base in Virginia. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honourable thing and resign.”

The manoeuvres follow controversial steps Trump has taken to assert more control over government bodies and agencies that either by law or tradition operate independently from the White House, including the justice department and the Federal Reserve.

Although the US military is under civilian control, its leadership has typically tried to stay above the partisan fray to ensure it has the broadest possible public support. Democrats on Tuesday accused Trump and Hegseth of undermining that consensus.

Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said: “While American forces confront real threats across the globe, Mr Hegseth and President Trump chose to pull generals and admirals away from their missions to listen to hours of political grievances.”

The Trump administration has fired 14 top military officers during the president’s term. Hegseth defended the sackings, telling his audience they were necessary to change the military’s culture.

The defence secretary has dismissed leaders including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General CQ Brown, the chief of naval operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and coastguard commandant Admiral Linda Fagan.

Hegseth said: “For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.”

The defence secretary also focused on the military’s fitness and grooming standards.

“It’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country in the world.” There should be “no more beards” or long hair, he said.

Hegseth added the Pentagon would review its definition of “toxic leadership, bullying and hazing”, so the military’s leadership could enforce its standards “without fear of retribution or second guessing”.

He said military personnel “should not pay for serious mistakes for your entire career”, and some infractions would be removed from service records.

The defence secretary also announced an overhaul of the internal department watchdog and suggested there would be a crackdown on whistleblower complaints. There would be “no more anonymous complaints . . . no more smearing reputations”, he said.

Hegseth said soldiers should have maximum “authority” when fighting, and the Pentagon would “unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement.”

“You kill people and break things for a living,” he said. “You are not politically correct and don’t necessarily belong always in polite society.”