Trump calls for using US cities as a 'training ground' for military in unusual speech to generals

QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the "invasion from within."

Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military's role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

The dual messages underscored the Trump administration's efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but to enlist military resources for the president's priorities and for decidedly domestic purposes, including quelling unrest and violent crime.

“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said. He noted at another point: “We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”

After calling hundreds of military leaders and their top advisers from around the world to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Hegseth largely focused on long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military hamstrung by “woke” policies. He said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.

Though meetings between military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, this gathering had fueled intense speculation about its purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it. The fact that admirals and generals from conflict zones were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military showed the extent to which the country’s culture wars have become a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.

Trump is accustomed to boisterous crowds of supporters who laugh at his jokes and applaud his boasting. But he wasn't getting that kind of soundtrack from the military leaders in attendance.

In keeping with the nonpartisan tradition of the armed services, the military leaders sat mostly stone-faced through Trump’s politicized remarks, a contrast from when rank-and-file soldiers cheered during Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg this summer.

Trump encouraged the audience at the outset of his speech to applaud as they wished. He then added, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room — of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.” Some laughed.

Before Trump took the stage, Hegseth said in his nearly hourlong speech that the military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons, based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”

“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.

That was echoed by Trump: “The purposes of America military is not to protect anyone’s feelings. It’s to protect our republic.″

″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom,” Trump said.

Several military officials and rank-and-file troops, who all spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, said they were unsure how the remarks from Trump and Hegseth would affect their daily lives in the service. Some expressed concerns over the framing of domestic unrest as a war, while some also said they found Hegseth’s message appealing about more closely adhering to fitness standards and cutting out unnecessary training.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meeting “an expensive, dangerous dereliction of leadership.”

“Even more troubling was Mr. Hegseth’s ultimatum to America’s senior officers: conform to his political worldview or step aside,” Reed said in a statement, calling it a “profoundly dangerous” demand.

Trump has already tested the limits of a nearly 150-year-old federal law, the Posse Comitatus Act, that restricts the military’s role in law enforcement.

He has sent National Guard and active duty Marines to Los Angeles, threatened to do the same to combat crime and illegal immigration in other Democratic-led cities, and surged troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

National Guard members are generally exempt from the law because they're under state control. But the law does apply when they’re “federalized” and put under the president’s control, as happened in LA over the Democratic governor’s objections.

Trump said the armed forces also should focus on the Western Hemisphere, boasting about carrying out military strikes on boats in the Caribbean that he says targeted drug traffickers.

Hegseth said he's easing disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, focusing on removing many of the guardrails the military put in place after numerous scandals and investigations.

He also said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”

He called for changes to "allow leaders with forgivable, earnest or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”

“People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said.

Bullying and toxic leadership have been the suspected and confirmed causes behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.

Hegseth used the platform to slam environmental policies and transgender troops. The Pentagon has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” Hegseth said, calling that an “insane fallacy.”

Hegseth said the military would ensure “every designated combat arms position returns to the highest male standard.” He's previously issued directives for gender-neutral physical standards, even though specific combat, special operations, infantry, armor, pararescue and other jobs already require the same standards regardless of age or gender. The military services were trying to determine next steps and what, if anything, may need to change.

Hegseth said it is not about preventing women from serving.

“If women can make it, excellent; if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it," he said. "That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who served in the Iraq War, said Hegseth was “appropriate” in suggesting that women should be expected to meet certain standards.

“I’m not worried about that,” Ernst said. “There should be a same set of standards for combat arms."

Janessa Goldbeck, who served in the Marines and is now CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, said Hegseth’s speech was more about “stoking grievance than strengthening the force.”

Hegseth “has a cartoonish, 1980s, comic-book idea of toughness he’s never outgrown,” she said. “Instead of focusing on what actually improves force readiness, he continues to waste time and taxpayer dollars on He-Man culture-war theatrics.”

Hegseth's speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as he has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.

Finley and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Chris Megerian, Adriana Gomez Licon, Ali Swenson and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

U.S. military senior leadership listen as President Donald Trump speaks at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth before speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. military senior leadership listen as President Donald Trump speaks at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. military senior leadership are seen before President Donald Trump arrives to speaks at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. military senior leadership listen as President Donald Trump speaks at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth before speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

A historical marker is pictured at the entrance of Marine Base Quantico, Friday Sep. 26, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Vehicles drive to the entrance of Marine Corps Base Quantico, Friday Sep. 26, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

FILE - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a ceremony at the Pentagon to commemorate the 24rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Sept. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the operator of the mid-Atlantic power grid to take urgent steps to boost energy supply and curb price hikes, holding a Friday event aimed at addressing a rising concern among voters about the enormous amount of power used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections later this year.

The White House said its National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, want to try to compel PJM Interconnection to hold a power auction for tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants,

The Trump administration and governors will sign a statement of principles toward that end Friday. The plan was first reported by Bloomberg.

“Ensuring the American people have reliable and affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities, and this would deliver much-needed, long-term relief to the mid-Atlantic region," said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to be at the White House, a person familiar with Shapiro’s plans said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement. Shapiro, a Democrat, made his participation in Friday’s event contingent on including a provision to extend a limit on wholesale electricity price increases for the region’s consumers, the person said.

But the operator of the grid won't be there. “PJM was not invited. Therefore we would not attend,” said spokesperson Jeff Shields.

It was not immediately clear whether President Donald Trump would attend the event, which was not listed on his public schedule.

Trump and the governors are under pressure to insulate consumers and businesses alike from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers. Meanwhile, more Americans are falling behind on their electricity bills.

Consumer advocates say ratepayers in the mid-Atlantic electricity grid — which encompasses all or parts of 13 states stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, as well as Washington, D.C. — are already paying billions of dollars in higher bills to underwrite the cost to supply power to data centers, some of them built, some not.

However, they also say that the billions of dollars that consumers are paying isn’t resulting in the construction of new power plants necessary to meet the rising demand.

Pivotal contests in November will be decided by communities that are home to fast-rising electric bills or fights over who’s footing the bill for the data centers that underpin the explosion in demand for artificial intelligence. In parts of the country, data centers are coming online faster than power plants can be built and connected to the grid.

Electricity costs were a key issue in last year's elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, a data center hotspot, and in Georgia, where Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents for seats on the state’s utility regulatory commission. Voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City all cited economic concerns as the top issue, as Democrats and Republicans gird for a debate over affordability in the intensifying midterm battle to control Congress.

Gas and electric utilities sought or won rate increases of more that $34 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, consumer advocacy organization PowerLines reported. That was more than double the same period a year earlier.

Meta's Stanton Springs Data Center is seen Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Newton County, East of Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)