Experts react to Hegseth’s Quantico summit: ‘Wrong message, wrong time, wrong audience’

Lawmakers and former service members warned that the Trump administration’s near-term vision for the Pentagon — including plans to gut long-standing oversight functions — could make America’s armed forces weaker and less safe in the wake of the unusual summit in Quantico this week, where the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed an auditorium filled with the nation’s most seasoned military officers.

“This event was a performance, from start to finish, meant to communicate to the military’s senior uniformed leaders that their dissent is unwelcome. And it came at a risk to national security and a cost to the American taxpayer,” said Virginia Burger, who served for nine years as an active-duty U.S. Marine Corps officer.

In separate interviews with DefenseScoop, Burger — who is now a Senior Defense Policy Analyst at the Project on Government Oversight — and current and former defense officials who requested anonymity to speak freely, shared their initial reactions to the 90-minute livestreamed event.

“It was abhorrent. It was an abomination,” one former senior defense official said.

A ‘macho’ stance

“I cannot believe 800 generals and flag officers were brought into that building to hear a pep-speech that would be better delivered by a captain to a bunch of enlisted and lieutenants out in the field somewhere. It had not anything related to the issues I would have expected the secretary of defense to be focusing on,” the former senior defense official noted.

In their view, Hegseth was trying to deliver a speech akin to one that Gen. George Patton, the celebrated American Army commander in World War II who was known for his hard-driving personality, would deliver. 

“But Patton had a lot more in his background that allowed him to give speeches the way he did. He was a formidable intellect in his own right, and I would not use that term referring to the current leadership in the building. It’s a lack of intellect and just very poor leadership qualities,” the former senior defense official said.

They gave “a lot of credit” to the audience of top military brass for remaining stoic and quiet as they listened to the two speeches.  

The former senior official said they “half-jokingly” wondered if the defense leaders might have “facial recognition doing sentiment analysis of the audience, and anybody who wasn’t cheering the secretary on would be immediately called into his office and read the Riot Act. That’s how dystopian of a world that we’re in right now — that that thing just is not fanciful, it’s actually possible.”

They continued: “But the fact that this was being filmed tells me everything I need to know. It was for their internal purposes, and then it was to focus on this being their military, as opposed to America’s military. The oath of office is never to a person, but to the idea of the Constitution. So, I was appalled.”

In their publicly livestreamed remarks, Hegseth and Trump ran through plans for disruptive policy shifts around mandatory training, oversight processes, records retention rules, physical fitness and grooming standards and more. 

“I commanded at every possible level. We were a stronger military because of our diverse backgrounds and views. And that’s all you need to say,” the former senior defense official said. “To actually come out and say ‘that’s not what we want’ is antithetical to the world that I want to be in. It’s a confusion of a macho stance as opposed to a tough stance. And those are two different things. There have been lots of tough leaders in that building, I’ve been in front of many of them, and they can chew your ass out without blinking an eye. But this is different.”

“This is just ‘I am strong, you work for me, and by God, anything you do that I don’t like I’m going to fire you on the spot.’ That’s not the best thing we want to send to the senior most leaders who could be facing a crisis, or in a conflict in the blink of an eye. Within the next five years, we’ll be somewhere in conflict, and we have to be better prepared. So, no — it’s not making us stronger, it’s making us weaker,” they said.

At the Quantico summit on Tuesday, Trump and Hegseth announced a number of moves, including requiring all combat arms positions to use the “highest male standard” in their physical fitness requirements; banning beards except for people with temporary waivers, and reworking the inspector general process, among others.

Hegseth, who is currently under investigation by the Defense Department Office of Inspector General after sharing sensitive operational war plans via the Signal app, told the military commanders: “Today, at my direction, I’m issuing new policies that will overhaul the IG, [Equal Employment Opportunity, and Military Equal Opportunity] processes. I call it the ‘no more walking on eggshells’ policy.”

The Pentagon chief signed a slew of associated memorandums that outline the administration’s new proposals after the speech, but many questions remain. 

“The DOD OIG is aware of what Secretary Hegseth said during his address to military leadership. We are reviewing related department guidance that was circulated today,” an official from that office told DefenseScoop in an email before the government shut down on Wednesday.

The former senior defense official, who served in high-ranking positions under previous Republican and Democratic administrations, told DefenseScoop that they “had all sorts of issues” with the IG and Government Accountability Office during their tenure.

“I think they’re a pain in the ass, I think they did some things they shouldn’t have done. But it is the checks and balance that matters — because without those, we go hog wild and we end up with a military that nobody wants, just a rogue military,” the former official said.

Trump echoed Hegseth’s aggressive tone and also made a series of sensational claims during his more-than-70-minute speech. At one point, the president referenced the ongoing domestic deployments of the National Guard to American cities, suggesting Democrat-run cities could be used as “training grounds” for the military.

“This, combined with the secretary’s rhetoric on increasing military lethality, is a concerning combination. Highly lethal troops patrolling American cities begs the question — who are the adversaries those soldiers are meant to be fighting? What are the risks to Americans’ civil liberties and public safety if the military — the force purpose built to kill and wage war — is now in their streets? These are indications and warnings of creeping authoritarianism that needs to be flagged and addressed by Congress,” Burger said.

‘We don’t want that at all’

The officials who DefenseScoop interviewed broadly agreed that the leaders’ remarks at Quantico seemed designed to essentially make the military’s senior officials feel that they must conform to the new status quo, or risk their careers and livelihood. 

“This exercise cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars to fly in every Admiral, General, and their entourages,” Burger noted. “At the end of the day, this event was meant to communicate to these senior leaders that they are at the beck and call of the president and Secretary Hegseth, regardless of national security, tactical requirements, or unnecessary costs to taxpayers — and to kiss the ring when summoned.” 

Multiple times during his remarks, Hegseth reminded the audience about the recent personnel cuts and multiple senior military leaders he’s fired so far — and that more workforce changes are coming.

Hegseth has faced questions from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress regarding the seemingly unjustified firings. 

However, Burger told DefenseScoop, Congress does not have any statutory role in the relief and firing of general officers and flag officers. The Senate confirms the promotions of military officers and conducts hearings for the nominees to specific key leadership positions within the military, but there is no formal role for them in the relief process.

“That being said, they could increase their oversight of these firings by demanding further information on the justification for each one. That, however, would simply be a fact-finding campaign, as they have no power to change the decisions. In my opinion, Congress should consider drafting legislation that gives them some power in this process,” Burger said. “There are multiple avenues they could take to achieve this while still balancing the need for the commander-in-chief to retain strategic control over the military, and they should be considered given how frequently the current administration is using the firing of general officers to increasingly politicize the force.”

Several Democratic lawmakers issued statements criticizing the contents of the engagement. 

“At a time when global security demands focus, this gathering distracted from our troops’ missions and wasted their time. Leadership requires seriousness and respect for those who serve. What happened at Quantico was the opposite,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. 

Spokespersons for three senior Republican congressional leaders did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. But multiple GOP lawmakers expressed support for the remarks on social media.

In a post on X, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) wrote that the speeches “outlined a bright future for our armed forces,” and that “by removing politics, emphasizing fitness standards and combat readiness, our military is refocused on deterring wars and winning them if necessary.”

In the aftermath of the summit, experts raised additional flags about Hegseth’s call for troops to ignore “stupid rules of engagement.” Such mechanisms govern when and how the U.S. military is permitted to use force. 

“I mean, the idea of completely disregarding rules of engagement is so far beneath what we should be talking about. We stand for rules of engagement. We hold people accountable for violating international humanitarian law. So, the idea of standing up there is basically giving some people a green light to go do bad things on a battlefield — that’s horrendous. We don’t want that at all,” the former senior defense official told DefenseScoop. “So, wrong message, wrong time, wrong audience.”

The experts who were interviewed also broadly expressed concerns that the summit at Quantico would likely leave many top service members feeling uncertain about their futures — and isolated. They said it’s important to signal to people who are still on active duty that those who used to be in uniform, the media, and others still in office “have their backs” at this time.

“The message should be to stand up for your integrity, your morals and your values that got you there in the first place,” the former senior defense official said.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Thursday about the experts’ concerns regarding the oversight overhaul plans and other inclusions in the speeches, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said over email that the address “cements a new but familiar culture we refer to as the warrior ethos and postures the department toward a new era of peace though strength.”

“[Morale] was at an all-time high at Secretary Hegseth’s historic War Department address, reflecting senior military leaders’ excitement to be empowered to lead their formations without fear. The Department of War is 100% committed to refocusing our military on warfighting. Physical fitness standards will be high, uniform, and sex-neutral, ensuring our warriors are prepared to fight and win in any arena, no matter the circumstances. Promotions and combat assignments will be given based on merit and ability, not diversity quotas,” Parnell said. “The war on warriors is over; political correctness has no home at the Department of War.”

Officially changing the name of the Department of Defense requires an act of Congress, but Trump recently signed an executive order rebranding DOD as the Department of War.

Responding to questions from DefenseScoop about the concerns experts raised, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in an email Friday: “President Trump gave a powerful speech about the enduring strength of our United States military and the fighting spirit that sets America apart from the rest.”