By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will preside on Tuesday over an extraordinary gathering of America's top generals and admirals from around the world, who were summoned to a Marine base in Virginia without explanation last week.
Trump has said he will use the face-to-face meeting with the U.S. military's top commanders at the Marine Corps University in Quantico to tell them "we love them." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to talk about the "warrior ethos," one of his favorite subjects.
The meeting comes after eight months of blistering changes at the Pentagon since Trump took office, including firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Navy's top admiral, banning books from academy libraries and lethal strikes on suspected drug boats off Venezuela.
That has led to speculation, both within the U.S. military and in the broader American public, that the gathering could go far beyond the morale-boosting exercise described by Trump to include discussions about reductions in senior officers' ranks and a revamp of U.S. defense priorities.
"It's anyone's guess" what will ultimately be discussed, said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity about the agenda of the gathering.
Military leaders attending the gathering will be under public scrutiny for any reaction to overtly political comments made by Trump, who has often dragged the military into political issues.
The U.S. military is meant to be apolitical, loyal to the U.S. Constitution and independent of any party or political movement.
The talks will come a day after the announcement of planned National Guard deployments to Chicago, the latest U.S. city where Trump aims to send U.S. troops despite objections from local authorities.
He announced plans to send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon over the weekend and sent Guard and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles earlier this year, despite protests from local officials.
Speaking to Reuters on Sunday, Trump described the Quantico meeting as an "esprit de corps."
"I want to tell the generals that we love them, they're cherished leaders, to be strong, be tough and be smart and be compassionate," Trump said in an interview.
Trump's attendance is likely to overshadow Hegseth, who summoned the commanders from around the world, including those based in distant locations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
In almost every public speech he gives, Hegseth talks about the "warrior ethos" and the need for the U.S. military to have a warrior mentality, themes he is he expected to return to on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the "Department of War," reverting to a title it held until after World War Two when officials sought to emphasize the Pentagon's role in preventing conflict.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has moved with stunning speed to reshape and rebrand the department as he seeks to implement Trump's national security agenda and root out diversity initiatives he calls discriminatory.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Stephen Coates)
