# Hegseth calls all of the top military brass together for an in person meeting **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 26, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409 "2025-09-26T02:40:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/161 "2025-09-30T21:18:05Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > And they definitely don’t give Nobel prizes for those. _Henry Kissinger: “Hold my beer!”_ Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/162 "2025-09-30T21:19:46Z")
Usually the answer would be “No, because there aren’t enough qualified people to take their place”…but that really apply to Trump and his bottom-of-the-barrel picks, does it? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/163 "2025-09-30T21:21:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > but that really apply to Trump and his bottom-of-the-barrel picks, does it? Hey, there are still some people who work at FAUX News, aren’t there? They can be fitted with uniforms. Stars, too, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/164 "2025-09-30T21:24:40Z")
I think unqualified but loyal would be ideal for Trump. Anyone to go along with America is being “invaded” and signing off on sending in the troops into US cities. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/165 "2025-09-30T21:25:24Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Hey, there are still some people who work at FAUX News, aren’t there? They can be fitted with uniforms. Stars, too, for that matter. I’m not sure I’d call them _stars_, exactly… ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/166 "2025-09-30T21:31:20Z")
Is it true that Trump said this to the generals? : > America is under invasion from within. We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in any ways because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform you can take them out Because that’s word for word the “internal enemy” doctrine that the 70’s dictatorships used in Argentina to “disappear” 30 thousand people. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/167 "2025-09-30T21:36:31Z")
True. In the video in post 151. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/168 "2025-09-30T21:37:44Z")
Oh boy ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/169 "2025-09-30T21:40:18Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > childish nonsense. Most of the officers responding to Hegspeths’ order hold masters degrees. As do many of those who serve under them. Hegspeth cited as his top credential that he was a platoon leader - 4 squads of 9 men plus a couple of support personnel. A noble qualification, but hardly at the level of troops who can even approach the offices of his audience, let alone give them advice. Hegspeths 10 points: 1. Adverse Information Policy — Change how adverse or negative information is retained in personnel records, so that forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions don’t permanently inhibit a person’s career. 2. Department of War Military Education and Training Standards 60-Day Review — Initiate a 60-day review of military education and training standards under the newly named Department of War. 3. Grooming Standards for Facial Hair Implementation — Disallow beards (except for medical exemptions), require personnel with facial-hair conditions to seek treatment, and enforce clean-shaven grooming. 4. IG Oversight and Reform: Enhancing Timeliness, Transparency, and Due Process in Administrative Investigations — Overhaul the Inspector General (IG) and complaint processes to reduce weaponization, ensure fairness, transparency, and remove fear of reprisal. 5. Military Fitness Standards — Require two fitness tests per year (one existing, one new), mandatory daily physical training on duty days, and enforce “male-level” gender-neutral standards in combat arms jobs. 6. Modern Workforce Management — Reform workforce policies to empower leadership, remove bureaucratic constraints, and manage personnel more dynamically. 7. Policy Memorandum Revision, Special Selection Review Boards — Revise policy memoranda governing special selection and review boards, presumably to change promotion or selection processes. 8. Reduction of Mandatory Training Requirements to Restore Mission Focus — Cut back on repetitive or non-essential required trainings (e.g. PowerPoint / online courses), freeing up time for more mission-relevant training (motor pool, live ranges). 9. Review of Hazing, Bullying, and Harassment Definitions — Reexamine and possibly redefine what constitutes hazing, bullying, or harassment, to allow leaders more latitude in enforcing high standards. 10. Requirement to Formally Present Purple Heart Medals and Valor Decorations — Mandate formal ceremonies or presentation protocols for Purple Heart and valor awards to ensure their significance is honored. Just to pick 2: 8. proposes reducing training to reduce costs. In a high tech military that is suicide 1. is beyond belief on it’s face. These idiots have never heard of Gen. Schofield: “The discipline that makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not gained through harsh or tyrannical treatment,” ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/170 "2025-09-30T21:50:51Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > - Review of Hazing, Bullying, and Harassment Definitions — Reexamine and possibly redefine what constitutes hazing, bullying, or harassment, to allow leaders more latitude in enforcing high standards. [**DID HE JUST ORDER THE CODE RED??**](https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/specialengagements/moviespeechafewgoodmencodered.html) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/171 "2025-09-30T21:52:43Z")
Most of these sound like the kind of “improvements” that a know-it-all very junior person put into a position far beyond their capabilities would come up with. There’s a reason the U.S. military stopped doing a lot of these things decades ago—like the prohibition on hazing. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/172 "2025-09-30T21:54:44Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Grooming Standards for Facial Hair Implementation — Disallow beards (except for medical exemptions), require personnel with facial-hair conditions to seek treatment, and enforce clean-shaven grooming. Religious discrimination lawsuits incoming in 3, 2… > **[Hegseth says ‘no more beardos’ in the military. What about religious exemptions?](https://forward.com/fast-forward/772945/pete-hegseth-beard-military-jews-sikhs-grooming-standards/)** > > Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said beards will no longer be tolerated in the military. Where does that leave Orthodox Jews and Sikhs? > It wasn’t immediately clear how Hegseth’s “no beardos” policy would affect religious exemptions. A Department of Defense [memo](https://media.defense.gov/2025/Sep/30/2003812317/-1/-1/1/SECRETARY-OF-WAR-ANNOUNCED-MEMORANDUMS.PDF) posted on Tuesday said documentation of sincere religious beliefs will be key in evaluating requests, and approvals will be limited to “non-deployable roles with low risk of chemical attack or firefighting requirements.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/173 "2025-09-30T21:58:23Z")
Point 6, above: > [@Crane](#): > > Modern Workforce Management — Reform workforce policies to empower leadership, remove bureaucratic constraints, and manage personnel more dynamically. This reads like some kind of buzzword bingo corporate-speak. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/174 "2025-09-30T22:01:39Z")
All I can say is, I’m amazed at the utter confidence (to put it nicely) of a guy like Hegseth. I cannot imagine being a guy with as little credential and experience as him, trying to give such a risible lecture to hundreds of 4-stars. Supreme confidence. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/175 "2025-09-30T22:05:16Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Supreme confidence. Too stupid and self-centered to realize how he looks to others. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/176 "2025-09-30T22:11:48Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > [@Crane](#): > > > > Disallow beards (except for medical exemptions), require personnel with facial-hair conditions to seek treatment, and enforce clean-shaven grooming. > > Religious discrimination lawsuits incoming in 3, 2… Discouraging either retention or initial sign-ups of non-Christians will probably be seen as a feature and not a bug with these chuckleheads. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/177 "2025-09-30T22:14:51Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > ‘Noble’ Peace Prize, windmills, escalators, Aunti-Phi, ended 9 wars (latest count), invade, bomb, Greatest President ever, Biden, me, me me, … One more you forgot. After the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, which like many states is suffering from a major drop-off in Canadian tourism, called on Trump to apologize to Canadians for all the hostility of the past year and stop running his pie-hole about the “51st state” bullshit, the Orange Menace used this occasion to bring up the 51st state bullshit once again. He just can’t shut up about it. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/178 "2025-09-30T22:19:18Z")
Trump also mentioned the “n-word”. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/179 "2025-09-30T22:24:21Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > Where does that leave Orthodox Jews and Sikhs? Who cares? It’s not like those people are actual _Americans._ ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/180 "2025-09-30T22:30:56Z")
It sure looks like it! “We came here, for THIS?” Maybe this was why Mr. Worm Brain also wanted the kids’ fitness tests reinstated? I never went to a school that used them, but I saw lots of fellow Girl Scouts with those patches on their unofficial jackets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409.md?page=10)