Trump Tells Generals the Military Will Be Used to Fight ‘Enemy Within’
President says some U.S. cities he considers dangerous should become training grounds for American troops
Sept. 30, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
Hundreds of commanders and senior officers from around the globe were summoned to Quantico, Va. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Reuters
President Trump hailed the use of military force to police American cities, telling generals and admirals during a Tuesday address that it was important to quell “the enemy within.”
“San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re very unsafe places and we’re gonna straighten them out one by one,” Trump told hundreds of senior U.S. military officers packed into a hall at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va.
“This is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within,” Trump said.
Trump’s speech, which lasted well over an hour, followed an address by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who last week summoned generals and admirals from around the world to the meeting.
Much of Hegseth’s talk centered on his longstanding contention that U.S. military standards were relaxed during previous administrations in which diversity and inclusion were an important part of the Defense Department’s personnel policies.
“When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender-neutral,” said Hegseth. “If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”
Hegseth, who has rebranded himself with Trump’s backing as a secretary of war, received a polite but muted response from the military officers, who have long prided themselves on being apolitical and are uneasy about past firings and the looming cuts Hegseth has said he will make in the ranks of top officers.
Trump praised Hegseth’s talk and doubled down on the role that he sees for the National Guard and active-duty military in stopping what the president described as disorder at home, preventing illegal immigration and targeting suspected drug smugglers in Latin America.
“I told Pete we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military—National Guard, but military—because we’re going into Chicago very soon,” Trump said.
Trump also underscored his policy of conducting airstrikes against suspected drug traffickers. Those strikes have been carried out against boats at sea, and Trump has previously suggested they might be conducted against targets on land, too.
“The military is now the knife’s edge in combating this sinister enemy,” Trump said. “We have to put the traffickers and cartels on notice.”
Hegseth on Sunday ordered 200 National Guard troops to be sent to Portland, Ore., under federal authority to fight what the White House has described as rampant lawlessness in the Democratic-led city. The deployment is to “protect federal property” where protests are “occurring or likely to occur,” Hegseth said.
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, has charged that the deployment of the National Guard is unnecessary and an abuse of power. The state is suing to try to block it.
Around 2,000 National Guard troops were sent to Washington, D.C., in August, while Trump has repeatedly indicated that he wants to mobilize the troops in Chicago and Memphis, Tenn. Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, has said that the National Guard could arrive in Memphis this week.
Trump previously sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles, deployments that he said were needed to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations from protesters.
The Quantico meeting was attended by hundreds of commanders and other senior officers, who had been instructed to attend the meeting at short notice. The gathering was without recent precedent.
Hegseth didn’t initially explain the purpose of the session in directing the officers to be there, which added to the unease in the ranks. Trump, who wasn’t part of the Defense Department’s initial planning for the event, later decided to attend.
Trump joked at the start of his speech about the subdued response from the military officers, which was a far cry from the raucous crowds at his political rallies.
Officers were told to follow the lead of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, on when to applaud the president and the secretary, according to two officials who were in the room.
“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” said Trump, who also suggested that officers were free to ignore his comments. “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room—of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future,” he jested.
He then spoke warmly about the military. “I am with you. I support you, and as president, I have your backs 100%,” he said.
Much of Trump’s speech involved familiar political attacks on “sleepy Joe Biden” and Democrats.
“President Trump’s remarks offered no strategy, no operational guidance and no plan to address real threats,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former officer in the 82nd Airborne Division. “His reckless suggestion that American cities be used as ‘training grounds’ for U.S. troops is a dangerous assault on our democracy, treating our own communities as war zones and our citizens as enemies.”
The meeting came as the Pentagon is revising the National Defense Strategy, a seminal document that establishes spending and operational priorities. It is published every four years.
The emerging strategy, said current and former officials, underscores the priority of securing the Western Hemisphere, a requirement that reflects the Trump administration’s opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the White House’s focus on stopping illegal immigration.
But the strategy is being drafted as the U.S. military is trying to strengthen its capability to deter China from taking action against Taiwan in the Western Pacific and as the Pentagon is encouraging European nations to assume the lead role in defending the continent against potential Russian aggression.
Even with defense spending running at roughly $1 trillion a year, there is a fierce competition for resources as the military moves to develop new weapons, improve the readiness of its current force, fill diminished munitions stockpiles and take on projects such as Trump’s costly “Golden Dome” initiative to try to develop a nationwide antimissile defense.
The military also faces other challenges about its role at home and abroad. The White House’s decision to deploy the National Guard in U.S. cities has raised fundamental questions about whether the military is overstepping the bedrock principle that it shouldn’t be drawn into domestic law enforcement.
The military is also being challenged by lawmakers and legal experts about its expanding role in the Caribbean, including airstrikes carried out against suspected drug smugglers at sea. That role is likely to expand in coming months as the U.S. deploys more forces to Puerto Rico.
The White House says that the use of force is justified by Trump’s authority as the commander in chief to protect the U.S. Some former military lawyers and critics in Congress have said it isn’t supported by the Constitution and amounts to extrajudicial killings.
Much of Hegseth’s address focused on standards in the military, with the secretary saying personnel would be judged on their fitness and appearance. Physical-fitness tests would be set to male standards, he said. He also emphasized the importance of grooming among male personnel. “The era of unprofessional appearance is over,” Hegseth said. “No more beardos.”
The military officials were bused to the auditorium early in the morning. One commander said they followed “State of the Union-type rules,” offering little reaction to the speeches.
Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Shelby Holliday at shelby.holliday@wsj.com
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Appeared in the October 1, 2025, print edition as 'President Tells Military Brass To Fight ‘Enemy Within’ U.S.'.