President Donald Trump told senior United States military officials Tuesday some of them will be called upon to quell unrest in U.S. cities in a meandering speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered almost every flag officer, general officer and their senior enlisted advisors to an in-person gathering in Virginia.
Defense Department leadership sat quietly as Hegseth and Trump hit applause lines with little to no reaction.
Standing in front of a giant American flag reminiscent of the 1970 film "Patton," Trump complained that the assembled military leaders didn't cheer as he approached the lectern.
"I've never walked into a room so quiet before," he said.
During his speech, Trump told the military's leaders the military is key to his plans to get crime under control in American cities.
Trump said without evidence that the Army National Guard deployment to Washington, D.C. had eliminated crime.
"It's embarrassing to say this — now, I can say it because we solved it — but Washington, D.C. was the most unsafe, most dangerous city in the United States of America and to a large extent, beyond and beyond that," Trump said. "We haven't had a crime in Washington in so long."
Trump said the country is under an "invasion from within."
"And this is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it's the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control," Trump said. "It won't get out of control once you're involved."
Trump's plans for using the military domestically have come under fire from legal experts.
Last month, a federal judge ruled Trump's June deployment of Marines to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act — the law that bars the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement.
"This is really the first time that a president has ever ordered troops into an American city to fight what they believe are enemies," said Don King, a San Diego military attorney.
King is a retired Navy captain who served as staff judge advocate for military commanders and as a military judge.
He said Trump's plans put military leaders in a difficult position.
"It's all going to depend on the administration's ability to tie whatever they're going to do to legal authority," King said. "You're going to have you know — E-1s, E-2s, sergeants, staff sergeants on the ground. "If they're asked to take up arms against Americans (they're) probably going to wonder 'is this lawful?' It could create an enormous amount of chaos."
During his speech, Hegseth announced a series of policy reforms in the Defense Department that raise the burden of evidence needed to initiate misconduct investigations.
He also chastised leaders for people in uniform appearing to be "fat."
"Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops," Hegseth told the military's senior leaders. "Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look."
In his prior job as a Fox News host, Hegseth routinely used his platform to rail against the military's attempts to prosecute accused war criminals. Tuesday, he announced changes to policy.
"We fight to win," Hegseth said. "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."
King says it's within Hegseth's authority to determine any rules of engagement.
"All of those are set at the the secretary of defense level," King said. "So if the secretary of defense decides to get rid of all the rules of engagement, the only thing that would bind the warfighter are things like international law."
