NSL4A President Featured in Coverage of Hegseth’s Pentagon Speech

Adm. Mike Smith, USN (Ret.)

USA Today

Sept. 30, 2025

President Donald Trump threatened firings and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lambasted "decades of decay" at the Pentagon as they spoke before a silent audience of hundreds of top military commanders who'd traveled from around the world on short notice to hear them at a Quantico, Virginia military base.

Trump spoke for over an hour, touching on his deployment of the National Guard to cities run by Democrats and his negotiations to end foreign conflicts. Hegseth, who took the podium first before a billboard-sized American flag, unveiled his major policy priorities, telling the country's military elite that new measures would weed out political correctness among the world's most powerful armed forces.

As some reports anticipated, Hegseth used the occasion to laud the "warrior ethos" and "peace through strength," and Trump delivered a characteristic speech, rife with self-praise. Critics said the gathering was a waste of taxpayer dollars and dangerous to national security. But it gave Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor who'd attained a lower rank during his military service than any of his guests in attendance, an opportunity to call for top leadership to get on board with his new Pentagon priorities.

Here's a look at key takeaways from the Quantico meeting.

Leaders who aren't in sync with the program should 'resign'

Both Trump and Hegseth told the gathering that generals and admirals who had problems with the Trump administration's program should resign.

"If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future. But you just feel nice and loose, okay?" Trump said. He had told reporters, with characteristic bravado, before arriving at the gathering that he would fire the generals "right on the spot" if he didn't like them.

Hegseth also delivered ultimatums. He told the senior officers they should resign if his words made their "heart sink."

"If the words I'm speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign," Hegseth said.

Michael Smith, a retired Navy Rear Admiral and president of National Security Leaders of America, said it was "ironic" that Hegseth advocated for stamping out politics before telling them to resign if they were not in alignment with his goals.

"The Secretary starts out saying how important it is for this group of generals and admirals to be apolitical. Then he goes on to air cultural grievances, and then says, 'If you don’t agree with this political vision, you should resign,'" Smith said.

Smith said the tenor of both speeches broke with standards.

"Demanding personal loyalty to an administration's political policies goes against the apolitical nature of our military," he said.