About this episode
On Tuesday, the top U.S. generals will meet at Quantico for an audience with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump. Hegseth’s order for the gathering comes on the heels of the firing of top military officers. It also lands in the middle of Hegseth’s attempts to purge the military of DEI initiatives and programs that he sees as not aligned with the military’s core mission of “lethality.” President Trump is expected to address the group. His speech comes after his recent order to send the National Guard into “war ravaged” Portland, Oregon, over the objection of local officials. Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Pentagon reporter Dan Lamothe about how The Post broke the story of the generals’ meeting, the logistics of gathering so many senior military officials in one place, and the optics of the president and defense secretary speeches to the top brass. Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Cater. Subscribe to The Washington Post here .