Washington, DC — Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, condemned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s decision to force senior military leaders away from their posts to attend partisan, culture-war speeches from him and President Trump.

"Secretary Hegseth summoning American generals and admirals to Virginia as a captive audience for Fox News-style political speeches is just another example of this administration’s dangerous politicization of the U.S. military. With global conflicts escalating and a Republican government shutdown looming, the administration chose to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars on a performative culture-war rally.

“President Trump offered no national security vision, just rambling grievances and partisan attacks. Even worse, his call to use U.S. cities as ‘training grounds’ for the military is chilling. This is what dictators do. We should not be numb to just how un-American it is for a U.S. president to direct our military to wage force on American civilians.

“For his part, Secretary Hegseth’s rants about ‘dudes in dresses’ and other culture-war bogeymen only underscored his unfitness to lead. Rather than focusing the Department on our most pressing national security challenges, the ‘Secretary of Culture Wars’ has undermined military readiness while attacking service members and even lashing out at freedom of the press. Once again, Hegseth’s overall lack of professionalism and experience were on full display, and it is past time for him to resign.”