Trump vows to use 'dangerous' US cities as army training grounds to fight 'invasion from within'

President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have suggested using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces, hinting at an "invasion from within" that could warrant "overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy."

Despite the US military's primary role being to address foreign threats, Trump has proposed using it on American cities. He and Hegseth, a former Fox News pundit, addressed hundreds of top military officials who were hastily summoned from around the globe to Virginia.

Here, they were lectured on troops' physical fitness and their loyalty to the Trump administration's anti-DEI initiatives. But amid the bizarre spectacle, the US President made a chillingly authoritarian admission.

"I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," Trump said. "It's the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control," he added, allegedly referring to criminals and immigrants.

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These dual messages highlight the Trump administration's efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but also to enlist military resources for the president's priorities and decidedly domestic purposes. This includes quelling opposition to his administration's often baseless shows of force on Democratic cities he claims have "out of control" violent crime.

"We're under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms," Trump said.

Hegseth summoned hundreds of military leaders and their top advisers from around the globe to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, without publicly disclosing the reason. According to The Associated Press, his speech primarily revolved around well-worn talking points that depicted a military hindered by "woke" policies, and he suggested military leaders should "do the honourable thing and resign" if they disagree with his new approach.

While meetings between military brass and civilian leaders are not uncommon, this particular gathering sparked intense speculation due to the speed at which it was convened and the secrecy surrounding it. The fact that admirals and generals from conflict zones were called for a lecture on race and gender in the military highlighted how the country's culture wars have become a key agenda item for Hegseth's Pentagon, even amidst widespread national security concerns worldwide.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Centre for Defence Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, commented that the Secretary of Defence's speech on Tuesday seemed more aimed at generating public relations content than "aligning the leadership around a set of ideas that the Trump administration is going to pursue."

Clark said that there had been some anticipation that Hegseth would discuss budget priorities, military investments or the new national defence strategy, which the Pentagon is expected to unveil soon.

Clark commented that the message didn't align with the seriousness of an event that gathered hundreds of senior military leaders in one room.

"You'd think that the purpose of that would have been something more dramatic and important than grooming standards and physical fitness standards," he remarked.

Janessa Goldbeck, a former Marine and current CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, suggested that the defence secretary's speech on Tuesday was more about "stoking grievance than strengthening the force."

She criticised Hegseth's plan for relaxing the rules for discipline in the military, equating abuse with toughness, as the "mark of someone who's never seen the real thing.

"It takes no strength to hit a recruit - it takes real strength to teach one," she stated.

"I had a front-row seat every day to the extraordinary training our recruits receive from the most disciplined, professional Marines in the fleet," Goldbeck recalled her experience at Marine boot camp in California, while pointing out that Hegseth "never served as a drill instructor and never trained a recruit."

The secretary "has a cartoonish, 1980s comic-book idea of toughness he's never outgrown," she said. "Instead of focusing on what actually improves force readiness, he continues to waste time and taxpayer dollars on He-Man culture-war theatrics."

Trump, meanwhile, has already pushed the boundaries of a nearly 150-year-old federal law, the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military's role in enforcing domestic laws.

He has dispatched National Guard and active duty Marines to Los Angeles, threatened to do the same to tackle alleged crime and illegal immigration in other Democratic-led cities, including Portland and Chicago, and increased troops at the U.S.-Mexico border.

National Guard members are generally exempt from the law as they are under state authority and controlled by governors.

However, the law does apply to them when they're "federalised" and put under the president's control, as happened in Los Angeles over the Democratic governor's objections.