When US President Donald Trump walked onto the stage at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday, he quipped: “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before.”

Before him sat hundreds of generals and admirals, one of the largest gatherings of US military brass in modern history. The US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had already stunned the audience by declaring the Department of Defence the 'War Department.' Now it was Trump’s turn to speak.

The president encouraged the officers to laugh, applaud, or even walk out, joking that if they left, “there goes your rank, there goes your future.”

Backing Hegseth’s War Department reset

Trump praised Hegseth’s decision to rebrand the Department of Defence as the Department of War, calling it a 'historic reassertion' of America’s purpose. He claime

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