Grooming standards, “toxic leadership,” and culture wars were the themes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chose for his unprecedented short-notice gathering of more than 800 military leaders and their senior enlisted advisors from commands around the world to a Marine base in Virginia Tuesday morning.

Shortly before Hegseth spoke, President Donald Trump told reporters the generals and admirals had come to hear “how well we’re doing militarily.” But Hegseth spent most of his time repeating many of the gripes heard during Trump’s presidential campaign.

“No more dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship,” Hegseth said in his Tuesday address . “We are done with that shit,” he insisted. “For too long we've promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons—based on thei

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