President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to “woke” culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world.

"As president, I will never hesitate to defend our people from threats of violence, from the horrible plague that's taking place from within," Trump said.

Trump and Hegseth also vowed to end "political correctness" in the military, delcaring the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race and gender quotas.

"We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom. We will be a fighting and winning machine. We want to fight. We want win," Trump said.

Hegseth had called military leaders to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning.

Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.

Admirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.