WASHINGTON — It was a speech unlike any other and just like every other.

Shawn McCreesh

The New York Times

News Analysis

The makings of it were strange and rare. Washington had raised a collective eyebrow last week when news began circulating that President Donald Trump and his defense secretary had summoned the country’s military brass to a base in Virginia for an unexplained meeting. The timing was notable. This summons had come just as the president had started to act with a new aggressiveness to carry out his long-held and oft-stated desire to send the military into U.S. cities, ostensibly to reduce crime.

Several hundred military commanders turned up at Quantico on Tuesday morning. Some had flown in for it from places as far away as Germany, Brussels, Japan and South Korea. They

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