President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told hundreds of senior military leaders that the Department of War’s mission is to achieve “peace through strength” during a Tuesday morning address at Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia. 

“From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this, war fighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit,” Hegseth said in a speech during which the former Fox News host railed against DEI and climate change. 

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Trump, who followed Hegseth, threatened to fire generals “on the spot” if he doesn’t like them before warning of an “invasion from within” during his speech. Trump highlighted the work of National Guard troops in Washington D.C. and suggested that similar measures could be used to address crime in Democrat-led cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, and New York.

“They're very unsafe places, and we're going to straighten them out one by one,” Trump said. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within. Controlling the physical territory of our border is essential to national security. We can’t let these people in.”

Trump also admitted that he has placed at least one nuclear submarine off the coast of Russia after feeling “a little bit threatened by Russia recently.”