Trump to Generals: ‘We Are Reawakening the Warrior Spirit’

President Donald Trump told military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday that his administration is reinvigorating “the warrior spirit” in the United States military.

After Secretary of War Pete Hegseth welcomed Trump to the stage to address generals and admirals, the president emphasized the importance of returning to the “warrior spirit” and affirmed he stands fully behind America’s servicemembers.

“Together we are reawakening the warrior spirit, and this is a spirit that won and built this nation from the cavalry that tamed the great plains, to the ferocious, unyielding power of Patton, Bradley, and the great General Douglas MacArthur. These are all great men,” Trump said.

“In this effort, we’re a team, and so my message to you is very simple: I am with you, I support you, and as president, I have your backs 100 percent,” he added. “You’ll never see me even waver a little bit. That’s the way it is. And that includes our great police officers and firemen and all of these people that are doing so well.”

Trump vowed to strengthen the military throughout his administration.

“Together over the next few years, we are going to make our military stronger, tougher, faster, fiercer, and more powerful than it has ever been before. I rebuilt our nuclear, as you probably know, but we’ll upgrade that also and just hope we never have to use it,” he said.

Trump also said he’ll fire generals “on the spot” if he dislikes them.

Trump spoke with reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House for Quantico, telling them the address was “an esprit de corps.”

“These are our generals, our admirals, our leaders, and it’s a good thing,” he said. “A thing like this has never been done before because they came from all over the world and there’s a little bit of expense, not much, but there’s a little expense to that.”

“This was the one time we had to do a great spiritizing. It’s going to be great…We have our real warriors over there, and when they’re not good, when we don’t think they’re our warriors, you know what happens? We say ‘You’re fired, get out,'” he added.

Trump was also critical of some of the generals who worked at the top of the administration in the first term, including Mark Milley, James Mattis, and Mark Esper.

“I had unbelievable people in there, but I also had some bad ones at the top like Milley, and Mattis, and Esper. I called him too ‘Always too late Yesper,'” he added. “He was horrible, but I learned, because you know I was just in there and I put these people in, they were recommended by RINOs and others, and they’re not good. What we have now is the best.”