'Stupid': Experts warn Pete Hegseth just endangered top military officers

Days ahead of a likely government shutdown, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called all top military members to Washington, D.C., for a meeting, according to reports Thursday.

While some question removing top strategists from key areas around the world, others want to know whether it's a good idea to consolidate them in one place.

Retired Marine F/A-18 pilot Amy McGrath wrote on X, "Telling the world that you are gathering all our high-ranking military officers to one single location is really not that smart from a security perspective."

"I don’t know why Hegseth is calling this big jamboree in until I do. I can’t really evaluate it. On its face, pulling all these guys from all over the world and making them all sit in one place seems kind of stupid," wrote Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, who previously taught at the U.S. Naval War College.

University of Toronto American historian Tim Snyder commented, "There are good reasons not to do this. There are, however, bad reasons to do this, which brings us to Hegseth. He says the greatest danger to the US is not China or Russia but internal factors. He could be right, if what he has in mind is himself."