Trump meets with candidates for four-star general in break with tradition, White House acknowledges

WASHINGTON — The White House has acknowledged that President Donald Trump now meets with candidates for promotion to the rank of four-star general, in a break with past practice. A White House spokesperson said the Republican president has the meetings because he wants to make sure the U.S. military retains its superiority and its leaders focus on fighting wars. "President Trump wants to ensure our military is the greatest and most lethal fighting force in history, which is why he meets with four-star-general nominees directly to ensure they are war fighters first — not bureaucrats," assistant press secretary Anna Kelly said. The meetings, however, are a departure from past practice, and knowledge of them has raised concerns about politicization of the military's top ranks. Trump has not always respected the long-standing tradition of walling off the military from partisan politics. In June, Trump took the rare step of mobilizing the National Guard and then the Marines, sending hundreds of them into Los Angeles over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with whom the president has feuded politically. Trump followed up with a campaign-style rally at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where uniformed soldiers cheered as he criticized former President Joe Biden, Newsom and other Democrats — raising concerns that Trump was using the military as a political prop. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an Army veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meetings "very welcome reform." "I've long advocated for presidents to meet with 4-star nominees. President Trump's most important responsibility is commander-in-chief," Cotton wrote in a post on X. "The military-service chiefs and combatant commanders are hugely consequential jobs" and "I commend President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for treating these jobs with the seriousness they deserve." The New York Times, which first reported on the practice, said it had been initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.