President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States faces a "war from within" from crime and immigration, in a darkly authoritarian speech to a rare meeting of the top US military officers.

Addressing generals and admirals summoned from around the world by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Republican Trump warned that the military would be involved in his crackdowns on a number of Democratic-run cities.

"We're going to straighten them out one by one, 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," Trump said in front of a huge American flag in in Quantico, Virginia.

Trump added that he had signed an order to set up a military quick reaction force to quell civil disturbances "because it's the enemy from within, and

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