WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump used the first military commencement address of his second term to congratulate West Point cadets Saturday on their academic and physical accomplishments while taking credit for America's military might.
“In a few moments, you’ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history," Trump said at the ceremony at Michie Stadium. "And you will become officers of the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known. And I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military. And we rebuilt it like nobody has ever rebuilt it before in my first term.”
Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, the Republican president told the 1,002 graduating cadets that “you came from excellence, you came for duty.” At one point during the speech, Trump summoned one cadet, Chris Verdugo, on the stage, noting that he completed an 18.5 mile march on a freezing night in January in just two hours and 30 minutes.
Just outside campus, about three dozen demonstrators gathered before the ceremony and were waving miniature American flags. One in the crowd carried a sign that said “Support Our Veterans” and “Stop the Cuts,” while others held up plastic buckets with the message: “Go Army Beat Fascism.”
Trump gave the commencement address at West Point in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He urged the graduating cadets to “never forget” the soldiers who fought a war over slavery during his remarks, which came as the nation was reckoning with its history on race after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Trump also paid tribute to the military academy’s history and its famed graduates, including Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The ceremony five years ago drew scrutiny because the U.S. Military Academy forced the graduating cadets, who had been home because of COVID-19, to return to an area near a pandemic hot spot.
Trump traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, earlier this month to speak to the University of Alabama’s graduating class. His remarks mixed standard commencement fare and advice with political attacks against his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, musings about transgender athletes and lies about the 2020 election.
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance spoke to the graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Vance said in his remarks that Trump is working to ensure U.S. soldiers are deployed with clear goals rather than the “undefined missions” and “open-ended conflicts” of the past.
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Swenson reported from Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Seung Min Kim And Ali Swenson, The Associated Press
