Trump Hails West Point Cadets for Their Accomplishments and Takes Credit for US Military Might

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump used the first military commencement address of his second term Saturday to congratulate West Point cadets on their academic and physical accomplishments while veering sharply into politics, taking credit for America's military might while boasting about the “mandate” he says he earned in the 2024 presidential election.

“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 the U.S. is the “hottest country in the world,” boasted of his administration's achievements and underscored a distinct America First ethos for the U.S. military, which he called “the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.”

“We’re getting rid of distractions and we’re focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America’s adversaries, killing America’s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before,” Trump said. He later said that “the job of the U.S. Armed Forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,” a reference to drag shows on military bases that former President Joe Biden's administration halted after Republican criticism.

Trump said the cadets were graduating at a “defining moment” in the Army’s history, as he criticized past political leaders for leading soldiers into “nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.” He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, “critical race theory” and trainings he called divisive and political.

“They subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries’ wars," he said of past administrations.

Several points during his address at the football stadium on the military academy's campus were indistinguishable from a political speech. Trump claimed that when he left the White House in 2021, “we had no wars, we had no problems, we had nothing but success, we had the most incredible economy.” He noted that he won all seven swing states in the November election, arguing that those results gave him a “great mandate” and “it gives us the right to do what we want to do.”

But Trump also took several moments to acknowledge specific graduates’ achievements. He 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. He had the top-ranking lacrosse team stand to be recognized. Trump also brought West Point's football quarterback, Bryson Daily, to the lectern, praising his “steel”-like shoulder. He later used Daily as an example to make a case against transgender women participating in women's athletics.

In a nod to presidential tradition, Trump also pardoned about half a dozen cadets who had faced disciplinary infractions.

“You could have done anything you wanted, you could have gone anywhere,” Trump told the class, later continuing: “Writing your own ticket to top jobs on Wall Street or Silicon Valley wouldn’t be bad, but I think what you’re doing is better.”

The president also ran through several pieces of advice for the graduating cadets, urging them to do what they love, think big, work hard, hold onto their culture, keep faith in America and take risks.

“This is a time of incredible change and we do not need an officer corps of careerists and yes men,” Trump said, going on to note recent advances in military technology. “We need patriots with guts and vision and backbone.”

Trump closed his speech by calling on the graduating cadets to “never ever give up,” then said he was leaving to deal with matters involving Russia and China.

“We're going to keep winning, this country's going to keep winning, and with you, the job is easy,” he said.

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.