Trump at commencement hails West Point cadets and claims credit for U.S. military might

WEST POINT, N.Y. — President 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, claiming credit for America’s military might while boasting about his election victory last fall.

“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 record and underscored an “America first” theme 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 the Biden 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, whom he said led 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.

Past administrations, he said, “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.”

At times, his remarks sounded like 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” — although voters had just rejected his bid for reelection.

Turning to last year’s election, he noted that he won all seven swing states, arguing that those results gave him a “great mandate” and “it gives us the right to do what we want to do,” although he did not win a majority of votes nationwide.

The president also took time to acknowledge the achievements of individual graduates.

He summoned Chris Verdugo onto the stage, noting that the cadet completed an 18.5-mile march on a freezing night in January in two hours and 30 minutes. Trump had the top-ranking lacrosse team stand to be recognized. He also brought West Point’s football quarterback, Bryson Daily, to the lectern, praising him as having a “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.”

His advice to them included to do what they love, think big, work hard, hold on to 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. “We need patriots with guts and vision and backbone.”

Just outside campus, about three dozen protesters gathered before the ceremony, 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.”

On Friday, Vice President JD Vance spoke to the graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Vance said in his remarks that Trump is working to ensure U.S. soldiers are deployed with clear goals, rather than “undefined missions” and “open-ended conflicts.”

Trump gave the commencement address at West Point in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the school required cadets who were spread out across the country to travel — risking exposure on public transportation — and then land in New York, a coronavirus hot spot, to attend the ceremony.

Kim and Swenson write for the Associated Press and reported from West Point and Bridgewater, N.J., respectively.