Protestors gather at academy gates, Garrison’s Landing
President Donald Trump used the first service academy commencement address of his second term on Saturday (May 25) to laud graduating West Point cadets for their accomplishments and career choice while also veering sharply into a campaign-style recitation of political boasts and long-held grievances.
“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 members of the class of 2025 at the U.S. Military Academy that the U.S. is the “hottest country in the world” and underscored an “America First” ethos for the military.
“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 Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration halted after Republican criticism.
Trump said the cadets were graduating at a “defining moment” in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending 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 types of training 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 were indistinguishable from those heard in a political speech, from his assessment of the country when he left office in January 2021 to his review of November’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, arguing that voters gave him a “great mandate” and “it gives us the right to do what we want to do.”
Frequently turning the focus on himself, he reprised some of his campaign rally one-liners, including the claim that he has faced more investigations than mobster Al Capone.
At one point the crowd listened as Trump, known for his off-message digressions, referred to “trophy wives” and yachts during an anecdote about the late real estate developer William Levitt, a billionaire friend who Trump said lost momentum.
But the president also took time to acknowledge the achievements of individual graduates.
He summoned Chris Verdugo to the stage and noted that he completed an 18.5-mile march on a freezing night in January in just two hours and 30 minutes. Trump had the nationally ranked men’s lacrosse team, which held the No. 1 spot for a time in the 2024 season, stand and be recognized. Trump also brought Army’s star quarterback, Bryson Daily, to the lectern, where the president praised Daily’s “steel”-like shoulder. Trump 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.
He told graduates that “you could have done anything you wanted, you could have gone anywhere.” and that “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 doing what they love, thinking big, working hard, holding on to their culture, keeping faith in America and taking 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 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.” Across the river, protestors also gathered at Garrison’s Landing, including in kayaks.
Photos by Leo Grocott
Photos by Ross Corsair
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 was working to ensure U.S. soldiers are deployed with clear goals, rather than the “undefined missions” and “open-ended conflicts” of the past.
Trump gave the commencement address at West Point in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the school forced cadets spread out across the country to travel, risking exposure on public transportation, and then land in New York, a coronavirus hot spot.
I’m puzzled by The Current’s under-reporting of a major protest against Donald Trump’s West Point’s commencement speech over Memorial Day weekend. While Trump was speaking, over 200 people gathered at Garrison Landing and 25 boats, led by the Clearwater, circled below West Point. As a sea of American flags waved, speakers focused on what patriotism means today — how our democracy was forged right here during the American Revolution, how George Washington and his troops ousted a tyrant, how the soil here is rich with the blood of patriots. They spoke of the urgent need to defend our democracy, to stand up for Constitution, and to preserve the rule of law from the attacks of a wannabe dictator. They spoke of the white crosses on the lawn of St. Mary’s church, and the heroic sacrifice of our veterans who died so we could live as free people. Because if we lose our freedoms to another dictator, what was it all for? As we sang “America the Beautiful,” people waved flags and hoisted signs that said “Hands Off Our Democracy” and “No Tyrants, No Kings.” We chanted to the cadets across the river “We Are With You” and “Go Army, Beat Tyranny.” Trump, meanwhile, was giving his embarrassing speech about trophy wives, yachts and drag shows. Our protest received national television coverage from NBC Nightly News (5 million+ viewers), MSNBC’s Sunday Today (2 million+) and local coverage from News 12. Print coverage was led by USA Today — accompanied by 34… Read more »
I am a member of the Garrison’s Landing board. I was not aware of this protest at the gazebo on West Point graduation day. I do not support this. Graduation day is a day to honor the hard work of the cadets. I am a proud aunt of Matthew Giachinta, West Point graduate and former football captain.
I fully agree with Peter Bynum’s articulate and thoughtful perspective on the quality and quantity of The Current’s coverage of this major local event. It was a failure, pure and simple. Why this historic demonstration was relegated to a very small story and photo on Page 5, instead of being on Page 1, is both a mystery and a major embarrassment. Did Roger Ailes make a visit from the grave to influence editorial policy? Shame on The Current, especially when the Trump administration is making mincemeat of our overall democracy and the rule of law, and local residents come together in large numbers to stand for justice and the concept of truth.
I just delightedly completed a donation to The Current’s 15th-anniversary fundraising campaign, in addition to the monthly contribution I gladly make for this invaluable community resource. I ask everyone reading this latest excellent edition of a freely distributed, award-winning publication to do the same.
Since even this is now a source of contention, I’ll say how happy I am that the “protest” story was reported on an inside page of a prior issue. There are many local topics, most of them just as contentious, that are properly the focus of this local paper.
I personally turn to The Current for a break from the civil war over presidential politics that overruns every other outlet in our media universe. The Current staff gave the protest event the size and placement it needed, and they not surprisingly have walked away with another slew of awards. Congrats!
I have nothing but thanks and admiration for these dedicated public servants — and I’d put our exceptional Haldane school board into this same class of local heroes — who are simply doing their best to navigate perilous waters in impossibly polarized times.