This year, the United States Army celebrates its 250th birthday. President Donald Trump kicked off his Memorial Day weekend by speaking at the graduation of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Wearing his signature “Make America Great Again” red hat and a clashing magenta tie, the Commander in Chief gave his sluggish, partly off-prompter keynote address to 1,002 cadets at Michie Stadium at West Point, N.Y.
Trump spent time praising the cadets before him, referring to them at one point as “a bunch of male models.” He brought up two cadets on stage to honor their contributions to the class of 2025. Cadet Bryson Daily led the Army’s Black Knights football team to a winning season, and Cadet Chris Verdugo set a new record on a 18.5-mile freezing winter night hike in just 2 hours and 30 minutes (beating the previous record by 13 minutes).
The USMA also made Peter Wang an honorary cadet. Wang was a junior ROTC cadet when he was killed six years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
After praising the military in general, Trump boasted his recent success in securing increased military spending, including new stealth planes, tanks, ships, missiles, and drones. All “Made in America,” of course. He brought up the “Golden Dome” missile defense shield to applause, promising to complete it before he left office. He discussed his immigration changes, like sending the army to help protect the southern border and ranting how he inherited a “terrible” immigration system of releasing “insane” people and violent criminals from jails.
After a brief detour through the same speech on how he won the election, he returned to immigration, claiming that he had closed the borders “99.999%,” as Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) only allowed one sick person cross the border to get help. Border crossings are down, according to Trump’s own CBP by 94% since March 2024. They also note that illegal border crossing average 264 (out of 673 encounters) per day in March alone. No word on the status of the aforementioned sick border-crosser.
Trump focused much of his speech on how these decisions were to establish a better future for the military and for America. Then, suggesting that success comes from the “culture of winning,” he started the final segment of speech with some sound advice:
“You have to do what you love. If you don’t love it, you won’t be successful. Follow your instincts to take the path that you love.”
“Think big. If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it big.”
“Brainpower, you have to have. Potential, you have to have. But if you really want to be successful, you have to work hard.”
“Don’t lose your momentum.”
“You have to have the courage to take risks and do things differently.”
“With leaders like the West Point class of 2025, the army will never fail,” said Trump to close his over one-hour speech. “We will never let you down.”
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