'We are putting America first': 5 takeaways from Trump's West Point commencement speech
Sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat, President Donald Trump emphasized the need for the country to put its priorities above all else during his commencement addresses at West Point on Saturday.
"Gone are the days where defending every nation but our own was the primary thought," he aid. "We are putting America first. We have to rebuild and defend our nation."
This was Trump's second address to cadets at the upstate New York academy, where the nation's next generation of army leaders are educated. The last time he spoke there was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, which saw a more subdued ceremony of cadets sitting several feet apart.
The president told the military graduates during a roughly hourlong speech that they are joining elite and storied ranks.
"You came for excellence. You came for duty. You came to serve your country and you came to show yourselves, your family and the world that you are among the smartest, toughest (and) most lethal warriors ever to walk on this planet," he said.
Attending graduation ceremonies at one of the nation's five military academies is a common ritual for every commander-in-chief, and gives them a chance to flex their larger defense strategy.
The 2025 West Point graduation speech comes at a pivotal moment for Trump, as he seeks to install his populist-fueled agenda in the military's apparatuses and policies while seeking to reshape previous alliances and negotiate an end to the Ukraine-Russia war.
Here are the key takeaways from Saturday's graduation.
Trump didn't hold back in justifying his "America First" worldview in terms of how the U.S. military should operate, whether at home or abroad.
"The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures (and) spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun," he said. "The military's job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime and any place."
At various moments during the keynote address, Trump called out what he described as "divisive and demeaning political trainings" at the academy, which has been ordered to ditch talk of systemic inequity in its syllabi and forced student affinity clubs for women and racial minorities to disband.
He has signed a number of executive orders in January, for instance, aimed at shaping the country's armed forces such as calling for the creation of an anti-missile defense shield to defend the U.S. against aerial attacks. He also has ordered the shuttering of diversity offices and programs in the Defense Department as well as banning transgender Americans from serving, infuriating liberal critics.
The president did briefly mention his plan of investing $25 billion toward building a massive anti-missile defense shield that seeks to cover the country with three layers of aerial protection, according to military officials.
"We're building the Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland and to protect West Point from attack, and it will be completed before I leave office," Trump said.
One bone Trump consistently picks when talking about America's military might is the U.S. relationship with foreign allies, and how little credit he feels the country gets for helping its friends.
During the speech, for example, the president grumbled about how European nations have major celebrations about winning World War II when the U.S. does not. He told West Point graduates about a recent conversation he had with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France.
"He said, 'Sir, we're celebrating our victory over WWII.' I said, whoa, whoa, what have we here," Trump said. "We helped them a lot."
Trump told the cadets he wants America to have its own V-Day celebration.
The president's love of military celebrations is well known, as the army is gearing up for a parade through the streets of Washington DC, something he tried unsuccessfully to hold during his first term that is now billed as commemorating the force's 250th birthday. The June 14 date also happens to be the president's 79th birthday.
As Trump outlined his defense agenda and showered cadets with praise, the president was met with a pair of demonstrations including a small flotilla of boats in the Hudson River in sight of the graduation ceremonies.
Protesters began to assemble outside the military academy's event hours before the president arrived, with many holding signs reading "Go Army, Defend Democracy" as guests and dignitaries arrived.
Joining Forces, a grassroots organization that organized the protests, said it objected to Trump's appearance "at the very site where our democracy was forged — where George Washington and his troops resisted tyranny and broke free from a king — represents a profound insult to American patriots."
"We are pretty concerned about the destruction of our democracy, particularly in the Hudson Highlands where our nation was formed," Alex Dubroff, a protest organizer, said.
The roughly 1,000 graduating cadets heard Trump boast about a coming "golden age" for the country now that he pinned largely upon parting ways with his predecessors.
"For at least two decades, political leaders from both parties have dragged our military into missions never meant to be," Trump said.
"People would say, why are we doing this? Why are we wasting our time, money and souls? In some case, they sent our warriors on nation building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us, led by leaders that didn't have a clue in distant lands."
Trump didn't mention any former president by name, but the pointed remarks underscore his more isolationist perspective compared to Republican and Democratic predecessors.
"My preference always will be to make peace and seek partnership, even with countries with which our differences may be profound," he said.
One thing that didn't come up much was a progress report on ending the Ukraine-Russia war, which is one of Trump's top foreign affairs goals.
The president had a a two-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, saying peace talks would begin "immediately." It is unclear if those talks will included Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had a tense exchange with Trump inside the Oval Office in February.
Trump mentioned Putin only a handful of times and in passing, such as at the end of his speech when he told cadets he was, "going back now to deal with Russia."
"You won two world wars and plenty of other things, but you want to think of it, we don't want to have a third world war," he said.
Contributing: Mike Randall
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump eschews diversity, touts 'Golden Dome' at West Point speech
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