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President Donald Trump<\/a> used the first service academy commencement address of his second term Saturday 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a few moments, you\u2019ll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history,\u201d Trump said at the ceremony at Michie Stadium. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Wearing a red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat, the Republican president told the 1,002 members of the class of 2025 at the U.S. Military Academy that the United States is the \u201chottest country in the world\u201d and underscored an \u201cAmerica First\u201d ethos for the military.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting rid of distractions and we\u2019re focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America\u2019s adversaries, killing America\u2019s enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before,\u201d Trump said. He later said that \u201cthe job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,\u201d a reference to drag shows on military bases<\/a> that Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration halted after Republican criticism.<\/p>\n Trump said the cadets were graduating at a \u201cdefining moment\u201d in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending soldiers into \u201cnation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.\u201d He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, \u201ccritical race theory\u201d and types of training he called divisive and political.<\/p>\n Past administrations, he said, \u201csubjected 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\u2019 wars.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 last November’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, arguing that voters gave him a \u201cgreat mandate\u201d and \u201cit gives us the right to do what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n At one point the crowd listened as Trump, known for his off-message digressions, referred to \u201ctrophy wives” and yachts during an anecdote about the late real estate developer William Levitt<\/a>, a billionaire friend who Trump said lost momentum.<\/p>\n But the president also took time to acknowledge the achievements of individual graduates.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, to the lectern, where the president praised Daily’s \u201csteel\u201d-like shoulder. Trump later used Daily as an example to make a case against transgender women participating in women’s athletics.<\/p>\n In a nod to presidential tradition, Trump also pardoned about half a dozen cadets who had faced disciplinary infractions.<\/p>\n He told graduates that \u201cyou could have done anything you wanted, you could have gone anywhere\u201d and that “writing your own ticket to top jobs on Wall Street or Silicon Valley wouldn\u2019t be bad. But I think what you\u2019re doing is better.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a time of incredible change and we do not need an officer corps of careerists and yes men,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe need patriots with guts and vision and backbone.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cSupport Our Veterans\u201d and \u201cStop the Cuts,\u201d while others held up plastic buckets with the message: \u201cGo Army Beat Fascism.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a> that Trump was working to ensure U.S. soldiers are deployed with clear goals, rather than the \u201cundefined missions\u201d and \u201copen-ended conflicts\u201d of the past.<\/p>\n Trump gave the commencement address at West Point in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the school forced cadets<\/a> spread out across the country to travel, risking exposure on public transportation, and then land in New York, a coronavirus hot spot.<\/p>\n This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n