West Point, N.Y. – President Trump is addressing the 2025 graduating class at West Point on Saturday in his first military commencement address of his second term.
The last time the president gave a speech at the U.S. Military Academy came amid nationwide reckoning following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. In that address, Mr. Trump focused his speech on thanking the National Guard for “ensuring peace, safety and the constitutional rule of law on our streets.” He urged the class to never forget the soldiers who fought to “extinguish the evil of slavery.”
Nine graduates in 2020 wrote a letter to administrators asking for anti-racism training to be part of the curriculum at West Point, saying the institution was failing to produce leaders equipped to lead diverse organizations.
Five years later, West Point is complying with the second Trump administration’s executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs in the military. In February, the U.S. military academy disbanded a dozen cadet clubs formed around race and gender, including the Asian-Pacific Forum Club, the National Society of Black Engineers Club, and the Society of Women Engineers Club.
The order bans race or sex-based preference in any part of the U.S. military and directs Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to conduct internal reviews of DEI initiatives. The President vowed during the campaign to get rid of “woke” military generals and re-establish a merit-based system.
Some at West Point have protested the measures. West Point philosophy Professor Graham Parsons resigned after writing an op-ed in The New York Times criticizing the U.S. Military Academy for its “sweeping assault on the school’s curriculum and the faculty members’ research” in response to the president’s executive order.
Mr. Trump’s address comes a day after Vice President J.D. Vance, a Marine veteran, spoke at the U.S. Naval Academy and emphasized the administration’s shift in foreign policy against forever wars and open-ended conflicts. No longer would the U.S. send the military on missions unless there was a “specific set of goals in mind,” he told the graduates.
Ahead of Memorial Day, Vance also reflected on the sacrifice of service members. He shared the story of Major Megan McClung, 34, who served alongside him in Iraq and was killed by a roadside bomb.
“She was an officer, who I served with, who was bright, tough and incredibly dedicated to her job,” Vance said.
He acknowledged that while not all the graduates shared his politics, he was still rooting for them.
Of the 1,002 cadets graduating from the U.S. Military Academy, 14 are international cadets coming from across the globe, including Kosovo, Qatar, and Poland.