Trump to West Point grads: America is ‘hotter now than we’ve ever seen it’

Sporting a red “Make America Great Again” cap, President Donald Trump addressed the U.S. Army’s newest young officers Saturday — telling them they are commencing their military careers in “the golden age of America.”

In a wide-ranging, aggressive commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy — addressing a range of topics from international trade matters to keeping men out of women’s sports — the president told the freshly-commissioned 2nd lieutenants that “winning is a beautiful thing.”

Losing, he added, “is not for us.”

“In every battle,” he said, “you’ll stand strong. You’ll work hard. You’ll stay tough. And you will fight, fight, fight — and win, win, win.”

West Point’s Class of 2025, said Trump, join graduates of “the most elite and storied” service academy in history that produced American military icons such as Pershing, Grant, Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur.

“And you will become officers in the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known — and I know, because I rebuilt that army, and I rebuilt the military.”

The armed forces’ commander in chief said that Saturday’s graduating West Point cadets could have attended any college in the country.

“You chose honor and you chose sacrifice. Instead of business suits and dress shoes, you chose muddy boots and fatigues…West Point cadets don’t have just the brightest minds, you also have the bravest hearts and noblest souls.

Trump: Not ‘cutting 10 cents’ from $1 trillion defense budget

Trump spoke of recent travels to the Middle East and meeting with several national leaders.

“They all said the same thing: The United States of America is hotter now than we’ve ever seen it. And a year ago, it was as cold as it gets. And it’s true, it’s true. We have the hottest country in the world, and the whole world is talking about it.”

The president added he’s supporting a $1 trillion military budget. “Some people say, ‘Could you cut it back?’

“I said, I’m not cutting 10 cents.”

In past decades, he said, political leaders from both parties have “dragged our military” into missions that should have never happened.

“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, while abusing our soldiers with absurd ideological experiments, here and at home,” he said.

“All of that’s ended…They’re not even allowed to think about that any more.”

Meanwhile, Trump said, those same leaders subjected America’s armed forces “to all manner of social projects and political causes — while leaving the country’s borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries’ wars.”

Under the Trump administration, he said, that’s changing.

“Those days are over. We’re getting rid of the 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.”

Continuing, Trump said the job of the American armed forces is “not to host drag shows” or to transform foreign cultures — “but to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun. The military’s job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime and any place.”

One of the fundamental purposes of the military is to protect the country’s borders, said Trump.

“Our country was invaded for the last four years, and they’ve allowed people to come into our country that shouldn’t be here…We’re getting them out of our country. We have no choice.

It’s not an easy task, he added. “But hopefully the courts will allow us to continue.”

Trump calls for “common sense”; talks foreign trade

The president told the audience of cadets that the United States has been “ripped off by every nation in the world” for years.

“We’ve been ripped off at the NATO level. We’ve been ripped off like no country has ever been ripped off. But they don’t rip us off anymore. They’re not going to rip us off anymore, and you’re seeing it, you have to watch what we’re doing on trade.”

Common sense, added Trump on Saturday, has “liberated our troops” from “divisive and demeaning” political trainings.

“There will be no more ‘critical race theory’ or ‘transgender for everybody’ forced onto our brave men and women in uniform — or on anybody else, for that matter, in this country.

“And we will not have men playing in women’s sports.”

Advice for West Point’s Class of 2025

Trump said everyone he knows that’s highly successful in his or her career “loves what he or she does.”

That applies to those who have volunteered for military careers. “You’ve got to love it, otherwise you won’t be successful in the army,” he said.

He also encouraged West Point graduates to “think big” to achieve big things. And then work hard. The luckiest people, he said, are typically the hardest working people.

And always, Trump added, have the courage “to take risks and do things differently.

Those who follow such counsel, are those “who are going to make history.”

Vice President Vance in Annapolis

Vice President JD Vance spoke at the U.S. Naval Academy commencement Friday, telling graduates that Trump is working to ensure that American forces are only sent into combat with clear goals to avoid the “open-ended” conflicts of the past, the Associated Press reported.

“The Trump administration has reversed course,” said Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served a tour in Iraq. “No more undefined missions. No more open-ended conflicts.”

U.S. forces, he added, should be cautious in “deciding to throw a punch — but when we throw a punch, we throw a hard punch, and we do it decisively. And that’s exactly what we may ask you to do.”

Vance, in his first remarks as vice president to one of the military service academies, also spoke briefly about his own military service as he addressed the 1,049 graduates in Annapolis’ class of 2025, most of them newly commissioned Navy ensigns and Marine Corps second lieutenants.

Vance appeared to criticize the Iraq War as he spoke of Trump’s shift in approach, seeming to refer to the mission he served in when he said: “How hard could it be to build a few democracies in the Middle East? Well, almost impossibly hard, it turns out. And unbelievably costly.”

Vance also criticized a Biden administration effort to build a pier in Gaza to accept aid in Israel’s war with Hamas there, which he suggested never worked, the Associated Press reported.

Operational disruptions at America’s service academies

Trump’s and Vance’s commencement speeches at West Point and Annapolis comes at a disruptive moment for the country’s service academies.

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instructed the academies to offer admission “exclusively on merit.”

An applicant’s race, ethnicity or sex will no longer be considered for admission to any of the five U.S. service academies: the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

“The Military Service Academies (MSA) are elite warfighting institutions with long histories of producing world class military officers,” wrote Hegseth.

“The Department owes it to our nation, our service members, and the young Americans applying to the MSAs to ensure admissions to these prestigious institutions are based exclusively on merit.”

Nixing all elements of affirmative action, the memo added, ensures “only the most qualified candidates” are admitted, trained and commissioned to lead “the finest fighting force in history.”

“Selecting anyone but the best erodes lethality, our warfighting readiness, and undercuts the culture of excellence in our Armed Forces.”

The Pentagon also ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review their library books that address “diversity, anti-racism or gender issues.”

The directive is the latest action taken by the Defense Department to “rid the military of diversity and equity programs, policies and instructional materials,” according to an Associated Press report.

It follows Hegseth’s earlier actions to remove hundreds of similar books from the libraries at U.S. service academies.

The memo says that educational materials at the libraries “promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department’s core mission.

All but a few of the nearly 400 books that the U.S. Naval Academy removed from its library because they dealt with anti-racism and gender issues are now back on the shelves after the newest Pentagon-ordered review — the latest turn in a dizzying effort to rid the military of materials related to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the Associated Press reported.

Based on the new review, about 20 books from the academy’s library are being pulled aside to be checked, but that number includes some that weren’t identified or removed in last month’s initial purge of 381 books, defense officials said.

A few dozen books at the Air Force libraries — including at the Air Force Academy — also have been pulled out for review, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is still ongoing.

The Navy said in a statement Wednesday that it reviewed the library collections at all of its educational institutions to ensure compliance with the directives, noting that materials have been “identified and sequestered.”

The Army and Air Force also have reviewed their collections.