President Donald Trump gave a politically-charged, rambling speech about DEI programs, golf and Al Capone while addressing the 2025 graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Trump’s Saturday morning address in West Point, New York, stretched on for over an hour. The speech was originally focused on West Point graduates and their accomplishments, but Trump soon turned toward other topics.
The commander in chief of the U.S. military used his keynote address to highlight his efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the country. He claimed to have “liberated our troops from divisive and demeaning political trainings,” and said there will be “no more critical race theory or transgender for everybody.”
This follows his January executive order that sought to deny the existence of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people throughout government.
“The job of the U.S. Armed Forces is not to host drag shows to transform foreign cultures, but to 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.”
West Point disbanded several clubs based on race, ethnicity and gender in the wake of Trump’s anti-DEI executive order earlier this year. These groups included the Asian-Pacific Forum Club, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Native American Heritage Forum, the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers Club.
Trump, wearing a red cap featuring his political slogan “Make America Great Again,” went on to praise his administration’s crackdown on immigration. This comes just hours after a federal judge ordered the administration to return a Guatemalan man “wrongfully” deported to Mexico.
“Our country was invaded for the last four years, and they’ve allowed people to come into our country that shouldn’t be, they shouldn’t be here…We’re getting them out and bringing them back where they came from,” Trump said.
“Hopefully the courts will allow us to continue,” he added. “You know, we had the greatest election victory. This was November 5. We won the popular vote by millions of votes.”
Trump also brought up some of his favorite famous names, including retired professional golfer Gary Player.
“To be really successful, you’re always going to have to work hard,” Trump said. “An example is a great athlete, Gary Player, great golfer. He wasn’t as big as the other men that were playing against him. Great, big, strong guys. Gary was a smaller guy.
“He’s a friend of mine, he gets a little angry at people. He hits the ball just this far,” Trump continued. “He said, ‘I hit the ball further than them. Why am I small?’ But he worked very, very hard. He was always doing exercise. He was always he was well ahead of his time. He never stopped.”
Trump then pivoted to a discussion about real estate developer William Levitt, who is widely considered the inventor of the modern American suburb. Levitt died in 1994.
“He was great at what he did,” Trump said of Levitt. “You see him all over the country, still Levittowns. This was a long time ago, but he was a first of the really, really big home builders, and he became very rich, a very rich man, and then he decided to sell.
“And he sold his company, and he had nothing to do. He ended up getting a divorce, found a new wife. Could you say a trophy wife? I guess we can say a trophy wife. It didn’t work out too well, but it doesn’t – that doesn’t work out too well, I must tell ya. A lot of trophy wives.”
The president also spoke about his past legal challenges, claiming he was investigated more than the infamous mob boss Al Capone. Trump made this comparison several times on the campaign trail last year. Last spring, he also made history by becoming the first criminally convicted former president.
“I was investigated more than the great late Alphonse Capone,” Trump told the West Point graduates. “Alphonse Capone was a monster. He was a very hardened criminal. I went through more investigations than Alphonse Capone, and now I’m talking to you as president. Can you believe this?”
Trump left the ceremony before noon and flew to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
It was almost five years since a previous address at West Point led to negative news coverage that Trump brought up repeatedly over the next few years. After finishing his address in June 2020, Trump visibly struggled to walk down a ramp from the stage, leading to questions over his physical fitness.
Trump reacted angrily, saying the ramp had no grip and that he was walking slowly because he didn’t want to slip.
Following the latest speech at West Point, the president exited the stage not by the ramp at the front but by walking to the side and down a short staircase.
