Watch: Trump is talking about the opening speech at West Point Class from 2025

West Point, NY (AP) – President Donald Trump used the first military speech of his second term on Saturday to congratulate West Point -Cadets on their academic and physical achievements while he is heavily dealing with politics.

Watch Trump's address in the video player above.

“In a few moments, they will graduates from the elite and the most famous military academy in human history,” said Trump at the ceremony in the Michie Stadium. “And they become officers of the largest and most powerful army that the world has ever known. And I know because I rebuilt this army and I rebuilt the military. And we have rebuilt it as if nobody had rebuilt it in my first term.”

The Republican President wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat and told the 1,002 graduates that the United States was the “hottest country in the world” that praised the achievements of its government and called a certain first America ethos for the US military, which he called “the big battles in the history of the world”.

“We get rid of distractions and concentrate our military on its core mission: the violations of America's opponents, the killing of the enemies of America and the defense of our great American flag, as if it had never been defended before,” said Trump. He later said that “the task of the US armed forces is not to organize Drag shows or change foreign cultures”, an indication of Drag shows on military bases that the government of former President Joe Biden continued after Republican criticism.

Trump said the cadets had completed a “decisive moment” in the history of the army when he criticized former political leaders because he built soldiers in “Crusades in the country, the nations who have nothing to do with us”. He said he cleared the military of transgender ideas, the “critical racial theory” and the training, which he described as splitting and politically.

Read more: Trans -troops directed by US military rings with an uncertain future

“They have exposed the armed forces all types of social projects and political reasons, while they had undisturbed our borders and exhausted our arsenale to wage the wars of other countries,” he said of past administrations.

Several points during his speech in the football stadium on the military academy campus could not be distinguished from a political speech. Trump claimed when he left the White House in 2021: “We had no wars, we had no problems, we had nothing but success, we had the most incredible economy.” He noticed that in the November elections he won all seven swing countries and argued that these results gave him a “big mandate” and “we have the right to do what we want to do.”

But Trump also took several moments to recognize the success of the certain graduates. He called a cadet, Chris Verdugo, on stage and found that in just two hours and 30 minutes he completed an 18.5 mile march in an icy night in January. He had the first-class Lacrosse team to be recognized. Trump also brought the football quarters back from West Point, Bryson Daily, to the speaker and praised his “steel” -like shoulder. Later he used an example every day to work against transgender women who took part in the athletics of women.

In an allusion to the tradition of the President, Trump also pardoned about half a dozen cadets who were exposed to disciplinary violations.

“You could have done everything you wanted, you could have been going somewhere,” said Trump of the class and continued later: “It would not be bad to write your own ticket to top jobs in Wall Street or Silicon Valley, but I think what you do is better.”

The President also went through several advice for the graduates cadets and asked them to do what they love, think great, work hard, hold on to their culture, keep trust in America and take risks.

“This is a time of incredible change, and we do not need an officer corps of careerist and yes, men,” said Trump, stating the recent progress in military technology. “We need patriots with courage and vision and backbone.”

Trump concluded his speech by asking the graduates of the cadets to “never give up”, and then said he would go to deal with Russia and China.

“We will continue to win, this country will continue to win and the job is easy with them,” he said.

Before the campus, about three dozen demonstrators gathered before the ceremony and blew the American miniature flags. One in the crowd wore a sign with the inscription “Support of our veterans” and “Stop the cuts”, while other plastic buckets kept with the message: “Go Army Beat Fascism”.

Trump held the speech to West Point in 2020 during the height of the Covid 19 pandemic. He asked the final cadets to “never forget the soldiers who had a war against slavery during his statements, who, as the nation, expect their history as the nation after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Trump also paid tribute to the history of the military academy and its famous graduates, including Douglas Macarthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower. The ceremony was checked five years ago because the US military academy forced the graduates who were at home because of Covid-19 to return to an area near a Pandemic hotspot.

Trump traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama at the beginning of this month, to speak to the final class of the University of Alabama. His remarks mixed standard opening price and advice with political attacks against his predecessor, the democrat Joe Biden, considers transgender athletes and lies about the 2020 elections.

On Friday, Vice President JD Vance spoke to the final class of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. In his comments, Vance said that Trump was working to ensure that US soldiers are used with clear goals and not the “undefined missions” and “open conflicts” of the past.

Swenson reported from Bridgewater, New Jersey.