Latest news with #WestPointAcademy
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
How long will it be before Melania steps aside for MelanAI?
I imagine students at the US Military Academy at West Point are trained to handle unexpected situations, but I'm not sure anyone could have prepared them for the bonkers speech Donald Trump delivered to graduates on Saturday. I wish I could point you to a government transcript, but the White House recently started removing official transcripts of the president's public remarks, replacing them with curated videos instead. I imagine (just a hypothesis!) that this is to make Trump seem more coherent. One of the 'highlights' of the disjointed ramble Trump delivered at West Point was his thoughts on trophy wives: 'I must tell ya. A lot of trophy wives, doesn't work out [sic],' he mused in the middle of an anecdote about a divorced real estate developer (not him). This has raised a few eyebrows; particularly as Michael Wolff's 2018 book about Trump claimed the president used to boast that Melania was his 'trophy wife.' I don't know if Trump ever really thought that Melania was some sort of compliant accessory to be paraded around. If he did, I'm sure he's now seen the error of his ways. Melania has made it clear to everyone that she is unbothered, unbossed, and entirely uninterested in pretending to care about either her husband or her role as first lady. It's claimed that as of early May, Melania had spent fewer than 14 days at the White House. Trump is her useful idiot husband, she's not his trophy wife. Melania is certainly collecting her own trophies, however. I've got to hand it to the woman: she's mastered the art of making enormous amounts of money with the minimum amount of effort. Last year, she released what columnist Pamela Paul described as a 'book-adjacent object' titled Melania, which one imagines she did not write herself. Last week, she announced that the audiobook was narrated with an AI-generated version of her voice. Now we've officially got an AI Melania voice, can it be long before we get a full-on MelanAI? A realistic AI-powered robot who does all the boring first lady things that Melania clearly hates doing – and doesn't swat Trump's hand away in public.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'We are putting America first': 5 takeaways from Trump's West Point commencement speech
Sporting a "Make America Great Again" hat, President Donald Trump emphasized the need for the country to put its priorities above all else during his commencement addresses at West Point on Saturday. "Gone are the days where defending every nation but our own was the primary thought," he aid. "We are putting America first. We have to rebuild and defend our nation." This was Trump's second address to cadets at the upstate New York academy, where the nation's next generation of army leaders are educated. The last time he spoke there was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, which saw a more subdued ceremony of cadets sitting several feet apart. The president told the military graduates during a roughly hourlong speech that they are joining elite and storied ranks. "You came for excellence. You came for duty. You came to serve your country and you came to show yourselves, your family and the world that you are among the smartest, toughest (and) most lethal warriors ever to walk on this planet," he said. Attending graduation ceremonies at one of the nation's five military academies is a common ritual for every commander-in-chief, and gives them a chance to flex their larger defense strategy. The 2025 West Point graduation speech comes at a pivotal moment for Trump, as he seeks to install his populist-fueled agenda in the military's apparatuses and policies while seeking to reshape previous alliances and negotiate an end to the Ukraine-Russia war. Here are the key takeaways from Saturday's graduation. Trump didn't hold back in justifying his "America First" worldview in terms of how the U.S. military should operate, whether at home or abroad. "The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures (and) 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." At various moments during the keynote address, Trump called out what he described as "divisive and demeaning political trainings" at the academy, which has been ordered to ditch talk of systemic inequity in its syllabi and forced student affinity clubs for women and racial minorities to disband. He has signed a number of executive orders in January, for instance, aimed at shaping the country's armed forces such as calling for the creation of an anti-missile defense shield to defend the U.S. against aerial attacks. He also has ordered the shuttering of diversity offices and programs in the Defense Department as well as banning transgender Americans from serving, infuriating liberal critics. The president did briefly mention his plan of investing $25 billion toward building a massive anti-missile defense shield that seeks to cover the country with three layers of aerial protection, according to military officials. "We're building the Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland and to protect West Point from attack, and it will be completed before I leave office," Trump said. One bone Trump consistently picks when talking about America's military might is the U.S. relationship with foreign allies, and how little credit he feels the country gets for helping its friends. During the speech, for example, the president grumbled about how European nations have major celebrations about winning World War II when the U.S. does not. He told West Point graduates about a recent conversation he had with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France. "He said, 'Sir, we're celebrating our victory over WWII.' I said, whoa, whoa, what have we here," Trump said. "We helped them a lot." Trump told the cadets he wants America to have its own V-Day celebration. The president's love of military celebrations is well known, as the army is gearing up for a parade through the streets of Washington DC, something he tried unsuccessfully to hold during his first term that is now billed as commemorating the force's 250th birthday. The June 14 date also happens to be the president's 79th birthday. As Trump outlined his defense agenda and showered cadets with praise, the president was met with a pair of demonstrations including a small flotilla of boats in the Hudson River in sight of the graduation ceremonies. Protesters began to assemble outside the military academy's event hours before the president arrived, with many holding signs reading "Go Army, Defend Democracy" as guests and dignitaries arrived. Joining Forces, a grassroots organization that organized the protests, said it objected to Trump's appearance "at the very site where our democracy was forged — where George Washington and his troops resisted tyranny and broke free from a king — represents a profound insult to American patriots." "We are pretty concerned about the destruction of our democracy, particularly in the Hudson Highlands where our nation was formed," Alex Dubroff, a protest organizer, said. The roughly 1,000 graduating cadets heard Trump boast about a coming "golden age" for the country now that he pinned largely upon parting ways with his predecessors. "For at least two decades, political leaders from both parties have dragged our military into missions never meant to be," Trump said. "People would say, why are we doing this? Why are we wasting our time, money and souls? In some case, 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." Trump didn't mention any former president by name, but the pointed remarks underscore his more isolationist perspective compared to Republican and Democratic predecessors. "My preference always will be to make peace and seek partnership, even with countries with which our differences may be profound," he said. One thing that didn't come up much was a progress report on ending the Ukraine-Russia war, which is one of Trump's top foreign affairs goals. The president had a a two-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, saying peace talks would begin "immediately." It is unclear if those talks will included Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had a tense exchange with Trump inside the Oval Office in February. Trump mentioned Putin only a handful of times and in passing, such as at the end of his speech when he told cadets he was, "going back now to deal with Russia." "You won two world wars and plenty of other things, but you want to think of it, we don't want to have a third world war," he said. Contributing: Mike Randall This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump eschews diversity, touts 'Golden Dome' at West Point speech
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's West Point graduation address veers from US-first doctrine to politics
Donald Trump told graduating West Point military academy cadets on Saturday that they were entering the officer corps at a 'defining moment in the army's history', in a commencement address that included political attacks and a discourse on the folly of older men marrying 'trophy wives'. Referring to US political leaders of the past two decades who 'had dragged our military into missions' that people questioned as 'wasting our time, money and souls in some case', Trump told the young leaders that 'as much as you want to fight, I'd rather do it without having to fight'. He predicted that, through a policy of 'peace through strength', the US's adversaries would back down. 'I just want to look at them and have them fold,' he said. The president also said US soldiers had been sent 'on nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us, led by leaders that didn't have a clue about distant lands while abusing our soldiers with absurd ideological experiments here and at home'. 'All of that's ended, strongly ended. They're not even allowed to think about it anymore,' Trump added. Making apparent reference to diversity, equity and inclusion programs that defense secretary Pete Hegseth has cancelled, Trump weaved together criticism of his predecessors with a new focus on curbing illegal immigration. 'They subjected 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' wars. We fought for other countries' borders but we didn't fight for our own borders, but now we do like we have never fought before,' he said. He later said that 'the job of the US armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures', a reference to drag shows on military bases that his predecessor Joe Biden halted in 2023 after Republican criticism. Wearing a red 'Make America great again' campaign hat throughout, the president told the 1,002 graduating cadets that the US is the 'hottest country in the world', and boasted of his administration's achievements. The president also returned, once again, to a cautionary tale he often tells young people about the danger of losing momentum in life, illustrated by an anecdote about what he called the unhappy retirement of the post-war housing developer William Levitt, the creator of Levittowns, planned communities on Long Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Repeating a story he told at a Boy Scout jamboree in 2017, and at the University of Alabama three weeks ago, the president said that Levitt was unsatisfied by life without work, even though he married 'a trophy wife' and bought a yacht. 'It didn't work out too well, and that doesn't work out too well, I must tell you, a lot of trophy wives, it doesn't work out,' the president told the young women and men. 'But it made him happy for a little while at least.' Trump also used the occasion to repeat an unfounded accusation he first made in 2020: the claim that Russia had stolen US hypersonic missile technology during Barack Obama's presidency. 'The Russians stole it, something bad happened. But we're now building them, lots of them,' Trump said, praising eight cadets who had built their own. 'We are building them right now. We had ours stolen. We are the designers of it. We had it stolen during the Obama administration.' Related: Record number of Americans seeking UK residency, says Home Office Outside the gates of West Point, protesters gathered with drums, banners and signs to condemn what they called the president's attack on American democracy. At points during Trump's address, he veered between praising the graduating military cadets and maintaining political criticism of the Biden administration. The graduation address, which ran to almost an hour long, comes before an expansive military parade in Washington on 14 June to celebrate the 250th anniversary celebration of the nation. The date is also the president's birthday. Alongside the military parade featuring more than 6,700 soldiers, it will include concerts, fireworks, NFL players, fitness competitions and displays all over the National Mall for daylong festivities. The army expects that as many as 200,000 people could attend and that putting on the celebration will cost an estimated $25m to $45m. The Associated Press contributed reporting
Free Malaysia Today
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump attacks past US policy in speech to new army officers
President Donald Trump salutes cadets during the US Military Academy commencement ceremony at West Point. (AP pic) WEST POINT : President Donald Trump lambasted previous US leaders and policies in a campaign-style speech Saturday to graduating army officers, underscoring his determination to remold the apolitical military to his right-wing ideology. The address to newly minted junior officers at the famed West Point academy in New York featured the annual event's traditional shout-outs to top students, jokes, and praise for the cadets' sporting achievements. However, the 78-year-old Republican, who has used the first four months of his second term to attack critics and concentrate power in the White House, quickly turned to edgier topics. The blistering rhetoric got only muted applause from the rows of grey-uniformed cadets. Justifying his isolationist policies and mistrust of historic US alliances, Trump said that for at least two decades, US leaders have 'dragged our military into missions…, wasting our time, money and souls.' Troops were 'led by leaders who didn't have a clue in distant lands.' Trump also focused on his decision to rid the military of so-called DEI policies, which are meant to encourage participation by racial and sexual minorities in the ranks, including women. The drive to rid the armed forces of what Trump derides as 'woke' initiatives has also seen the removal from military academy bookshelves of scores of books that cover the painful US history of racism. Trump told graduating cadets that his predecessors had been 'abusing our soldiers with absurd ideological experiments.' 'They subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended,' he said. 'All of that's ended. You know that,' Trump said. 'They're not even allowed to think about it anymore.' 'The job of the US armed forces is not to host drag shows,' he said. 'The military's job is to dominate any foe, to annihilate any threat to America, anywhere.' Criticism of US allies Trump has successfully channelled disillusionment among Americans after the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq triggered by the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. He vowed at West Point that the US will not attempt to 'spread democracy… at the point of a gun.' But his post-9/11-era reset also includes unprecedented scorn for US allies in Europe and Asia, which he again said on Saturday had been cheating the US. 'They don't rip us off anymore,' he boasted. Adding to the partisan tone of the speech, Trump wore one of his red election campaign hats throughout and talked up his November victory as a 'great mandate' which 'gives us the right to do what we want to do.' Army officers are not allowed to engage in politics and even when Trump paused for applause, the clapping from the cadets was often sporadic. Those invited to speak briefly at Trump's podium kept their messages strictly personal – not so much as referring to the president. However, the refashioning of the Pentagon, led by Trump's ultra-loyal defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has caused open unease in some quarters. Graham Parsons, a professor of philosophy at West Point, resigned this month, saying that the academy had 'abandoned its core principles' to comply with White House ideological demands and that he was 'ashamed.' New teaching guidelines on shunning discussion of racism or sexism, while insisting on promoting the idea of America as a constant force for good, 'were brazen demands to indoctrinate, not educate,' Parsons wrote in The New York Times.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Brags to West Point Grads He Can Do Whatever He Wants Now
Wearing a red MAGA hat, President Donald Trump said that his election victory means he can do whatever he wants in his commencement speech at West Point on Saturday. 'We had the greatest election victory,' Trump told cadets of the elite United States Military Academy. 'This was November 5. We won the popular vote by millions of votes. We won all seven swing states. We won everything.… We had a great mandate, and it gives us the right to do what we want to do to make our country great again, and that's what we're going to do.' Although the president loves insulting the military, this time he showered the graduates with praise. He also took credit for creating the military's strength. 'In a few moments, you'll become graduates of the most elite and storied military academy in human history,' Trump said. 'And 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.' He told the cadets they are 'the first West Point graduates of the golden age of America. This is the golden age. I tell you, promise, we're in a new age.' Of course, this is not the first time that Trump has laid claim to unlimited power. Trump posted a similar declaration on social media in February. 'He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,' he wrote on Truth Social and X. This idea was validated by the Supreme Court last year, when the conservative justices ruled that a former president is entitled to sweeping immunity from criminal prosecutions. At the time, sources told Rolling Stone that a second Trump administration would use this decision as a shield against pesky laws and rules as they sought to implement their policy agenda. 'It's like Christmas,' a conservative attorney close to Trump told Rolling Stone. 'In every use of official power,' Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned in her dissent, 'the president is now a king above the law.' Just months into Trump's second term, his administration has disregarded due process rights and orders from judges, including those on the Supreme Court, that it return Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia from his incarceration in El Salvador. In March, Trump sent hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison system in El Salvador without due process, in defiance of a Maryland judge's order. This week, a Massachusetts judge found that Trump officials violated his court order — which prohibits the administration from deporting immigrants to third-party countries without due process — as it moved to send a group of detainees to South Sudan, a dangerous and war-torn country. Over and over again, courts have ruled that the Trump administration's actions are unlawful. Speaking before the West Point cadets, Trump expressed hope that judges will stop standing in the way and allow him to continue his lawless deportations, framing them as necessary to stop a criminal 'invasion' at the border. 'It's not easy, but hopefully the courts will allow us to continue,' he said. Trump separately praised his record so far as president. 'Our country is doing well,' he told the cadets. 'We've turned it around, very quickly. We've turned it around.' 'I just got back from the Middle East, and I was at, as you know, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE. And I will tell you they said, all three leaders, great leaders of those three nations, 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. It's true. We have the hottest country in the world, and the whole world is talking about it, and that's an honor for all of us. I cannot wait to see the glory that is still ahead.' Trump also took aim at critical race theory and transgender people's participation in sports. Earlier this year, West point disbanded several clubs including the Asian-Pacific Forum Club, the Japanese Forum Club, the Latin Cultural Club, the National Society of Black Engineers Cub, the Native American Heritage Forum, and the Society of Women Engineers Club in response to the Trump administration's executive order to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, or DEI. 'We've liberated our troops from divisive and demeaning political trainings,' Trump said. '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.' He drew attention to West Point's football quarterback, Bryson Daily: 'I don't think a lot of women want to tackle him. I don't think so. How crazy is it — men playing in women's sports? How crazy is it? So ridiculous, so demeaning, so demeaning to women. And it's over. That's over. We've ended it.' More from Rolling Stone Trump Tries to Make Sure States Don't Fight Climate Change Either Rubio Says Blocking Deportations to South Sudan Will Harm Humanitarian Aid Trump Pumped and Dumped His Crypto Backers With Dud Dinner Party Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
