Trump tells West Point cadets he's returning military to core function: 'annihilate' America's foes

President Trump addressed the 2025 graduating class at West Point on Saturday, telling the cadets that he’s bringing back the U.S. military to core functions of destroying America’s enemies and will end using soldiers for nation-building in countries that “didn’t want anything to do with us.

Mr. Trump’s remarks at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, were his first military commencement speech of his second term. Vice President JD Vance delivered the Naval Academy’s commencement speech on Friday. 

Mr. Trump last spoke at the West Point commencement ceremony in May 2020, the final year of his first administration. 

He hailed the graduates as “winners” who will become officers in the “most powerful army the world has ever known.”

Mr. Trump told the cadets that he is bringing the military back to its core mission of killing America’s adversaries and bashed “nation-building crusades,” while failing to secure the U.S. border. 

While wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, Mr. Trump said politicians of both parties had “subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes.” 

“But under the Trump administration, those days are over,” he said. “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.” 

“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 to annihilate any threats to America, anywhere, anytime, any place.” 

Mr. Trump also condemned former presidents, whom he accused of worrying too much about other countries instead of protecting America. He said presidents of both parties left the U.S. borders “undefended and depleted our arsenals to fight other countries’ wars.”

“We fought for other countries’ borders, but we didn’t fight for our own border,” he said. 

In the final moments of his speech, Mr. Trump urged the cadets to “never, ever, give up” and asked them to raise their hands and make that pledge. He used himself as an example, highlighting how he overcame multiple legal indictments to return to the White House.

“I went through more investigations than Alphonse Capone,” he said. “And now I’m talking to you as president. Can you believe it?”

As part of his message on the importance of not giving up, Mr. Trump ticked off a list of famous generals who championed controversial strategies or unpopular tactics that ended up transforming the military. 

“This is a time of incredible change and we don’t need an officer corps of careerists and yes men,” he said.