DON CHEERS CADETS
At West Point graduation, praises U.S., rips China, mum on racial upheaval
President Trump alluded to China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic during a Saturday commencement address celebrating West Point’s class of 2020, telling the graduates they stood at a “crucial moment” in the nation’s history.
“You came to West Point because you know the truth: America is the greatest country in human history,” Trump told the 1,107 socially-distanced graduates. “And the United States military is the greatest force for peace and justice the world has ever known.”
Trump invoked the names of America’s great generals through history and hailed West Point’s two centuries of producing leaders for the U.S. military. But midway through the 29-minute speech, he once more called out China for the global pandemic.
“I want to thank all members of America’s armed forces who stepped forward to battle the invisible enemy, the new virus that came to our shores from a distant shore called China,” said
Trump. “We will vanquish this virus. We will extinguish this plague.”
The president, in an apparent reference to the national unrest sparked by the killing of George Floyd beneath the knee of a white Minneapolis cop, also noted that “what has historically made America unique is the durability of its institutions against the passions and prejudices of the moment.
“When times are turbulent, when the road is rough, what matters most is that which is permanent, timeless, enduring and eternal,” he said.
Trump made no specific mention of Floyd’s death and did not address the complaints of racial inequality from across the country since Floyd’s May 25 death set off weeks of ongoing demonstrations.
The graduates, in their dress uniforms, were spaced out in chairs across a swath of lawn at West Point on a bright, sunny June morning as the president spoke. The cadets were quarantined for two weeks before their graduation.
The president noted the class includes representatives
of every state, every race, religion, color and creed.
“But when you entered these grounds, you became part of one team, one family, proudly serving one American nation,” said Trump. “You became brothers and sisters pledging allegiance to the same timeless principles, joined together in a timeless mission: To protect our country, to defend our people and to carry on the traditions of freedom, equality and liberty that so many gave their lives to secure.”
Trump’s address came against a backdrop of presitary. dential feuding with the mili
Trump clashed with Defense Secretary Mark Esper over his opposition to the president’s call for using active-duty troops to police the protesters outraged by Floyd’s death. And Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged his “mistake” in accompanying the president when Trump walked through Lafayette Square for a photo op outside St. John’s Church.
The commander-in-chief left his Bedminster, N.J., golf club at 9:21 a.m. for West
Point’s graduation., from which cadets’ family and friends were kept away due to the coronavirus outbreak. Trump made sure to thank the missing relatives, and led the cadets in applauding those forced to remotely watch the ceremony.
“We know this day could never have happened without you,” he said.
Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the first African-American to serve as West Point superintendent, told the graduates that their “challenges ahead will require moral and physical courage.”