Trump tells Navy grads: ‘We are not going to apologize for America’
President addresses more than 1,000 midshipmen
Annapolis, Md. — President Donald Trump told the U.S. Naval Academy’s graduating class Friday that the nation is “respected again” abroad and that “we are witnessing the great reawakening of the American spirit.”
On a warm, cloudless day, Trump told 783 men and 259 women graduates that the country has rediscovered its identity.
“In case you haven’t noticed, we have become a lot stronger lately. A lot,” the president said at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, which was filled with about 30,000 family members and friends. “We are not going to apologize for America. We are going to stand up for America. No more apologies.”
The president recited a litany of American military achievements and said the country “will have the strongest military than ever before, and it won’t even be close.”
Appearing to enjoy himself, he made a point of remaining afterward to shake hands with each graduate as they were summoned to the outdoor stage.
In their graduation rehearsals, the midshipmen said they had practiced how each would shake hands with the president.
Trump told them he had the option to leave after his speech or shake hands with only the top 100 in the class.
“What should I do? What should I do? I’ll stay, I’ll stay,” he told the crowd.
Most family members and friends in the stands stood when Trump was introduced, and some midshipmen clapped.
But there was some unease about his appearance before he arrived.
Two 2001 Naval Academy graduates wrote in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece that Trump did not personify the institution’s tradition of “making big choices laden with courage and self-sacrifice.”
Trump, wrote Daniel Barkhuff and William Burke, “could never do what we ask our U.S. Naval Academy graduates to do. He is a physical coward, a liar and no leader at all.”
Presidents traditionally deliver graduation remarks in the first year of their administration. But Vice President Mike Pence addressed the class last year because Trump was attending the Group of Seven forum for industrialized nations.
After Trump was confirmed as the speaker, several midshipmen expressed reservations in emails to Stephen Wrage, a professor in the political science department. “We are under no obligation to clap for Donald Trump,” one midshipman wrote, according to a Washington Post piece written by Wrage, who declined further comment.
But the academy is about decorum and respecting authority. “Our personal thoughts, I wouldn’t be surprised if people had that kind of opinion about the president,” said graduate Christy Tse of Ellicott City, whose brother is a sophomore at the academy and sister is an incoming freshman.
“All of the midshipmen need to understand that no matter what our political ideas are about the president, he is the commander in chief. So we expect a professional attitude from every single midshipman no matter what we believe in,” Tse said.