By Jeff Mason
WEST POINT, New York (Reuters) -President Donald Trump ripped U.S. diversity and inclusion policies, knocked NATO, and took credit for building up the military on Saturday in a campaign-style commencement speech at the prestigious West Point Military Academy in New York.
Trump, wearing a suit and his signature red “Make America Great Again” cap, mixed advice to “work hard” with a list of his top grievances about cultural and political issues while speaking to a stadium filled with cadets, family members and a largely supportive crowd.
“The job of the U.S. Armed Forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures,” Trump said. “The military’s job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime, in any place.”
Since coming into office for the second time in January, Trump has rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the military and throughout the government as part of a larger effort to rescind policies enacted by his predecessor Joe Biden.
“We’ve liberated our troops from divisive and demeaning political trainings,” Trump told the 1,002 cadets graduating from the academy. “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.”
Trump has been a strong supporter of the military even as he has put his own stamp on it, as he has other branches of government. In February he fired the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of military leadership.
It was the second time Trump addressed graduates of the academy on the Hudson River following his appearance in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cadets sat further apart and wore masks to prevent spread of the virus.
West Point aims to educate the next generation of Army leaders for a military that is meant to be apolitical and is sworn to defend the U.S. Constitution.
In a speech full of partisan rhetoric on Saturday, Trump took credit for rebuilding the Army and referenced his tariff-fueled trade war while repeating his longstanding criticism of NATO allies for not spending more on defense.
“We’ve been ripped off by every nation in the world on trade. We’ve been ripped off at the NATO level,” Trump said. “We’ve been ripped off like no country has ever been ripped off, but they don’t rip us off anymore.”
The president will preside over the Army’s celebration of its 250th anniversary on June 14 with a parade on one of Washington’s main thoroughfares. The anniversary coincides with Trump’s own birthday.
This week Trump spoke about a signature piece of his military vision, announcing he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome missile defense shield and named a Space Force general to head the program aimed at blocking threats from China and Russia. Trump said on Saturday the shield would protect West Point.
Experts have said the Golden Dome could provoke other states to launch similar systems or develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield, escalating an arms race in space.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)
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