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Trump Hijacks West Point Graduation to Rant About "Drag Shows"
"This is the golden age, the president also told attendees.
Liam Archacki
News Reporter
The Daily Beast
Published May 24 2025 12:19PM EDT - Updated May 25 2025 3:11AM EDT

President Donald Trump ranted to a captive audience of graduating West
Point cadets about military drag shows, urging the students to focus on
killing America's enemies.

"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," the president said. "The military's
job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America
anywhere, anytime, and anyplace."

While college commencement addresses are usually a chance to celebrate
the graduates' achievements, the more than 1,000 West Point cadets and
their families were treated to a recounting of Trump's war on
diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the military.

The president accused previous military leadership of "abusing our
soldiers with absurd ideological experiments here and at home."

"Under the Trump Administration, those days are over," Trump said. "We
are getting rid of the distractions and 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."

Since returning to office, one of Trump's top initiatives has been to
eliminate what he calls "gender ideology" from the federal government.
At the Department of Defense, this has meant ending diverse hiring
programs and firing top women military leaders.

"You are the first West Point graduates of the golden age of America,"
Trump told the cadets. "This is the golden age. I promise. We are in a
new age. This is the golden age. You are going to lead the army to some
of the greatness it has never reached before."

Trump would return to the issue of identity later in the speech, this
time railing against "critical race theory" -- an academic field of
study whose name has been used by conservatives to include teaching
about racism generally -- and transgender athletes.

There were more than 1,000 West Point cadets and their families in the
audience for Trump's speech.

"We have liberated our troops from divisive and demeaning political
trainings," the president said. "There will be no more critical race
theory or transgender for everybody forced onto the brave men and women
in uniform -- or on anybody else for that matter in this country. We
will not have men playing in women's sports."

When Trump paused after delivering these lines, the crowd was nearly silent.

Drag shows at military bases were ended by the Pentagon under the Biden administration in 2023, with a spokesperson telling the Associated
Press that they were "inconsistent with regulations regarding the use
of [Defense Department] resources.

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