President Donald Trump delivered a commencement address to UA 2025 graduates Thursday evening, offering his political beliefs and highlighting his accomplishments in office along with giving advice to graduates.
“You’re graduating at an exciting time for our nation, a period of both extraordinary change and incredible potential in what will be unbelievable growth,” he said. “Our country has always been defined by its ability to reform and reinvent itself, to meet the challenges of the next era.”
Trump began his speech by congratulating graduates, bringing attention to those with red caps, which signify graduating with at least a 4.0 GPA.
“That’s pretty good. I know who I’d pick. I’d look for a red cap,” Trump said. “I want you to work for the beautiful Trump administration.”
Some of his key talking points included transgender athletes, border control, the military and trade.
Trump congratulated the Alabama football, men’s basketball and women’s track and field teams on their recent successes.
“The University of Alabama has a brand and that brand is winning,” he said, following up the athletic accolades with his policy against transgender women competing in women’s sports.
In February, Trump signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order,” which prohibits transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
NCAA president Charlie Baker told the Senate in December that there were fewer than 10 transgender athletes in college sports out of over 50,000 total.
Trump then falsely claimed that the 2020 election was rigged. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden received 306 electoral votes, while Trump received 232.
“Against all odds, I did great in 2016, and then I did much better in 2020,” he said. “Sorry, the election was rigged, and then in 2024, I made it too big to rig.”
He offered words of advice to students graduating with specific majors, including business, engineering, health sciences and journalism.
Trump told the business majors to use the skills that they have learned for “forging the steel and pouring the concrete of new American factories, plants, shipyards and even cities which are going up all over the country.”
On a competitive note, Trump told STEM majors to use their skills to ensure that the United States can remain technologically ahead of other countries.
“We need your Alabama spirit and competence to keep our country at the forefront of every single domain,” he said. “America should have the world’s tallest buildings, design the fastest airplanes, build the greatest cars, do everything the absolute best, better than any other nation in the world.”
Trump mentioned his disdain for “fake news” multiple times and told journalism majors, whom he said he has had “a lot of problems with,” that the U.S. needs a “brilliant press” and a “media Americans can trust.”
In February, the Trump administration banned the Associated Press from White House press events. Its ban was not lifted until April 9, when a federal judge reinstated the organization’s access.
Criticizing the “fake news media” for reporting on his common saying that the word “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the dictionary, Trump joked that it was probably the “fifth nicest word I’ve ever seen” behind words like “God” and “wife.”
In office, Trump has significantly increased tariffs on U.S. imports from a number of major trading partners, like China, Canada and Mexico. Economists have warned of severe damage to the economy as a result, though the president has insisted that tariffs are necessary to boost American manufacturing.
Another one of Trump’s points during the speech was immigration, claiming that illegal border crossings were down 99.999% since the time he came into office.
“Judges are interfering, supposedly based on due process,” Trump said. “But how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally?”
The comments on due process come as the Trump administration has been sued for allegedly denying immigrants due process before deporting them under an 18th century law known as the Alien Enemies Act. The Supreme Court has since temporarily blocked deportation of Venezuelan migrants under the law.
Following almost 40 minutes of political speech, Trump used the last 10 to give advice and encouragement to graduates. He emphasized the power of youth using common sense and never giving up on dreams.
“One of the most important things you can learn if you just went a little bit longer, if you just held out a little bit longer, you would have been successful,” he said. “The stories of that are legend, but I’ve learned that perseverance is everything. So whatever happens, no matter where you are in life, stay optimistic and just keep pushing forward.”
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