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 a thousand West Point cadets and their families were treated to a recounting of Trump’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the military.
“Spread democracy at the point of a gun”
Let’s be clear that THAT’S the bigger takeaway here.
Edit: it seems to be that he meant that they would no longer spread democracy at the point of a gun
I had to reread it to make sure it was a quote. Holy fucking shit.
An with the new basically enabling act having recently passed…this brings on a whole new meaning.
When the tools of peace are taken away, the only resort are the weapons of… Well, I don’t want to get ahead if myself…
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make… something else happen, I forgot what it was!
CHRISTIAN “democracy.” The sword and the sermon.
Sounds like something straight from Helldivers.
Hey said “or”, not “but”. Just listened to the audio to confirm. The transcript is wrong and flips the meaning of his statement.
You are deaf.
“The job of the U.S. armed forces is… to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun,”
You can start at home.
I loved how he kept calling people up to congratulate for records, and he’d let them speak and they all said “I love my friends” and stepped down. You could see him taken aback, like he thought they were going to glaze him
It was also wild to see him start out giving a normal commencement speech… Then suddenly it was like the meds wore off, he froze for a second, and he just started doing his normal rants. And that was like a quarter of the way in
I know an American enemy that needs to be dominated. And I’m not talking about being spanked with a Forbes magazine.
Weird. I thought the military’s job was to deter war through a readiness to fight.
I bet that ceremony show became a drag. Or Trump wouldn’t have worn makeup.
Drag shows are actually part of US military history
What about domestic terrorist trying to systematically destroy our nation by removing our rights, diminishing our health, sell our national secrets to the highest bidder, deporting American citizens to death camps, and arguable killing more American citizens than any conflict we’ve seen since WWII (COVID under Trump - and more to come). Can they point their guns at him?
And a plurality of the nation still think he’s a brilliant, capable business wizard?
Not just sad but #FuckingSad
Trump loves men hence the insecurity around drag
yep he’s still a moron
unhinged dictator gives bigoted speech to bigoted graduates hoping to become war criminals some day.
news at 11.
Tell me more about your knowledge of service academy cadets and midshipmen and their personally-held beliefs. Do you work at or near a service academy? How many interactions with cadets have you had in your lifetime? Curious to know why you believe them to be so bigoted.
The cadets that graduated this May enrolled four years ago under a different administration, for what it’s worth.
this is an all volunteer military. known for actively supporting genocide and has a history of invasion and war crimes. this history goes back to the beginning. far more than 4 years ago.
ANYONE WHO WILLINGLY SIGNS UP FOR THAT HORSESHIT IS COMPLICIT. Full. Fucking. Stop. No matter how much they enjoy college.
While I admire your passion, I’d love to see you broaden your perspective and capacity for nuance. You might be surprised at the diversity of thought found among the cadet and officer corps of the US military. If a strong resistance to fascism were to materialize, some of these officers may prove to be the best associates and allies. Lumping them all into the genocidal bigot bin would probably be a misstep for the long term subversive civilian element.
fair fair points as I can imagine, in a perfect world, some cohort will cleave off and be on the “right side” of the impending civil war.
but from who I have met — they’ll just not deploy and then become local cops pretending they’re “in country” or whatever while they bully local homeless folk.
So the transcript is incorrect. I just listened to the audio to confirm. He did not say “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”. He said "“The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures, or to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun”. It entirely changes the meaning of that sentence. Fuck Trump, but let’s make sure that information is correct before jumping on it.
The quote starts after a very awkward applause break at 2:14. He very clearly says but.
