President Donald Trump delivered a commencement address at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Thursday after completing 100 days in office, returning to the kind of long, rambling stories and jumbled points of his campaign days.
And the crowd loved it.
The president walked onto the stage at the Coleman Coliseum to cheers of “USA! USA!” from the nearly 3,000 students in attendance.
The White House did not reveal what Trump would discuss during his keynote speech in advance.
The event drew out a crowd of protesters at a nearby event hosted by Beto O’Rourke, a former U.S. representative from Texas and gubernatorial candidate. Former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, joined O’Rourke at the event.
Trump won Alabama with 64 percent of the vote in the 2024 election. The president used his address to pat himself on the back and tout his own administration amid efforts he claimed would “make America great again,” amid his tanking poll numbers.
He told college grads they’d be embarking on their careers in the “golden age” of the country, thanks to him.
Trump connected with Alabama voters, he said, because: “We believe that the men and women who built this country are heroes, and that America’s destiny is to be the single greatest nation on the face of the earth.”
He added: “We believe in freedom and family, God and country, we cherish our Constitution, we revere our Bible, and we salute our great American flag.”
He fiercely defended his administration’s actions on immigration issues, and attacked transgender Americans.
“Judges are interfering, supposedly based on due process,” he said of immigration, referring to rulings that his administration had deported individuals without justification and illegally. “But how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally? They want to give them due process. I don’t know.”
He asked students to “give me a break for the first month” because “I had to get a little acclimated … had to see where the enemy lies.”
Trump complained that some politicians are already discussing impeachment. “You know, these crazy people … ‘Let’s impeach him! For what? We don’t know exactly,’” Trump said, imagining a scenario among his foes.
He also touched on championing a free press, attacked transgender women in sports and told stories about his start in business.
At one point, Trump recounted a weightlifting competition in which a trans girl beat a competitor identified as female at birth girl by breaking a record by an astonishing 119 pounds. He fictitiously acted out the girl’s reaction. It’s unclear what competition Trump was referring to.
Earlier in his remarks, Trump addressed journalism majors, which he said, “I’ve had a lot of problems with … I’m not sure I like them.” A second later, he backpedaled, saying: “No, I do, I do.”
“We need a brilliant press,” Trump continued. “They’re like a watchkeeper. They’re very important.”
The president encouraged the college grads not to “waste your youth” by not seizing opportunities because of their age, stating, “I’d pay you a lot of money to have your age.”
He pointed to his success as an example.
“I was 28 when I took my first big gamble to develop a hotel in midtown Manhattan,” he said. “Go out and fight right from the beginning, from the day you leave this incredible university, go out and fight, fight tough, fight fair, but go out and fight.”
Trump has always described himself as a self-made multi-millionaire, then billionaire, but he reportedly inherited some $143 million from his New York City real estate developer father, Fred Trump.