Europe
May 1, 2025 – Donald Trump presidency news
President Donald Trump’s commencement remarks at the University of Alabama tonight bore a sharply political tone as he touted his accomplishments and offered as many jabs at his perceived enemies as lessons for the class of 2025.
“I love this place. Maybe it’s because I won Alabama by 45 points,” Trump told the graduates at Coleman Coliseum as he started, exaggerating his margin of victory in the Yellowhammer State, which was around 30 points in 2024.
The crowd of graduates, their families and Alabama alumni responded overwhelmingly throughout the speech, cheering the president louder than former football coach Nick Saban, who introduced Trump.
Trump waded into culture war issues and highlighted what he sees as wins from his first 100 days in office, receiving raucous applause as he vowed to “always protect women’s sports.” He touted his administration’s efforts to crack down on immigration and lower the price of eggs and energy and increase military recruitment. And he vowed that Americans will be seeing the results of his tariff policies “pretty soon.”
The president acknowledged the graduates’ “difficult senior year” of high school during the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that many of them came to Tuscaloosa for “freedom” as he praised the state’s leaders for choosing “liberty over lockdowns.”
“You are the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” he told the class, who stood for the entirety of his speech, calling it an “exciting time for our nation – a period of both extraordinary change and incredible potential and what will be unbelievable growth.”
He repeatedly criticized former President Joe Biden and what he described as a “failed establishment.”
“The last four years were not that good for our country, but don’t let that scare you, it was an aberration… we were run by people who didn’t have a clue,” he said to laughter, later lambasting the “Biden economy” as he touted progress against inflation.
Trump then asked the audience if they’d like to hear his wisdom for the graduates.
“That’s got to be more interesting than all of the other stuff – which was slightly political,” he said.