President Donald Trump wore a red Make America Great Again hat on Saturday while delivering remarks at the West Point graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy in New York. As seen below, Trump delivered a discursive speech that included seemingly irrelevant digressions about the late real estate developer Bill Levitt, his “trophy wife,” and a yacht.
[Note: Levitt was one of the richest men in America in the 1960s, with a fortune estimated in excess of $100 million. He sold his company to International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) in 1968 and used his $92 million in stock as collateral for building projects in Iran, Venezuela, France and Nigeria, but when the value of his ITT stock dropped 90 percent in 1972, it left him millions of dollars in debt.]
Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and former managing editor of TIME magazine Richard Stengel responded to Trump’s speech on X by writing of the President:
“1. He disrespects West Point by wearing his Maga hat. The cadets all remove their hats out of a tradition of respect.
“2. He disrespects them by talking about trophy wives and yachts.
“3. He disrespects them by saying he ‘rebuilt the military’ in 4 months. The military he inherited is larger than the next top 10 nations combined.
“4. He disrespects the military by erasing the memory of soldiers of color who fought for freedom even when they did not have it.”
1. He disrespects West Point by wearing his Maga hat. The cadets all remove their hats out of a tradition of respect.
2. He disrespects them by talking about trophy wives and yachts.
3. He disrespects them by saying he “rebuilt the military” in 4 months. The military he… https://t.co/PBvEUt2fKs— Richard Stengel (@stengel) May 25, 2025
Stengel’s fourth point refers to the Department of Defense flagging tens of thousands of photos from a database to remove content that highlights diversity efforts across all branches of the U.S. military — an effort that included the temporary removal of internet pages commemorating the military service of the Jackie Robinson, the iconic racial integrator of Major League Baseball, pages that were restored after blowback.
According to the AP, “The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, including notable milestones made in the military. And it also removes a large number of posts that mention various commemorative months — such as those for Black and Hispanic people and women.”
Note: West Point remains mostly white and male: of the total undergraduate enrollment of 4,508 (fall 2023), 78.1% are male students and 21.9% female students; 11% are Black, 12% are Hispanic/Latino, 9% Asian and less than 1% are American Indian.