President Biden is scheduled to deliver a commencement speech to graduating students at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Saturday, amid military turmoil overseas, campus protests at home and a looming rematch for the White House against former President Donald J. Trump.
Biden is expected to congratulate the Army's newest commissioned officers, outline the global challenges the service faces and remind the cadets that they swear an oath to the Constitution, not the president, said a person familiar with the speech, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the speech.
Aides said Biden wanted to use the opportunity to draw a clear contrast with Trump, whose 2020 West Point commencement speech drew criticism even from within the academy for seeking personal loyalty from those around him.
Saturday morning's speech will mark Biden's third time as West Point commencement speaker, after two speeches as vice president. In his first three years as president, he addressed the Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force graduation ceremonies.
His return to the Army's elite educational institution will give him a collegiate setting far removed from the student protests over his handling of the Israeli war, where polls have shown deep reservations about the president among young people and raised doubts about his chances of reelection this fall.
At West Point, an hour north of New York City, he will address about 1,000 neatly dressed cadets in their distinctive gray uniforms and white gloves at Michie Stadium.
Several presidents have used the West Point lectern to deliver new military doctrine or announce major programs. In 2002, President George W. Bush, in his commencement address at the school, made the case for the U.S. war in Iraq in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks nine months earlier, telling cadets: “We must engage our enemies, thwart their plans, and confront them before their worst threats manifest.”
Biden is not scheduled to make any major foreign policy announcements on Saturday, aides said, but his message to the graduating class is likely to reflect central themes of his reelection campaign — without mentioning Trump by name or directly invoking the election year for the new officers and their families.
Biden argues that democracy is at stake in the upcoming presidential election and that Trump's return to the Oval Office would endanger fundamental branches of government, including the military.
Just months before Mr. Trump spoke at West Point, then-Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had walked with Mr. Trump through Lafayette Park, near the White House, as police and military brutally cracked down on Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
In an open letter to West Point graduates, former members of the military academy urged graduates to remember where their duty lies.
“We pledge to obey no prince, no government, no political party, or no tyrant,” the former West Point cadets wrote to their successors. “Your oath is to a set of principles and ideals expressed in the Constitution and its amendments.”
Biden's speech came as the country grapples with the aftermath of two raging wars abroad, in Ukraine and Gaza, in which he has pledged not to send U.S. troops to either conflict, but which have involved the U.S. deeply in them by providing weapons, diplomatic support and humanitarian aid.
And there are other looming threats: the risk of a Chinese attempt to seize Taiwan; aggression from Iran, such as a missile attack on Israel, which the United States is helping to deter; and instability in parts of Africa and Latin America.
Biden also wants to avoid the missteps that sometimes ensue with presidential appearances at military graduations.
During a speech at West Point in 2020, Trump was seen awkwardly taking a two-handed drink from a glass and then walking very slowly down the ramp, videos of both moments going viral and raising questions about Trump's health and vitality among some critics.
Last year, Biden tripped and fell while shaking hands with graduates at the Air Force Academy, an incident that aides later blamed on sandbags placed on the stage. The 80-year-old president quickly got up with help from others and was “OK,” aides said.