Before waxing about the tariffs, he urged the university audience not to think they were too young to accomplish something great. “Don't try to be someone else,” he begged them. And he told him not to consider himself a victim before the 2020 election diverged into the way he was “equipped” against him.
On Thursday night, President Trump spoke to 2025 University of Alabama alumni, using past political frustrations between campaign group and opening speeches to encourage students to fight for their future.
Talking to students at the Coleman Coliseum in Tuskaloosa, adjacent to the signs that read “The American Dream is Back,” Trump told students that it was “the first graduation class in America's golden age,” and that he encouraged students to trust their instincts and become ambitious to navigate the world.
“In recent years, many of our young people have been taught to consider themselves a victim, blame people and be angry,” he said. “But in America we reject the idea that everyone is a victim. Our heroes are those who are in charge of their own destiny, creating their own luck, determining their own destiny.”
At address points, the president rattles off familiar advice for university graduates. But Trump admitted that he didn't use teleprompters for most of his speech, but fell into various rants this week, reflecting the speed of political emergence he made this week to celebrate the 100th day he took office. With the injection of dispersals of questionable from egg prices to trans rights, the largely receptive crowds often cheered. This is a microcosm of an era in which even Pavlam, a graduation speech, cannot escape the politics of the moment.
Some of Trump's stories focus on how he himself was sacrificed throughout his political career, as counted by other politicians who he didn't think could be faced with another perk.
He also replied with his election results, which he said felt like “home” when he started as a candidate in 2015 and enjoyed his victory.
“So don't let anyone tell you something is impossible,” he said. “And so far, ever. In America, the impossible is that we all do our best. If you are willing to fight for it, there's nothing you can't do.”
“Fight, fight, fight,” he added, evoking a slogan spurred by his failed assassination attempt on the campaign trail last year.
“We need to break the system a little and follow our instincts,” Trump told the alumni.
“Change is never easy. The closer you get to success, the more vested interests you will resist,” he said.
Trump also lit up about how he faced much less resistance in his second term, citing “the Internet people” and others who now succumb to him. “They hated me in my first semester,” he said.
Even in the university town, Trump was on the relatively friendly territory of a heavy Republican nation. However, there have been protests and petitions from the local NAACP branch over the arrival of the University of Alabama Democrats and Trump.
“Americans are once again awakened to the fact that this aspiring monarch wants to rule us like a king,” University of Alabama Democratic president Braden Vick said in a statement announcing the protest.
About two miles from the Coleman Coliseum, Democrats from the university held a protest, joined by former Texas representative Betoo-Rourke and former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones.
“We have to show where the fight is, including places like Alabama that have been long written down by Democrats,” O'Rourke said in an interview after the protest. “And the message is: People have power. And when people show up, it really starts moving through the rest of the country, just like they did in today's protests and marches or these no-show town halls.”
Alabama's NAACP president, Benard Simelton, compared Trump to former state governor George Wallace.
“He is the president of all people, but he miserably failed all citizens in his divisive and destructive policies, while terrifying our Hispanic, Latino and other communities,” he said in a statement against the visit. “Wallace's infamous words can still be heard today: “Segregation of today, separation of tomorrow, and separation forever.”
But Trump was enthusiastically accepted by thousands of participants at the Coleman Coliseum. Trump's speech was part of a “special ceremony” before 6,000 students began attending formal graduation ceremonies on Friday. The preliminary ceremony was an option for students, and tickets were opened to guests.
Despite Trump's falling approval ratings, the initiation provided a window into many resilience in his support outside of Washington, as well as a measure of cultural change in the country he was elected.
As much as there was a special red graduation cap that meant a 4.0 grade point average for graduates, there was at least a red “make America great again” hat in the crowd. The crowd invaded the “American” chant, roving as Trump praised the sports team extensively and spoke about “the clean coast of the Bay of America.” They cheered when they talked about preventing trans women from playing on women's sports teams, and some laughed when Trump spent several minutes in a matchup involving transgender players.
Trump's warm welcome came as he was attacking the higher education system. So far, the administration has largely sought to be the most elite university in the country, but the University of Alabama has not escaped.
Last month, a doctoral student at the University of Alabama was detained by federal immigration authorities amid a campaign by the administration to deport non-civil college students to engage in a form of protest. Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian citizen, was legally in the United States and was detained in Louisiana.
Trump used the address to take shots at Harvard University. Harvard University has confronted him in the administration's efforts to overhaul institutions that he thinks are free and powerful. Trump boasted that his administration had withheld billions of dollars from Harvard, making the two universities oppose each other, as if predicting a fight.
“It's obvious that we'll see the next chapter of the American story not written by Harvard Crimson,” he said. “It will be written by you, Crimson Tide.”
