Even for Trump this is unhinged
Donald Trump doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about U.S. citizens (unless they’re white and rich), he doesn’t care about norms, and he certainly doesn’t care about people’s impressions of him. He attended West Point’s graduation ceremonies this past weekend, wearing a MAGA hat. This is wildly inappropriate. In fact, one writer at RawStory opined that the only difference between a MAGA hat and a KKK hood is that members of the KKK were at least ashamed to show their faces. Trump and his MAGA contingent are not in the least ashamed.
Presidents typically attend these graduation ceremonies to congratulate the graduates and share words of encouragement. Of course, we don’t have a real president in the White House right now, so West Point graduates were instead subjected to a bumbling, lying Donald Trump. He talked about the perils of marrying “trophy wives,” for which you can at least give Trump expert points. He also talked about his election victory and the investigations surrounding his crimes. Trump also suggested that people weren’t joining the military under President Biden (which is an abject lie) and that it is because of him that the military is strong. Nothing on earth is stronger because of Donald Trump. If anything, it is weaker.
Many were disgusted by Trump’s behavior and his ridiculous “speech,” if you can even realistically call it that. Podcaster and veteran Fred Wellman wrote on Bluesky: “This is deeply disgusting. Wearing his pathetic campaign hat to the West Point graduation.” Baseball franchise owner Lou DiBella posted his disgust on X and suggested that Trump try an Army hat at the next graduation. Let’s hope he doesn’t get invited to another one. Military veteran Daniel Larsen wrote: “Orange blob menace psychopath convicted felon maga cult leader rambled and dissembled. Wearing that hat to a West Point commencement is high crimes and misdemeanors. Impeach this idiot.” We wish.
The funny thing about Trump is that he truly believes these graduates care about his nonsense. Bragging about removing “DEI policies” and ranting about transgender people, these young people probably think he is crazy, and most don’t agree with his policies. In fact, the Washington Post reported about the growing resistance to Trump and Hegseth’s MAGA policies. Three faculty members spoke with WaPo, one of whom said that he told his students: “There is a point where compliance turns into complicity.” They took it to heart and began reassembling their disbanded clubs and organizations through personal emails. They discuss banned books and continue to do what they were doing before, just under cover. It’s a shame that they must hide their involvement in clubs and activities they enjoyed all because of a misogynistic racist. The instructors shared with WaPo: “We at the Naval Academy are here to prepare young officers to command. They need to know what we have learned from our study of politics and history and literature and languages. We are failing them, and we are failing our jobs if we suppress some things we know are true and we parrot other things that we know are false.” Good on them for keeping things real.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years