President Donald Trump had some difficulty sounding out words while delivering a long-winded commencement address.
While speaking at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, during its graduation, Trump, 79, slurred part of his remarks, appearing to have trouble speaking.
“Our national slengtheses is back,” he told the graduates, as he jumbled up the word “strength.”
“We are a confident country again. We have confidence is back,” he added.
Trump has been seen slurring his words many times over the past few months, raising questions about his mental cognition ahead of his annual medical exam on May 26.
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle did not directly respond to inquiries on the president’s slurred speech and instead attacked former President Joe Biden, saying, “President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the last administration.”
Trump also gave the young cadets some advice, telling them to “never, ever give up,” when facing a tough storm.
“Never stop pushing forward. No matter how terrible the storm, no matter how difficult the mission. Never surrender, keep going, keep fighting, and make the adversary quit first. Let them quit. They’re going to quit,” Trump said.
“You’ve all been tested. You’ll be tested further and probably at higher levels as your career goes on,” he said, ominously given his raging war in Iran.
While speeches before military commencement ceremonies are typically kept nonpartisan, in typical Trump fashion, the president’s speech quickly derailed from talking about the new graduates’ futures to airing out his own personal grievances.
“Some lunatics would like to take this country way, way left and destroy it. But we are not going to let that happen. We are not letting that happen,” he complained.
He also praised his failed tariff policies and his administration’s hardline immigration policy.
“We can never forget the sins of what they did to our country,” Trump said of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. “But we are getting them out.”
“They can come in, but they have to come in legally. They have to come in through a process. They have to love our country,” Trump continued. “They have to show us they can love our country, not that they want to blow up our country. I think everybody agrees with that.”
Trump spoke to the academy in 2017 during his first term and said he was delighted to be the first president to deliver two commencement addresses at the school.
“We’re going to have to try it maybe a third time, too, to keep that record intact,” Trump declared.
Prior to flying to Connecticut to deliver the address, Trump told reporters that his message to the graduates would be to “Just enjoy your life.”
He added, “You know, you don’t really realize how important the Coast Guard is until you have a hurricane.”
