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Trump Delivers a Commencement Address to the United States Coast Guard Academy, May 20, 2026

May 20, 2026 · The White House · 1:32:24

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump delivered the commencement address to the United States Coast Guard Academy Class of 2026 in New London, Connecticut, on May 20, 2026, introduced by Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, with Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday presiding. “It’s a true honor to be here on this magnificent day at one of the most prestigious military academies anywhere in the world. And I’m thrilled to become the first president to ever give a second keynote address to this storied institution,” he said.

The address honored the service the graduates were joining: the unofficial motto “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back,” the Higgins boats at Normandy and Guadalcanal, and the Texas hurricane rescues of his first term, in which, as he stated it, Coast Guard crews saved “16, 17,000 lives.” He told the class they were becoming “commissioned officers in the United States Coast Guard” in a country that is, in his words, “the hottest country anywhere in the world with the strongest, most powerful military anywhere in the world, and there’s nobody close.”

Why it matters

The Coast Guard sits inside Secretary Mullin’s Department of Homeland Security, and this address — paired with the Vice President’s Air Force Academy speech eight days later — is the administration’s 2026 statement to its incoming sea-service officers: the rescue-and-border maritime mission, honored in the President’s own superlatives. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Delivers a Commencement Address to the United States Coast Guard Academy,” New London, CT, May 20, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President at the ceremony.