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Vice President JD Vance Delivers a Commencement Address to the United States Air Force Academy, May 28, 2026

May 28, 2026 · The White House · 2:51:49

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

What happened

Vice President JD Vance delivered the commencement address to the United States Air Force Academy Class of 2026 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 28, 2026. His theme was adaptability: plans fall through, adversaries surprise you, “but you can’t panic and you can’t overreact, not even if it’s three in the morning.” The class, he said, is “graduating into one of those eras where that reality, that unpredictability of warfare, is becoming impossible to ignore,” entering service “shaped by autonomous systems, AI and cyber operations.”

He told the graduates what the administration owes them in return: “This is why we’ve pushed forward with the F-47 and the Golden Dome and any number of new and advanced technologies. It’s why the president has made improving military quality of life such a central focus; why he’s insistent on increasing the defense budget to $1.5 trillion; and why he’s proud to support pay raises, new barracks and new hospitals and new schools on base.” He closed the point with an account of the rescue of downed American pilots in Iran, crediting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine’s assurance — “we’ve hit some snags, but I promise you, we’re still going to get everyone out alive” — and the force that went from “Plan A to Plan B to Plan C” to bring them home.

Why it matters

A service-academy commencement address is where an administration states its defense priorities to the officers who will execute them. On the Foreign Policy & Defense hub this speech is the Vice President’s fullest statement of the new-era warfare frame — autonomy, AI, cyber — paired with the procurement and budget commitments (F-47, Golden Dome, a $1.5 trillion defense budget) made in the President’s name.

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The $1.5 trillion defense-budget insistence and the F-47 / Golden Dome commitments are recorded as stated by the Vice President; both are checkable against the administration’s budget submissions and program milestones.

Sources: The White House, “Vice President JD Vance Delivers a Commencement Address to the United States Air Force Academy,” Colorado Springs, CO, May 28, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by Vice President Vance at the ceremony.