Since Teddy Roosevelt, American presidents have regularly given commencement addresses at this time of year.
They have used these speeches to college graduates to explain their approach to foreign policy, poke fun at themselves, offer deeply personal reflections or just share their advice on life.
But setting aside the substance of the speeches, the locations themselves are telling — and that is especially true for President Donald Trump.
Over the years, presidents have made a statement by speaking at their own alma maters, notable universities in battleground states, faith-based institutions, historically Black colleges, women’s colleges, trade schools and even community colleges, plus giving regular graduation addresses at the nation’s military service academies.
Earlier this month, Trump spoke at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy for the second time since his first term. Last year, he spoke at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, another repeat. In his first term, he also spoke at the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
But the only nonmilitary colleges at which Trump has given commencement addresses in both of his terms were the private, evangelical Liberty University in 2017 and the University of Alabama in 2025, both just months after taking office.
That is a striking break from his predecessors, and there are four major reasons for it.
Trump likes safe spaces
Despite his combative persona, Trump often avoids going into situations where he might be challenged publicly.
Over the years, he has prematurely ended tough interviews with journalists and even skipped some political debates, instead preferring tightly screened political rallies, softball interviews with conservative media and dinners at his private country clubs in Florida and New Jersey.
For the commander in chief, military academies are the ultimate safe space.
His two nonmilitary addresses were also safe picks. Founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell, Liberty University is currently ranked America’s most conservative college by one rating site. Meanwhile, the University of Alabama sits in a state that handed Trump some of his highest percentage wins across his three presidential campaigns.
Trump likes looking tough
A master marketer, Trump also likes to make appearances at places that project raw strength and toughness.
That includes getting tours of auto manufacturing facilities, giving speeches at Fraternal Order of Police lodges, making visits to the border wall and snagging ringside seats at Ultimate Fighting Championship matches. He’s even constructing his own UFC octagon on the White House lawn.
Military graduations, with their rows of sharply dressed cadets and flyovers by the Blue Angels, provide the exact kind of backdrop that Trump loves.
He’s not alone in taking advantage of the symbolism. But past presidents have used their commencement speeches at military academies to talk about the importance of character or outline their vision for achieving “peace for all time,” while Trump tends to talk more or less like he does at a campaign rally.
Trump has attacked private colleges
The president doesn’t just prefer speaking at military graduations. He also has some big reasons to avoid speaking at private colleges.
The main one is that he has harshly criticized U.S. colleges and universities as “woke” and “anti-American” institutions “dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics” and “infested with radicalism” that are “turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers.”
Needless to say, that is hardly the language of the typical commencement speech congratulating graduates on their hard-earned degrees.
In his second term, he’s also tried to cancel billions of dollars in federal grants and force colleges to rewrite their curricula, threatened their accreditation and tax-exempt status, made it harder for international students to attend and restricted student loan forgiveness.
That’s enough to make even the most Republican-leaning college administrator think twice about risking a backlash with an invite.
Colleges regretted inviting Trump
Long before he became president, Trump gave two commencement addresses at private colleges. Both schools later came to regret it.
In 1988, when he was known as a high-flying New York real estate developer, Trump gave a graduation speech at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree as part of the custom. In 2004, when he was better known as the host of the reality TV show “The Apprentice,” he gave a speech at Wagner College on Staten Island.
Once his political career was launched, students and faculty on both campuses unsuccessfully petitioned the schools’ boards of trustees to revoke the honors.
But on Jan. 8, 2021, just after the attack on the Capitol, the two schools separately announced that they had officially stripped Trump of the honorary degrees. A Scottish university had already rescinded an honorary degree it gave him, leaving the president with just two honors awarded by Liberty University.
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Ryan Teague Beckwith is a newsletter editor for MS NOW.