By Jarrett Renshaw
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – U.S. President Biden will deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, on Saturday amid conflict in Ukraine and Gaza.
The speech to about 1,000 U.S. Army cadets is part of an effort by Biden to highlight the administration’s efforts to support active and retired military personnel. They include a bipartisan bill he signed two years ago to help veterans exposed to burns or other toxins more easily access health care.
Biden will take part in Memorial Day services at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Monday. A week later, he travels to Normandy, France, to participate in ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Biden is expected to deliver a major speech on the heroism of Allied forces in World War II and the ongoing threats to democracy today.
As vice president, he twice addressed a graduating class of cadets at the academy, about 40 miles north of New York City, but this will be the first time he has done so as president.
Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican challenger in the 2024 election, was the last president to speak at a commencement at West Point in 2020.
Sometimes violent protests have erupted on college campuses across the country over Biden’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas following the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack. Students have used commencement speeches at colleges like Harvard, Duke and Yale universities to protest Biden’s actions.
Earlier this month, the Democratic president delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College, a historically black men’s college, where protests were sparse.
Protests are unlikely at the military academy, which was founded by President Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to train army officers and has produced some of the United States’ greatest generals, including two who later became presidents.
Trump, meanwhile, has seen some of his support from the military community erode.
In 2016, he won 60% of voters who at the time said they had served in the military, according to NBC News exit polls.
According to NBC News, that figure dropped to 54% in 2020.
In 2020, Biden won 44% of voters who said they had served in the military, according to the data.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
