Trump addresses West Point but ducks controversies

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday addressed the new graduating class of the West Point military academy, praising the “righteous glory of the American warrior” but largely side-stepping recent controversies over racial unrest and the military´s role in putting it down.

“America is the greatest country in human history,” Trump told the 1,107 newly minted second lieutenants as they sat, well-spaced, under a bright sun on the parade ground of the US Military Academy. But he made no direct mention of the recent racial turmoil and only glancingly referred to recent dissent from top military figures over his threat to employ active duty troops to put down protests.

Trump´s closest mention came when he said, “I also want to thank the men and women of our National Guard” for responding to “challenges from hurricanes and natural disasters to ensuring peace, safety and the constitutional rule of law on our streets.”

The president, who was introduced by the academy´s first black superintendent, Lieutenant General Darryl Williams, also referred only passingly to the nation´s racial challenges.

“The army was at the forefront of ending the terrible injustice of segregation,” he said, and it was West Point graduates who led the fight in the Civil War to “end the evil of slavery.”

Trump did not mention that one West Point barracks still bears the name of General Robert E. Lee, who led the break-away Confederate forces during that war, which brought an end to slavery.

Trump has rejected recent demands to rename US military bases bearing the names of Confederate officers. Tensions between Trump and the military had soared since he threatened to call out active duty troops to put down sometimes violent protests when racial turmoil broke out recently. Defense Secretary Mark Esper took the exceptional step of publicly denouncing such use of the troops.