Travel Pool Report 7/Remarks over

President Trump concluded at 11:13 after offering advice to graduates and laying out his administration's policies. Apologies for the slow pool report, poor cell service here.

Trump tore into his predecessors and said he would refocus the military on border protection and away from foreign wars.

Among the key quotes:

"For at least two decades, political leaders from both parties have dragged our military into missions it was never meant to be [in]. People would say, 'Why are we doing this? Why are we wasting our time, money and souls in some cases?'"

"They sent our warriors on nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us, led by leaders who didn't have a clue in distant lands while abusing our soldiers with absurd ideological experiments."

"All of that is ended."

"They subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries' wars."

"But under the Trump administration, those days are over. We're getting rid of the distractions and focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America's adversaries, killing America's enemies and defending our great American flag."

"The job of the US armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures or to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of the gun. The military's job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America anywhere anytime and anyplace."

"My preference always will be to make peace and seek partnership, even with countries with which our differences may be profound."

"As much as you want to fight, I'd rather do it without having to fight. I'd rather just look at them and have them fold. And that's happening."

"A central purpose of our military is to protect our own borders from invasion. Our country was invaded for the past four years."

--

Steven Nelson

New York Post

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