President Donald Trump took a shot at his billionaire benefactor Elon Musk during a commencement address at the University of Alabama.
The president spoke Thursday night to graduating students, where he aired grievances about the 2020 election, offered advice – “think of yourself as a winner,” “be an original” and “never, ever give up" – and jabbed "internet people" like Musk and other tech moguls, reported The Daily Beast, which framed it as "Trump humiliates Musk."
“They all hated me in my first term,” the president told students and their families, "and now they’re kissing my a--.”
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“It’s true,” he added. “It’s amazing. It’s nicer this way now.”
Musk spent nearly $300 million of his own money on Trump's re-election and has directed sweeping cuts to government agencies and the federal workforce as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, but he is stepping back from his role in the administration and focusing on his floundering Tesla electric vehicle company.
“Change is never easy, and the closer you get to success, the more ferociously those with a vested interest in the past will resist you they want to resist,” Trump said. “You have to break the system a little bit and follow your own instincts. But if your vision is right, nothing will hold you down, nothing. You have to have the right vision.”
Trump told the students they were "the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” but he then launched into a campaign-style rant complaining the U.S. had been "ripped off" during Joe Biden's presidency, performed a grunting impression of a transgender weightlifter and attacked the judicial branch for blocking his mass deportations.
“Judges are interfering, supposedly based on due process,” Trump said. “But how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally?”
Hundreds of protesters gathered at a park about a mile away at a rally hosted by College Democrats, where one student said she felt "betrayed" by the university's invitation to Trump, but his speech was generally well received in a state he won all three times he's run for president.
“I think that no matter what political party or whatever you believe in, I think that it’s super cool that we get to experience and make history and be a part of this,” said 21-year-old Sophie Best, who is graduating with a communications degree. “I don’t think that we could have had a greater person come to speak.”
