President Donald Trump and his team are taking great care to avoid any public appearances, except in tightly controlled situations, that could result in him being harangued and booed as his approval numbers spiral into record lows, according to a new analysis.
MS NOW’s Ryan Teague Beckwith noted that the president has made a “striking break” with a tradition going back to President Teddy Roosevelt by steering clear of giving any commencement addresses at the nation’s colleges.
Instead, Trump has confined his commencement appearances exclusively to military service academies, venues where dissent is disallowed and audiences remain tightly controlled. Earlier this month, he spoke at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy for the second time since his first term. Last year, he returned to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In his first term, he also addressed the Naval Academy and Air Force Academy.
“For the commander in chief, military academies are the ultimate safe space," Beckwith wrote.
The only civilian colleges where Trump has delivered commencement addresses in both terms are Liberty University, the private evangelical institution where he spoke in 2017, and the University of Alabama in 2025 — both venues he addressed just months after taking office.
Before becoming president, Trump gave commencement addresses at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 1988 and Wagner College on Staten Island in 2004. Both institutions later expressed regret over the invitations.
Trump's avoidance of civilian campuses comes as his administration has waged an aggressive assault on American higher education. In his second term, he has attempted to cancel billions of dollars in federal grants, forced colleges to rewrite curricula, threatened institutional accreditation and tax-exempt status, restricted international student enrollment, and limited student loan forgiveness programs.
The combination of Trump's toxicity on campus and his hostile policies toward higher education has created a chilling effect. Even Republican-leaning college administrators are reluctant to extend invitations, fearing the backlash and controversy an appearance would generate.
