President Donald Trump spoke at the University of Alabama on Thursday night ahead of the official opening ceremony starting Friday, urging students not to consider themselves as “victims” of their future, noting that too many young people think so.
Special addresses for alumni also included comments from the university's president Stuart R. Bell and former Alabama Crimson Tidehead football coach Nick Saban. Trump promoted success in his first 100 days as president, giving his political opponents several opportunities.
But Trump's message focused primarily on graduation classes, which he recognized as “the first graduation class of America's golden age.”
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Alumni students listened to President Donald Trump's remarks at the University of Alabama Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on May 1, 2025. Trump's remarks come the day before the official opening ceremony. (Anna Money Maker/Getty Images)
“Don't see yourself as a victim, think of yourself as a winner. In recent years, many of our young people have been taught to think of themselves as victims, blame people and be angry. Don't get mad,” Trump said. “In America, we reject the idea that everyone is a victim. Our heroes are those who take charge of their own destiny, create their own luck, and decide their own destiny despite all the possibilities.”
In addition to promoting his political agenda, Trump shared his graduation class and various other advice. While federal judges slammed federal judges for not doing his job, and while men questioned their rebellion against his instructions to protect them from women's sports, Trump urged students to listen to the November election victory and beat the odds that existed through difficult tasks.
“It's clear that the 2025 Alabama-class alumni standing in front of you in this epic arena will see the next chapter of the American story not written by Harvard Crimson. “Because this is Alabama. And in Alabama, you fight, fight, fight, you win, win. That's what you know how to do.”
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US President Donald Trump will speak to alumni at the University of Alabama Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on May 1, 2025. Trump's remarks come the day before the official opening ceremony. (Anna Money Maker/Getty Images)
Trump's speech was the first speech by a president sitting at the University of Alabama.
Filled with pushbacks from both students and non-students. The University Democrat branch of the university held a “Tide against Trump” rally featuring former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones. The chapter also issued a statement a few days before Trump visited campus, expressing his “shock” and “a disgust” that “a popular, divisive, authoritarian president will be involved in the initiation.”
The Alabama NAACP also condemned Trump's appearance at the University of Alabama, comparing the president's rhetoric to “George Wallace's separatist rhetoric” in comments about his speech on their website.
The man wearing a pro card shirt will be out of the Coleman Coliseum before the opening ceremony at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on May 1, 2025. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/AFP by Getty Images)
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