The following is the full transcript of Vice President JD Vance’s speech at the U.S. Naval Academy Commencement on May 23, 2025.
Listen to the audio version here:
Opening Remarks
VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Well, it is great to be with you here on this incredible day. And I got to say, it’s a pretty cool trick where when people say good morning, you guys say it back in unison. So let me say good morning to the class of 2025.
I want to say, first of all, thank you all for having me. And thank you especially to Vice Admiral Davids and Captain Allman for your hospitality. Thank you as well, of course, to Secretary Phelan for that great speech, Admiral Kilby and General Smith for all that you do for our country.
First off, I want to say both for me and from President Trump, congratulations to the class of 2025. I want to say congratulations not just to you all, because you all certainly earned a great honor, but congratulations to the families, the friends, the faculty, plus the other midshipmen and service members who join us on this beautiful morning and share in this incredible day.
Now, it’s always dangerous to give a politician a microphone. But I know that I am one of the very last things standing between you and your commission and your diploma. And so out of respect, I just want you to know that this is only going to be a three and a half or four hour speech. I hope you all brought your sunscreen because it’s bright out here.
A Day of Gratitude
But today is such an incredible day for you. Tonight, you’ll celebrate in the finest tradition of the United States Naval Academy with great food and, of course, maybe a little drink. But I hope that as you celebrate, you remember that this is not just your day, as hard as you have worked for it. This day belongs to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, brothers, sisters and so many others.
You, all of you, are the product of an incredible legacy. People who worked hard to give you a good education, food on the table and a sense of possibility. People who took you to church, to practices, to tutoring sessions. People who prayed for you when you struggled and celebrated with you at moments just like today.
Most of you are fortunate enough to have someone here to celebrate with you. Some of you don’t. But whether they are here with you or not, the very best piece of advice I can give you is to begin your life in the fleet with a spirit of gratitude. Be thankful for all the people gathered here today and those who aren’t, because they made you who you are and they got you to where you are today.
And I hope you’ll take from that gratitude a sense of duty. You owe it to the American people, to yourselves, but most of all to the people who sacrificed so hard to get you here. You owe it to them to do the best job you can and I know that is exactly what you’re going to do.
A New Era in American Foreign Policy
Now, it’s customary in speeches like this for people like me to offer words of congratulations and maybe a little bit of advice. Of course, I just did exactly that. But you’re not just graduates of some random university about to embark on careers in the private sector. And I’m not just giving another political speech. I’m your vice president. And the minute you walk off this stage with your diploma and your commission, you will be officers in the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. And that is an incredible thing. You will be leaders of men and women in our armed forces.
So while President Trump and I congratulate you on this incredible achievement, I also thought it would be appropriate to tell you a bit about how the president and I think of your mission in this new and very dangerous era for our country.
Now, last week, the president took a very historic trip to the Middle East, meeting with heads of state in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Most of the headlines focused on the trillions of dollars of new investment the president secured for our country, and that’s, of course, an important thing. But I actually think the most significant part of that trip is that it signified the end of a decades-long approach in foreign policy that I think was a break from the precedent set by our founding fathers.
We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defense and the maintenance of our alliances for nation-building and meddling in foreign countries’ affairs. Even when those foreign countries had very little to do with core American interests. What we’re seeing from President Trump is a generational shift in policy with profound implications for the job that each and every one of you will be asked to do.
Lessons from Past Foreign Policy
Now, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, our policymakers assumed that American primacy on the world stage was guaranteed. For a brief time, we were a superpower without any peer, nor did we believe any foreign nation could possibly rise to compete with the United States of America. And so our leaders traded hard power for soft power.
We stopped making things, everything from cars to computers to the weapons of war, like the ships that guard our waters and the weapons that you will use in the future. Why did we do that? Well, too many of us believed that economic integration would naturally lead to peace by making countries like the People’s Republic of China more like the United States.
Over time, we were told the world would converge toward a uniform set of bland, secular, universal ideals, regardless of culture or country.
And those that didn’t want to converge, well, our policymakers would make it their goal to force them by any means necessary.
So instead of devoting our energies to responding to the rise of near-peer competitors like China, our leaders pursued what they assumed would be easy jobs for the world’s preeminent superpower. How hard could it be to build a few democracies in the Middle East? Well, almost impossibly hard, it turns out, and unbelievably costly.
And it wasn’t our politicians who bore the consequences of such a profound miscalculation. It was the American people, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But more than anyone, it was borne by the people who were in your shoes just a few short years ago, by our service members and their families. The tens of thousands of warfighters who sacrificed precious time, energy, and in some cases, their very lives in the line of duty. They are the ones who bore the cost of past failure.
Our leaders abandoned clearly stated strategic goals for lofty, often incoherent abstractions. This is how, for example, we wound up chasing a $230 million pier in Gaza that worked for a grand total of 20 days while injuring over 60 American service members in the construction and maintenance of that pier. Our government took its eye off the ball of great power competition and preparing to take on a peer adversary. And instead, we devoted ourselves to sprawling, amorphous tasks, like searching for new terrorists to take out while building up faraway regimes.
A Return to Disciplined Strategy
Now, I want to be clear. The Trump administration has reversed course. No more undefined missions. No more open-ended conflicts. We’re returning to a strategy grounded in realism and protecting our core national interests.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we ignore threats. But it means that we approach them with discipline and that when we send you to war, we do it with a very specific set of goals in mind.
And consider how this played out in just the last major conflict we engaged in with the Houthis over in the Middle East. We went in with a clear diplomatic goal, not to enmesh our service members in a prolonged conflict with a non-state actor, but to secure American freedom of navigation by forcing the Houthis to stop attacking American ships. And that’s exactly what we did.
We pursued that goal through overwhelming force against Houthi military targets. In just the first 100 days of the administration, we were able to reach a ceasefire in a conflict that had been ongoing for nearly two years. That’s how military power should be used. Decisively, with a clear objective. We ought to be cautious in deciding to throw a punch, but when we throw a punch, we throw a punch hard and we do it decisively, and that’s exactly what we may ask you to do.
Now, that shift in thinking from ideological crusades to a principled foreign policy will help restore the credibility of American deterrence in 2025 and beyond. With the Trump administration, our adversaries now know
When the United States sets a red line, it will be enforced. And when we engage, we do so with purpose, with superior force, with superior weapons, and with the best people anywhere in the world.
The Future of Warfare and Technology
Let me say something about weapons and the future of warfare. It is, of course, a priority of this administration, not just to keep but to widen the technological edge between the United States military and our adversaries all over the world. In the wake of the Cold War, America enjoyed a mostly unchallenged command of the commons, airspace, sea, space, and cyberspace. But the era of uncontested U.S. dominance is over.
Today, we face serious threats, and China, Russia, and other nations determined to beat us in every single domain, from spectrum to low Earth orbit to our supply chains and even our communication infrastructure. Technology has lowered the costs of disruption, and so we must be, all of us, not just smarter. We’ve got to make sure that when we send our troops to war, we do it with the right tools. We can no longer assume our engagements will come without cost.
That’s why the Trump administration is investing in innovation, rewarding risk-takers at the Department of Defense, and streamlining weapons acquisition for the new century. Investing in cutting-edge weaponry like hypersonics is important, but just as important are the low-cost, high-impact technologies that are already transforming the battlefield, things like drones.
And by the way, when we talk about innovation, innovation is not just happening in the laboratory of a defense contractor. Innovation increasingly is happening on the very battlefields that you will lead troops on, so that you are not just recipients of innovation. You’re not just users of tools. You will very often be developing tools in this new century.
Our lawmakers and military brass alike must learn to adjust to a world where cheap drones, readily available cruise missiles, and cyberattacks cause extraordinary damage to our military assets and our service members. And it will be you, the graduates gathered here today, who will lead the way for the rest of us.
Your service will bring new challenges and environments, including ones unfamiliar even to those who have served before you. You will deploy new equipment, new systems, and new technology. And through those experiences, it is you who will learn, who will teach others, and will help our services and our entire country adapt to the future we’re confronting.
The Investment in America’s Military Leaders
Now, the extraordinary education you have received is an investment by the American people, an investment not only in your courage, but in the strength of your minds and the promise of your leadership. Because your nation rests easier knowing that we have the most brilliant strategists and tacticians standing guard. Men and women like you, brilliant enough to preempt and, if called, fight and win the wars of tomorrow.
And as technological change continues to transform the battlefield, it only heightens the importance for this administration, for our whole country, on investing in our military’s human capital – that’s you – and the well-being of our warfighters in your brilliance and your strategic innovation.
Modernization isn’t just about tactics and tools, it’s about meeting the needs of our service members. For too long, we asked too much of too few. Past leaders sent our service members on mission after mission with no exit strategy, no end-in-sight, and with little articulation for the American people or for the warfighters about what we were doing.
When we extend the deployment of an aircraft carrier, that has real impact on people’s lives, and we’re aware of it. They miss their families, of course they miss their loved ones and their home life. They accept that sacrifice, and that’s the job that you’ve taken on. But the job that we have taken on is to never misuse that sacrifice or never ask you to do something without a clear mission and a clear path home.
The Trump administration recognizes that our most valuable resources – it’s you, it’s young people who are brave enough to put on the uniform and risk your life for this country. And we promise, I promise, to cultivate that resource, to protect it, and to use it only when the national interest demands.
The Dual Role of Leadership
And what makes your new life so unique is that you must take multiple perspectives. You will be junior officers, of course, answerable to commanders, captains, admirals, generals, and people like me. You will have to follow orders, even when you don’t want to.
And if I can offer one piece of advice from a junior enlisted guy to a bunch of new officers, to say that when you say, “with all due respect,” that is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. I got chewed out more times than I can remember because I assumed that I could say whatever I wanted to so long as I said, “with all due respect,” before it. That’s not how it works out. You learn that the hard way.
But importantly, you are not just following orders. More often than not, you will be giving them. And just as I see you as our most precious resource, so you must see the men and women who call you sir and ma’am as your most sacred charge.
You will not just be another boss. You will counsel them through triumph and tragedy. You will learn that there is no clear line between personal and professional for officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. But I encourage you to see them not just as people who must follow your orders, but as leaders in their own right, with incredible wisdom and incredible potential.
Now, this is shocking to think about, but there are senior enlisted people who started their careers in the Navy or the Marine Corps before you were born who will call you sir and ma’am and follow your orders. Think about what an incredible honor that is, and think about what an incredible opportunity it is, not just to lead these men and women, but also to learn from these men and women.
And that is the task before you. You will lean on that experience, of course, but still, you’re very often, more often than not, going to be the one in charge. That is an honor, but it’s a responsibility that ought to give you chills.
You’ve made it now through one of the most demanding institutions in the entire world. You have earned your commissions, and you’ve stepped forward to serve at a moment when your country needs you now more than ever. But you’re stepping into gigantic shoes, and it’s worth taking stock of that as you prepare to receive your commission.
Those of us who’ve served know that graduates of the Naval Academy, they have a certain energy, a certain aura, a certain respect when they’re out there in the fleet. Let me just give you an example.
Today is your day, of course, and you should celebrate, but in three days, the President and I will lead the most solemn occasion in our nation, Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery. You’ll learn, as I have, that when people say things like, “happy Memorial Day,” you appreciate the sentiment behind it, but you know that it’s wrong, because Memorial Day is not a happy day, and Memorial Day is not for those who served and came home, it is for those who served and didn’t.
Every Memorial Day, I think about a graduate of this institution, Major Megan McClung. She was an officer I served with who was bright, tough, and incredibly dedicated to her job. She arrived in Iraq not long after me, and was killed in action not long after that. She loved this institution, and like so many that came before her, she built on its legacy in the way that she served her country.
Now, there are so many stories of great service in this institution. I look at these signs on this stadium, Belleau Wood, Midway, Guadalcanal, these are battles I read about in history books or learned about when I was a United States Marine.
If you just try to read a list of the people who served after graduating from this institution, the list is almost so long you can’t get through it. Senior leaders, Commandants of the Marine Corps, Chiefs of Naval Operations, astronauts, great business leaders, and even a few lowly politicians have graduated from the United States Naval Academy.
Their service is an incredible legacy that they have passed on to you, and you are the bridge that connects the incredible heritage of this institution to the future duties and responsibilities your country needs you to perform. That’s an incredible honor, but it’s also an incredible responsibility, and I hope you take it seriously. People will look at you as graduates of the
Naval Academy in a different way than they look at most of the people that you will meet every single day. They will look at you that way, yes, because you’ve worked hard, and yes, because you deserve this day, but they will also look at you differently because you stand on the shoulders of giants, and 20, 30, or 40 years from now, there are people who are going to be standing on your shoulders.
So please remember that. Please take it seriously, and please recognize that you become part of a brotherhood and sisterhood that will enable you to do great things, that will support you as you do them, but will ask you to give back as you should in return.
You are the inheritors of a national tradition dating back 250 years. It began with John Paul Jones, and the founders of this country asked the United States Navy to take on the most powerful navy on earth, and we won. Our first patriots knew the stakes. They did not seek out war. They did everything they could to advocate and petition for their own liberties, but when the time came, they raised the military, they raised the Navy, and they fought like hell.
Their example lives on in all of you. In their courage, we see the roots of your calling to be strong but not reckless, to seek peace but never at the expense of liberty, to hold firm to your convictions even when the cost is high.
Conclusion
I want to say to all of you, I have been Vice President for all of about 120 days, and this summer I will celebrate my 41st birthday, but I have never in those 41 years been so proud as I am today, to honor you, to celebrate you, and to congratulate you on a job well done.
Now, I’m sure some of you share my politics and some of you don’t, but I know today I speak for a grateful nation when I say we are rooting for you, Naval Academy Class of ’25. We are proud of you and we depend on you.
Congratulations, Godspeed, and do great work. Thank you.
