President Donald Trump delivered an almost hour long commencement address at the University of Alabama Thursday night.
At one point joking that “most of what I’ve said tonight is not on the teleprompter,” Trump used the opportunity to talk at length about his second term so far, claim the 2020 election was rigged, and attack transgender people who compete in sports.
“But against all odds, I did great in 2016. 2016, how great was that?” the president said. “And then I did much better in 2020. Sorry, the election was rigged. I, probably, but it was a rigged election. And then in 2024, I made it too big to rig.”
“I said you’ve got to make it too big to rig and they did. They went out and they voted and voted and voted and we won the whole thing and it was so good and it was such a great mandate for our country,” he continued. “So never let anyone tell you that something is impossible, ever, ever, ever. In America, the impossible is what we all do best.”
Trump also seemed to dispel some early rumors that the White House had reached out to the University of Alabama first, telling the crowd that “when your president [Stuart Bell] called, we talked about it, it took me about two seconds to say that I’ll go.”
Before the address, Tuscaloosa mayor Walter Maddox told local news channel WVTM 13 News he’d “like to see [Trump] reference the strength of the University of Alabama and the continued investments into especially their research and development arms.”
“That is where the federal government can help the university the most, which helps Tuscaloosa the most,” Maddox explained.
Trump’s comments on the University of Alabama primarily focused on the school’s sports programs though, including repeated promises to “protect women’s sports” by preventing transgender women from participating. He also finished his speech by referencing his administration’s threat to strip billions of dollars in federal funding from Harvard.
Leaders of the University of Alabama College Republicans and other conservative student organizations have lauded the opportunity for UA graduates to see President Trump speak since the event was announced, writing in public statements that protests by other student organizations would not represent the student body as a whole.
Sophia Kyemba, the president of the UA chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America and an organizer of one of those protests, told APR she felt “it’s important for UA students to protest this event because we can’t let Trump think what he’s doing, such as gutting funding for education, is appreciated here.”
“People need to know that UA is not a monolith of students who support Trump, that Trump doesn’t care about UA students (as is shown by the detainment of Doroudi) or students in general (as shown by his desire to get rid of the Department of Education), and that the UA administration’s choice to happily host Trump does not reflect the opinions of the whole student or faculty body,” Kyemba stressed.
A mechanical engineering PhD student at UA, Alireza Doroudi was detained by ICE in late March and recently denied bail despite no clarification from the Department of Homeland Security about what “significant national security concerns” they believe he poses.
In a statement UA College Republicans provided to APR, the club acknowledged students’ feelings about Doroudi’s detainment without criticizing the conduct of the DHS or ICE. “The recent deportation of a student from our campus community has raised serious concerns among students, faculty, and staff,” it reads. “Regardless of one’s views on immigration policy, moments like this call us to reflect on the role our University should play in supporting its students during times of uncertainty and distress.”
UACR also stated that the university could “best protect its students by upholding the rule of law, ensuring that all actions taken within and on behalf of the institution are consistent with legal standards and procedures.”
The club Kyemba was recently elected to lead, the UA Leftist Collective, was one of several campus organizations that supported protesting outside Coleman Coliseum during Trump’s speech, including the United Campus Workers local working to unionize UA. The union’s endorsement of the protest stated that “in an effort to delegitimize unions, the Trump administration has attacked collective bargaining rights, already an uphill battle in the public sector in the South.”
Kyemba told APR she estimated a couple hundred people participated in the protest outside Coleman and said some people who attended the speech “yelled things at us and recorded us but luckily no one was violent.”
UA College Democrats and other groups connected to the state Democratic Party also hosted a well-attended “Tide Against Trump Rally” from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Snow Hinton Park. With over a thousand people in the audience, the rally featured speeches by former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, and Democratic Senate candidate Kyle Sweetser.
“Are we going to stand up and fight for that democracy?” O’Rourke asked the cheering crowd during his speech. “Are we going to follow the lead of John Lewis and the people of Alabama?”
Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who represents much of Tuscaloosa, posted a video to Instagram Thursday morning apologizing for being unable to make it to the rally because she had to be in Washington. While introducing Doug Jones, UACD vice president Sam McKinney told attendees he’d personally spoken to Sewell the day before and the effort had received her full support.
“This is not a protest, this is a movement,” Jones thundered when he spoke. “Because, as Beto said, it is the movements that change this country. Whether it is the Civil Rights movement, whether it was the anti-war movement, it is the movements. And guess what, it started on college campuses.”
The former senator also joked about the current administration’s recent policies, saying that “if there is one person in this country who could use the Department of Education” before trailing off in laughter. He then challenged the president to go see where Vivian Malone and James Hood walked past jeering crowds and up to Alabama Governor George Wallace during his Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.
