1 month ago
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President Donald Trump had a bonkers proposal for graduating business majors on Thursday during his commencement address at the University of Alabama.
“I challenge you not merely to use your talents for financial speculation but to apply your great skills that you’ve learned and had to forging the steel and pouring the concrete of new American factories, plants, shipyards, and even cities which are going up all over our country,” the president declared.
Trump — who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an economics degree — added that business students shouldn’t just build a “strong portfolio” but they should also build a “very, very strong America.”
He went on to suggest how future engineers, technicians, mathematicians — and even journalists — could contribute to building a “better” America before pivoting to talk of border security and a need for fair elections, some of the political asides and ramblings he inserted throughout his speech.
Elsewhere in a speech met with hundreds of protesters outside, Trump ranted about political foes, spoke of “internet people” who hated him but now kiss his “ass,” remarked on real estate developer William Levitt having a “trophy wife,” and mused about “tariff” as the “most beautiful word in the world.”
Trump: "For the business majors here today, I challenge you not merely to use your talents for financial speculation, but to apply your great skills that you've learned and had to forging the steel and pouring the concrete of new American factories, plants, shipyards, and even… pic.twitter.com/vqf5wytebM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 2, 2025Social media users were puzzled or amused by the president’s call to action for graduates.
Use your business degree to pour concrete?
— The Great Gig in the Sky (@thegreatgig8) May 2, 2025Yeah, that's why they all went to college.
— Beth in Wisconsin (@mynameisBethS) May 2, 2025😂, he’s telling Alabama graduates to “forget the office, you’re going to be on the yard doing hard labor for me…” 😂
And the kids don’t even know it. 😂 https://t.co/siqscoBUbl
Trump telling business majors to “pour concrete” and build factories is rich coming from a guy who outsourced his own merchandise and went bankrupt running casinos.
Real economic leadership isn’t about slogans, it’s about investing in workers and incentivizing them to do…
Did I understand that correctly? All those students who went into debt for college are now supposed to go work in factories or take blue-collar jobs. There’s nothing wrong with those professions, but he basically just told them their degrees are useless.
— JT (@escapeeJT) May 2, 2025kids want tech AI and the computer dev golden era. They could care less about a factory. Its no longer 1929
— Echo tone Music (@EcHoToNe) May 2, 2025We Won't Back Down
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So imagine going thru 4 years of college and the president of the United States is telling you to ready to work in the factories and warehouse that generation are going build those beautiful iPhones made in America.
— Dj Omega Mvp (@DjOmegaMVP) May 2, 2025
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