West Point taps Pete Hegseth for Saturday graduation speech
West Point named Pete Hegseth as Saturday’s commencement speaker less than 24 hours before graduation, tightening security for 993 cadets and their families.
West Point on Friday morning tapped U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to speak at the Class of 2026 graduation ceremony, a last-minute change that put Orange County’s biggest military stage on an even tighter clock.
The academy said Hegseth, its 29th secretary of war, would make his first official visit to West Point for the ceremony. West Point identified him as a 2003 Princeton University graduate who later earned a degree from Harvard University in 2013. The academy also said he was commissioned as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard and served in active-duty deployments that included Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, along with multiple National Guard staff assignments.
For cadets and families heading to Michie Stadium, the logistics were already set to be tight. West Point said the Class of 2026 graduation was scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23, with stadium gates opening at 7 a.m. and buses beginning at 6:30 a.m. Guests were told to be seated by 9 a.m. because of security considerations, and the academy said traffic would be halted during the guest speaker’s movements while roads around Michie Stadium were blocked early in the morning.
The ceremony is a major one even by West Point standards. The Class of 2026 included 993 cadets, according to the academy’s Branch Night coverage in December, when cadets learned their future Army career paths. The class entered West Point on Reception Day, June 27, 2022, from a pool of nearly 12,600 applicants. West Point said the incoming class included more than 1,200 U.S. citizens, 16 international students and 11 combat veterans, with cadets representing all 50 states and international cadets from Botswana, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Tunisia.
The late announcement also keeps West Point in the national spotlight for a second straight year. President Donald J. Trump delivered the academy’s 2025 commencement address, underscoring how often the Orange County institution draws top-tier federal attention for graduation day. Founded in 1802 and located about 50 miles north of New York City, West Point is once again balancing ceremonial pageantry with the security demands that come with hosting a high-profile speaker before hundreds of cadets, their families and invited guests.
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