Trump not speaking at Notre Dame commencement
March 27, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: The University of Notre Dame has regularly invited a newly inaugurated US president to address its commencement ceremonies. But President Trump will not speak at this year’s graduation.
The commencement speaker this year will be Admiral Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Previous Notre Dame commencement speakers have included Presidents Dwight Eisenhower in 1960, Jimmy Carter in 1977, Ronald Reagan in 1981, George H. W. Bush in 1992, George W. Bush in 2001, and Barack Obama in 2009. President Joe Biden was reportedly invited to speak in 2021, but declined, citing a prior commitment.
In 2017, after Trump entered the White House for the first time, Vice President Mike Pence gave the graduation address. Father John Jenkins, who was president of Notre Dame at the time, was quoted as saying that Trump had not been invited because he did not meet “a certain bar in terms of just moral decency.”
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