Tuscaloosa, ala. (Ap)-after President Donald Trump overshadowed a weekly celebration of his 100 days in office
But Trump’s expected presence at the University of Alabama moved hundreds from demonstrators to a rally outside the campus.
Trump’s evening comments in Tuscaloosa will be the first address of the Republican President of graduates in his second term and come because he celebrates the first 100 days of his administration.
The White House did not indicate any details about Trump’s planned message.
Alabama, where Trump won 64% of the votes in 2024, he has organized a number of his vast rallies in the past ten years. In his first presidential campaign, Trump also showed early signs of strength when he started filling stadiums for his rallies.
While the White House of Trump described Trump’s speech, it is actually a special event that was created before the final ceremonies on Friday. However, graduates have the opportunity to take part in the event, but is not necessary.
The former Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban also speaks at the event.
Before the president’s arrival, the graduates and their families began to be submitted to the arena in which Trump should address his speech. Many seemed to be enthusiastic about the view to see him personally.
Emily Appel, a 22-year-old advertising man from Norcross, Georgia, described Trump’s appearance in her school “A Cherry on Top” of her college years.
“I think it is such an honor, no matter who the president is. I think that is a great honor that the President of the United States speaks to our school,” said Appel.
She called Trump a “very influential person” and said she hoped that he had to share a message that was “positive that we could work in the real world and for our future”.
Sophie Best, who has a degree in communication, said: “I don’t think we could have come a larger person to speak.”
The 21-year-old from Cartersville, Georgia, said she visited Trump’s first inauguration of the President in 2017 when she loved Trump with her father, to whom she said.
“I think no matter which political party or whatever you believe, I think it is super cool that we experience and write history and be part of it,” she said.
In a park that is several miles away, hundreds of people gathered on a rally by College Democrats. The unique presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke from Texas and the former US senator Doug Jones, the last democrat who held a nationwide office in Alabama, should deal with the rally, which is called “flood against Trump”-a piece of the university.
Aidan Meyers, a 21-year-old junior study biology at the university, said that he feels cheated by the decision to let Trump speak Trump at an event in connection with a degree.
“I felt cheated that the university was ready to believe with someone who made it clear that it hates academies and essentially keeps the financing over the heads of the university as a negotiation chip, unless they bend before what he wants, what a kind of Hallmark sign is with a fascist regime,” said Meyers.
He said he also felt cheated by the government’s attitude towards science and research. A scholarship he was looking for at the National Institute of Health was canceled because of the federal freezing, he said.
O’Rourke praised the students who invited him as “inspiring” and initiated their efforts in a state dominated by Republicans like Alabama, an example of the rest of the country.
“You cannot be too red or too rural or too republican to be written off now. You cannot be too blue or too liberal to be taken for granted,” O’Rourke told the Associated Press after he had arrived in Tuscaloosa. “You have to appear absolutely everywhere. We are really in crisis.”
Trump’s presence has also drawn the criticism of Alabama’s NAACP, who said that his politics violated the universities and students, especially the color students.
Trump’s visit to Alabama is his second trip this week. He stopped a rally to Michigan on Tuesday and marked 100 days in office.
Outside of weekend trips for personal visits, the President has not undertaken many official trips since taking office on January 20. Usually he speaks to the public about the impromptu news conferences, which he organizes in the Oval Office and at other events in the White House.
After stopping in Alabama, Trump is supposed to travel to Florida for a long weekend in his Mar-Lago resort.
Next month, he will address the speech at the US Military Academy in West Point, New York, addressing the US military academy.
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Associated Press Reporter Bill Barrow contributed from Atlanta.
