President Donad Trump honored America’s living and fallen service members in a speech delivered at the Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
He stressed that American independence is a result of Revolutionary War patriots who chose to face death rather than live under British tyranny.
“Patriots were cut down by red coats with guns that were shot on Lexington Green,” he said. “They had answered the call to muster against a force five times their strength.”
Some 430,000 deceased U.S. enlisted and retired military men and women are buried at the Virginia cemetery, which Trump praised as an eternal symbol of national unity.
Known as the Semiquincentennial, July 4 will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States.
“When our founding fathers put the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, the paper in Philadelphia, they signed and sealed an oath that had already been written in blood by patriots at Lexington Concord and Bunker Hill to sacrifice and birth the most incredible and exceptional nation in all of history,” Trump said.
He added that the nation is doing better today than it's ever done before.
Geopolitically, 2026 has so far been marked by the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, subsequent conflicts in Iran, and the U.S. Department of Justice indictment of Fidel Castro’s brother, former Cuban President Raúl Castro.
“We will govern ourselves,” Trump said. “We will control our destiny. We will bow to no one but the righteous God who made us and who gave us our rights and blessed this land of the free and the bravest of the brave.”
Trump also touched on 13 service members who were lost this year in Operation Epic Fury.
He asked the family of U.S. Air Force officer Ariana Savino, 31, to stand.
Savino died on March 12, 2026, alongside five other crew members when their refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq.
“These incredible men and women gave their lives to ensure that the world's number one state sponsor of terror will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump added.
He took the time to honor living military veterans who survived World War 2, including 97-year-old Harry Miller who served in the Battle of the Bulge and was present in the audience.
The Battle of the Bulge took place in the Ardennes, which spans parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.
“Sergeant Miller, it is a true honor to have you with us and he looks great,” Trump said. “Many of the greatest men of that generation followed along an epic path from World War II to Korea and Vietnam.”