President Trump visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Monday and delivered remarks at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate Memorial Day by honoring those who fell while serving their country.
“Every day the Republic stands is only possible because of those who did what had to be done when duty called. Our debt to them is eternal, and it does not diminish with time. It only grows and grows and grows with each passing year. The greatest monument to their courage is not carved in marble or cast in bronze. It's all around us, an American nation, 325 million strong,” Trump said.
“Their sacrifice was for today, tomorrow, and every morning after,” Trump added.
“Every child that lives in peace, every home that is filled with joy and love, every day the Republic stands, is only possible because of those who did what had to be done when duty called and the cost was everything,” the president continued.
“For the families of the fallen, you feel the absence of your heroes every day — in the familiar laugh no longer heard, the empty space at Sunday dinner, or the want of a hug or a pat on the back that will never come again,” Trump said. “Every Gold Star family fights a battle long after the victory is won — and today, we lift you up and we hold you high.”
“In every generation since, at Trenton and Yorktown, at Vicksburg and Shiloh — and in faraway places with names like Château-Thierry, Anzio, Iwo Jima, Khe Sanh, and Kandahar — a chosen few have given all on the altar of freedom. They plunged into the crucible of battle, stormed into the fires of hell, charged into the valley of death, and rose into the arms of angels,” Trump continued.
“From Bunker Hill to Bastogne and Cantigny to the Coral Sea, from Gettysburg to Guadalcanal and Concord to Kabul, America's best and America's bravest have fought, bled, and died so that we could pick up the torch of liberty, raise it high, and carry it onward to places they could never have dreamed,” Trump said.
The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before his speech. This is a somber annual tradition for presidents, and one Trump participated in during his first term as president.
Trump was joined by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who stood behind Trump as he placed the wreath.
“Each life honored here in Arlington was once full of the ordinary moments and quiet dreams of early sunrises, of good days and bad days, of celebrations and disappointments," Vance said. "For my fellow Americans, especially those watching on television, consider the sum of all the moments that make a good life, and now appreciate that countless strangers — people most of you never met — they gave up those moments in their own life so that we could enjoy them in ours. And that is what Memorial Day is all about."