Obama is scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m. Sunday in front of more than 12,000 graduating students and 40,000 guests at High Point Solution Stadium.
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While not directly naming the candidate, President Obama made it clear just what he thinks about Donald Trump’s campaign and policy proposals in a highly political commencement speech Sunday at Rutgers University.
The public university’s leaders lobbied the president for years to come to campus for the school’s 250th anniversary, and Mr Obama praised the school for its diverse student body and research programmes.
He also joked that he came to address New Jersey’s biggest controversy, whether the state’s favorite breakfast meat should be called Taylor ham or pork roll.
Critical steps he says he believes will shape a brighter future for the next generation.
“If you disagree with someone, bring them in”, he said.
CORRECTS LOCATION TO PISCATAWAY, NOT NEW BRUNSWICK – People cheer for President Barack Obama during Rutgers University’s 250th Anniversary commencement ceremony, on Sunday, May 15, 2016, in Piscataway, N.J.
Obama never said Trump’s name.
On that note, Obama took aim at Trump’s call to block Muslims from entering the United States, saying the idea “doesn’t just run counter to our history as the world’s melting pot; it contradicts the evidence that our growth, our innovation” boosted America because of immigration. “These are qualities you want to continue to cultivate in yourselves as citizens”. “That’s not ‘keeping it real, ‘ or ‘telling it like it is.’ That’s not ‘challenging political correctness.’ It’s just not knowing what you’re talking about”.
Obama said keeping the rest of the world at bay won’t fix the nation’s problems – likely a reference to Trump’s pledge to build a wall along the border with Mexico and his suggestion that the USA bar Muslim immigration to the country. To help ourselves, we’ve got to help others.
“I couldn’t be more disappointed in the last eight years”, said Zangli, referring to Obama’s tenure in office. “Building walls won’t change that”.
Obama said that affecting change isn’t “hopeless” despite obstacles.
“You’re gonna have some setbacks”, he told the graduates. “You have to stick with it”. Obama will be the seventh President to receive an honorary degree from Rutgers, and the first since Dwight Eisenhower. “Don’t lose hope if sometimes you hit a roadblock”. “We knew you would be an historic class”, Barchi said.
While the military academies are regular stops, other graduation venues are carefully chosen to make a point – about immigration, for example, at Miami Dade College, or about African-American achievement, at Morehouse College.
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“You are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan”, he said.
