The President Told the Coast Guard to Fight, Fight, Fight.

It is graduation season. Across the country, people are sitting in folding chairs in the sun while a person at a podium tells them they are the future.

On Wednesday, in New London, Connecticut, two hundred sixty newly commissioned Coast Guard officers sat in folding chairs in the sun. They had finished four years at the Coast Guard Academy. They had studied navigation, ship handling, marine engineering, polar operations, search and rescue. They were about to take an oath.

The President of the United States, who had flown up that morning, gave the keynote address. He spoke for about an hour. He spoke from behind a clear protective panel, per the wires, because of the assassination attempts.

He told the graduates: “You will fight, fight, fight and win, win win.”

A small note about what the Coast Guard does.

The Coast Guard rescues people from sinking boats. It intercepts drug runners. It runs polar icebreakers. It enforces fisheries law. It manages maritime safety. It is, as a service, sized for none of the things one normally pictures when one hears the words “fight, fight, fight.”

When a Coast Guard officer wins, what they win is a person off a life raft.

The whole speech.

Per the Washington Post, the President hit “national resurgence.” He hit “golden age.” He hit “America First,” repeatedly, on a stage in Connecticut, behind glass. He hit a joke about a New London bar called Mr. G’s. He hit “fight, fight, fight” and “win, win, win,” which I will give him for rhythm.

He also said, regarding his record of giving Coast Guard commencement addresses, “We’re going to have to try it maybe a third time, too, to keep that record intact.” That is a thing a person says about themselves at a ceremony for other people.

The graduates.

The two hundred sixty newly commissioned officers, who I assume listened politely for the full hour, will now go do the actual job. Some will deploy to icebreakers. Some will deploy to drug interdiction. Some will deploy to the Bering Sea, which does not care about national resurgence and which will, in fact, kill you for sport.

The Coast Guard does not need to be told to fight. It does not need to be told to win. It mostly needs to be left alone to do the job, with funding, and with the occasional thank-you note.

It got one hour.