President Donald Trump on Monday used what was intended as a solemn address honoring America’s war dead to deliver a speech replete with gratuitous attacks on his predecessor and self-congratulatory talk about how God had returned him to the White House so he could preside over next year’s U.S.-hosted World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Trump, who spoke at the Arlington National Cemetery ampitheater following introductory remarks by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, opened his speech by speaking of the “incredible service members” who “rest in glory” at Arlington, at America’s overseas military cemeteries across the globe, and in “one thousand lonely places known only to God.” “Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. Their valor gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth,” Trump said. But the president quickly pivoted to grouse about his predecessor and his immigration policies, telling the crowd he was “fixing” that “noble republic” after “a long and hard four years.” “That was a hard four years we went through — who would let that happen?” he said. “People pouring through our borders, unchecked, people doing things that are indescribable.” But Trump, apparently noticing his surroundings, added that such things were “not for today to discuss” and continued his remarks, eventually going into a recitation of the names and deeds of a few of the Americans buried there at Arlington, as well as soldiers and Marines and sailors who died in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Syria. He described how they’d sacrificed themselves “on the altar of freedom” and how they’d “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.” “The sacrifice that they made was not merely for a single battle a long ago victory or a fleeting triumph decades or centuries past. Their sacrifice was for today, tomorrow and every morning thereafter, every child that lives in peace, every home that is filled with joy and love,” he said. “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, which will soon be greater than it has ever been before.” He spoke of a U.S. Navy “linguist, translator and cryptologic technician” by the name of Shannon Kent, who was one of the first women to work alongside elite special operations units such as Navy SEAL teams and the Army’s Delta Force “to help them capture and kill terrorists.” “She was among the first women ever to do it, and she did it better than anyone,” said Trump, who described how Kent, a Senior Chief Petty Officer, had been embedded in Syria with a SEAL team who were “hunting ISIS terrorists through the streets” when she lost her life at the hands of a suicide bomber, leaving behind a husband and two sons who were in attendance at Arlington on Monday. Turning to them, he told them their mother “was a hero” whose “love ... strength and ... spirit” would “always” be with them. He also told her parents and sister that Senior Chief Kent’s name would “live forever in the chronicles of true American patriots.” “We should never forget, even for a moment, that freedom is a gift of the highest cost, and peace is one at the most precious price. These extraordinary American heroes and their immense and ultimate sacrifices, they offer only the faintest glimpse at the infinite grace we have received from all who laid down their lives for America over the past 250 years,” he said. But after that poignant moment, Trump returned to congratulating himself. His mention of “the past 250 years” appeared to remind him of the upcoming semiquincentennial celebration to mark the anniversary of America’s declaration of independence from Great Britain in July 1776. “We're going to have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years, in some ways, I'm glad I missed that second term where it was because I wouldn't be your president for that most important of all. In addition, we have the World Cup, and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years, and now look what I have — I have everything, it’s amazing how things work out,” he said. “God did that — I believe that, too.” “You know, I got the World Cup and I got the Olympics. The 250 years was not mine. I'd like to take credit, but I got the Olympics, I got the World Cup when I was president. And I said, Boy, it's too bad I won't be president then. And look what happened. I turned out, and we're going to have a great time.” Trump, who never served in any of the U.S. armed services spoke just after he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which holds unidentified remains of three American servicemen, one from the First World War War, one from the Second World War, and one from the Korean War. The president was accompanied by Vance, Hegseth and Major General Trevor Bredenkamp, the commanding general of the Military District of Washington, as he approached the tomb and helped slide the wreath into place. All four rendered hand salutes during the playing of the national anthem, even though Bredenkamp, who was in uniform, was the only one of them required to salute under protocol and tradition dictating that civilians and persons wearing civilian clothing are supposed to place their right hands over their hearts instead. Trump has often erroneously saluted at military ceremonies such as this one, but it is notable that Vance and Hegseth chose to copy him since they are both military veterans who would have been trained not to salute when not in uniform. Hours before the speech, Trump took to Truth Social where he he railed against his predecessor, branded the Demcorats “scum” and federal judges “monsters” in a testy Memorial Day message. In an all-caps, early-morning tirade, the president wished a “Happy Memorial Day to all” before his message went awry and devolved into an all-out attack against his political opponents. “Including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country through warped radical left minds, who allowed 21,000,000 million people to illegally enter our country, many of them being criminals and the mentally insane, through an open border that only an incompetent president would approve,” he wrote. Trump also addressed his clash with the courts and lambasted federal judges who have moved to block his administration’s policies, claiming they are protecting “murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members, and released prisoners from all over the world.” Deriding the judiciary as “monsters,” Trump said that he remains hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court and other “good and compassionate” judges will step in to save America. “But fear not, we have made great progress over the last 4 months, and America will soon be safe and great again! Again, happy Memorial Day, and god bless America!” he concluded the message, which was deleted twice with spelling and spacing errors before it was finally re-uploaded. With additional reporting by James Lidell