A rumor that circulated online in May 2025 claimed U.S. Military Academy West Point cadets silently revolted against President Donald Trump’s attendance to deliver the commencement address at their May 24 graduation ceremony, secretly coming to an agreement beforehand to refuse to shake his hand.
Numerous social media users copied and pasted an alleged report about this matter attributed to the author name Robert Hawks. The story’s headline read, “West Point Cadets’ Silent Revolt—Anonymous Graduates and Faculty Reveal Why President Trump Didn’t Shake Their Hands.”
For example, this rumor appeared on Bluesky, Facebook (archived), LinkedIn (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived), Truth Social (archived), X (archived) and other (archived) platforms (archived).
(Image courtesy of @jg1234567/X)
The manager of a Facebook profile bearing Hawks’ name first featured the report about the claim in a post (archived) on May 28, which said cadets’ loyalty to their honor code led them to decide “behind closed doors” that they would refuse to shake Trump’s hand.
That cadet honor code, authentically published on the West Point website (archived) and displayed on the Military Academy campus in West Point, New York, reads, “A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” Hawks’ post included photos appearing to show former U.S. presidents shaking hands at past military branch diploma ceremonies.
(Image courtesy of Robert Hawks/Facebook)
However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets credibly reporting that West Point cadets organized to refuse to shake Trump’s hand. We were unable to locate any evidence to confirm or disprove the rumor about a planned handshake refusal, as of this writing, and as a result we have not rated the claim.
As reported later in this story, while Trump did leave the graduation early, breaking a tradition held by recent past presidents who stayed for diploma ceremonies for military branches, video showed him shaking the hands of several cadets and other officials during his time at the venue. Further, Trump honored the tradition of staying for the diploma ceremonies at various military branch graduations during all four years of his first term in office.
In a statement to Snopes, the White House called the news of Trump leaving early “a non-story,” and claimed (without yet providing evidence) that Trump shook “hundreds” of hands of military leaders and cadets before delivering his graduation speech.
Hawks’ profile did not feature any disclaimers saying the post was fiction or satire. The user’s post timeline contained a mixture of authentic, unfounded and fabricated content.
For example, while one fabricated story (archived) from May 20 told of the White House announcing a murderous “purge night,” other posts reported authentic news about a man’s execution (archived) and plans for a parade on Trump’s birthday (archived).
Two AI-detection websites found a high likelihood of Hawks using an artificial-intelligence (AI) tool to write the report, while four others concluded it was likely that a human wrote the text.
Snopes contacted Hawks via Messenger to ask questions about their post, including about what inspired them to write the story, if they categorize some of their content as fiction, satire or parody, and also if they used AI. We also emailed public affairs personnel at West Point to ask if they could comment on the matter and confirm the truth. We will update this article if we receive more information.
Trump’s early departure, golf rumor
Trump’s speech at the West Point graduation, occurring at Michie Stadium, featured moments in which he directly addressed cadets as well as political comments similar to those heard at his past campaign rallies.
During Trump’s remarks, he singled out cadets’ academic accomplishments and asked some of them to stand for recognition. He also called onstage at least three cadets and shook their hands.
Near the end of his speech, he signaled he planned to leave prior to the handing out of diplomas, announcing, “So I just want to congratulate you all. I’m going back now to deal with Russia, to deal with China.” As he left the stage, he shook four more hands. He also shook the hand of Lt. Gen. Steven W. Gilland, the Military Academy’s superintendent.
As Snopes reported, Trump’s early departure broke a tradition at military commencements held for years by other past presidents, in which they had stayed after delivering their speeches to observe and participate in the handing out of diplomas. Those presidents included, for example, all years served by Joe Biden, Trump during his first term, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
Additionally, former Vice President Kamala Harris delivered commencement speeches at military branch graduations in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, including staying to shake hands and observe diploma ceremonies in all four years, as did Vice President JD Vance following his commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy in May 2025.
A similar rumor that circulated at the same time — which claimed Trump played golf, or that a video showed him playing golf, in the hours after leaving the West Point graduation and returning to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey — also lacked definitive evidence. Readers can learn more details about that matter in our previous fact check.
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Donald Trump, West Point cadets, Robert Hawks, Vice President Kamala Harris, Military Academy, diploma ceremonies
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