Donald Trump makes West Point speech as protests continue – live | US news

The Houston Police Department has relieved one of its members of their duties after the officer wrote a post on social media with “racial undertones”. In the since deleted post, the officer blamed the black community for its own problems. ABC13 reported the officer had been a member of the HPD for 25 years.

The president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, Joe Gamaldi, condemned the post on Twitter.

“I am aware of a post circulating that is reported to come from one of our officers,” he wrote. “It is is vile, it is is disgusting, I know it is under investigation but I am confident the @houstonpolice department will act swiftly. This is not who we are as Houston Police Officers.”

Trump ends his address by saying that “America will always prevail” and thanking the graduating class. He is greeted with polite applause by the graduates after he ends his speech. There was little of the freewheeling you see from Trump at rallies and press conferences and he appeared to stick to the script. There was only a passing reference to the unrest that has roiled the country recently.

Trump outlines his isolationist message by telling the graduates that the US is not “the policeman of the world” but says if “our people are threatened, we will never hesitate to act”. He adds that his administration has embarked on a “colossal” rebuilding of the armed forces after it was depleted by “endless wars”.

He also returns to one of his pet projects, saying that the new Space Force is a “big deal”. Trump then pays tribute to CJ Morgan, a member of the graduating class killed in a training accident.

Trump congratulates the Army football team for ending arch-rivals Navy’s winning streak, which draws a big cheer from the graduates.

Trump mentions how the army has helped win the battle against slavery and communism, and helped protect civil rights (although some West Point graduates fought for the Confederacy in the civil war).

Trump asks the cadets to stand and applaud their parents and families, which they do. The president then brings in some politics, repeating an old, unproven claim as he thanks the military for helping fight Covid-19, a virus “that came from a foreign land called China”.

The superintendent of the US Military Academy, Darryl A Williams, stands to make his address. He shares a stage with Trump – everyone on the platform with the president has been tested for Covid-19. He then introduces Trump.

The president congratulates the class on graduating, and talks about the achievements of the US army down the years. It’s usual Trump language with plenty of talk of large weapons and enemies who have been sent through the “gates of hell”. He thanks the graduates for answering “their nation’s call”.

The West Point band plays some musical with a few speeches peppered in between. There are a few references to the army being open to all communities and races, possibly a reference to the recent protests. But they mainly pay tribute to the military – and America – as a whole.

Donald Trump has arrived at West Point amid a 21-gun salute. He will soon address the more than 1,000 graduates at the United States Military Academy. It’s a beautiful morning in New York state and the ceremony will take place outside, with the graduates sat 6ft apart.

A lawyer for the family of George Floyd says they will file a civil lawsuit against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck in the minutes leading up to his death.

“[Floyd’s family] intends on holding Derek Chauvin fully accountable in every aspect, criminal and civil,” Benjamin Crump told CNN on Saturday.

Chauvin is also facing a second-degree murder charge over the killing of Floyd last month. CNN reports that Chauvin could still receive more than $1m in pension payments even if he is convicted.

Crump also said that problems in Minneapolis went far beyond Chauvin. “It wasn’t just the knee of Derek Chauvin that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, it was the knee of the entire police department,” he said. “Because when you have that kind of culture and behavior of a police department, it is foreseeable that something like this is going to happen.”

A pertinent story coming out of Atlanta as protests continue over, among other things, police killings in the United States.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is looking into an incident during which Atlanta police shot and killed a man. Police responded to a report that a man was asleep in a car and blocking traffic at a Wendy’s drive-thru. The GBI says there was a struggle when police attempted to take the man into custody and he was shot and killed. “It has also been reported that the male subject was shot by an officer in the struggle over [a] Taser,” the GBI said in a statement.

A small crowd gathered at the site of the shooting to protest at the death, according to the Associated Press. The identity of the dead man has not been released. Reports on social media – which have not been confirmed – say he was African American.

Hello, welcome to our live coverage of the ongoing protests against racism and police brutality in the US and around the world, now into their third week since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May.

Donald Trump will address US military graduates at West Point this morning, at a time when the president looks increasingly out of touch with the public – and many within his own party. We’ll be covering his address and events from around the country and the world. In the meantime, here’s David Smith on Trump’s last few weeks: