Trump Speech to Bring 1,000 West Point Cadets Back to Campus in middle of pandemic

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-west-point.html

The president’s off-again, on-again speech in June will bring back cadets who had scattered across the country to help counter the coronavirus.

By Eric Schmitt and Annie Karni

April 24, 2020
Updated 5:25 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — For President Trump, who adores the pomp and precision of military ceremonies, this was the year he would finally get one of the special perks of being president — delivering the commencement address at West Point, the only service academy where he has not spoken.

But the graduation was postponed because of the coronavirus, the cadets were sent home and officials at the school were not sure when it would be held or even whether it was a good idea to hold it.

The Naval Academy, for its part, decided it was too risky to recall its nearly 1,000 graduating midshipmen to Annapolis, Md., for a commencement. Those graduates will have a virtual event. But the Air Force Academy, in contrast to the other schools, sent home its underclassmen, locked down its seniors on campus, moved up graduation, mandated social distancing — and went ahead with plans for Vice President Mike Pence to be its speaker.

And so last Friday, the day before Mr. Pence was to speak at the Air Force ceremony in Colorado, Mr. Trump, never one to be upstaged, abruptly announced that he would, in fact, be speaking at West Point.

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[karynnj]

1. West point is located close to NYC across the Hudson in Orange County

This area has been hit hard. Not a smart idea.

[nitpicker]

2. Only 7K RECORDED cases in Orange County...

[karynnj]

4. It is slightly over 2 percent of the population making it one of the hottest areas

The NYT includes a column with the number per 100,000 population in addition to the raw count. Both Orange and Rockland county look far worse by that metric than the raw numbers where NYC completely swamps all other areas of NY.

[nitpicker]

3. But wait- won't the orange one make DoD survivors donate convalescent plasma to the cadets?

Easier than having the AF NG fly them in biohazard suits into Stewart "International" airport, be bused down to West Point and uncased for the ceremony, then reinserted for the reverse trip...